THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



be forwarded in due course. The 



tour insertion, s _. - - 



experiment is tried on an acre or ground.—/*, N. 



Ox-eyed Daisy. — In many parts of Surrey the 

 meadows are quite overrun with this weed, and it com- 

 municates a most rank taste to the butter made from the 

 milk of cows fed in the pastures where it abounds. 

 There is too much of it to attempt to extirpate it suc- 

 cessfully by hand-weeding, as many fields are quite white 

 with the flowers, which expand about the same time at 

 which the Grass crops become ripe. It is never, there- 

 fore allowed to ripen its seed, and I cannot account for 

 its having become so exceedingly prevalent in many dis- 

 tricts where I have observed it. I have tried pasturing, 

 draining, and mHnuriug the meadows where it is abun- 

 dant, but without materially weakening it. Perhaps 

 some of your correspondents, who are unfortunate 

 eaough to be acquainted with this pest of meadow land, 

 may have discovered some remedy for it, and there may 

 be some manure, the application of which would tend 

 to destroy it. Possibly lime might have a beneficial 

 effect, but if any of your readers could suggest a method 

 of destroying it, of which they have themselves proved 

 the efficacy, it would confer a great benefit to make it 

 generally known through the columns of the Agricul- 

 tural Gazette.— A Constant Subscriber. [This weed 

 appear? to be unusually rank this year. Probably the 

 only way of destroying it, except breaking up the 

 pastures, is by keeping the Grass closely eaten down by 

 cattle and sheep for a series of years. This would 

 certainly weaken it, if it did not ultimately destroy it.] 



Manures. — The desire to promote the science of 

 Agriculture, is one of the "Lions" of the day. The 

 •team is up, and some of us are fairly off on the search 

 after new discoveries in this terra incognita. But 

 others of us remain behind, and while our friends are 

 gone on their voyage, let us do the best we may in their 

 absence, and show them, on their return, that with the 

 same soil, and with manures better arranged, and with 

 materials found at home, we can compete with them, in 

 our common object— production. We shall avoid the 

 uncertain speculations in guano, nitrates, sulphates, &c, 

 for these learned things, or rather names, mislead and 

 perplex uneducated farmers ; and the statements written 

 respecting them tend to induce the belief that substantial 

 or farm-yard manure is unnecessary. And then, as most 

 of us have no knowledge of chemistry, we mav spend our 

 money for adulterated and useless matters, sold under 

 specious names, to which they have really no claim. 

 Lven common salt, sold under the name of Agricultural 

 halt, is often anything but chloride of sodium, and the 

 soot which is swept from our chimneys becomes, some- 

 bow or other, a mixture of soot and calcined sawdust 

 before it is sold to the farmer. Good productive farm- 

 ing does not depend upon these things, so much as upon 



frnTT S? P 3D ? frequent P lou g" in g. clearing the land 

 from all other plants but those you desire to grow, 



early seedmg and last, but not least, preserving every de- 

 cayed vegetable matter that can be found, either on or off 

 the farm, and imxing it judiciously with the excrement 

 of a we|i- S elected stock of animals adapted to the charac- 



rtr.,1-1 a ^ res t ervin g th * mixtures in properly con- 

 structed yards and tanks. But, although I advise the 



chempc X \ led aw «y by uncertain and delusive 

 coveHe,'J hC ^° uId kee P his W °P ea t0 the dis- 

 reneTn ?*' ^ CaUSC better educated men - Yo « have 

 nu P ref JiVf re ^ t0 , the Waste of 80me of our best ma- 

 shall ;. C ° uld be arrested h 7 timely care, and I 



mtfo?J! ,yn , . tewith E practical i"«-tr«tion of the 

 co7lolZT h \°V° a P rofitable P ur P°* e > which is 

 Slow 1 LJ l0 ° ked and l08t ' The ^PO«t described 

 cum™. inn if I" 11 /Ordinary effects from in Turnip 



wKuaUri- *? d ° Ubt ^ Caa be a PP lied t0 other plants 

 cabL to oL a Vant8ge ; l Sha11 describe a q^antitv appli- 



3 M e ; Cr V! te K r \°T d br ° adcast 0r drdled in 

 ^y shed Tn?!*^ 1 8 bushels of crushed bones ^to a 



l*o If Wei. T timC t0 time ' as the * come t0 

 elsewhere *4 h. w ." h ° U8e ' or as they can be procured 



^ptv unon th, S °/ asheS (™ od are ^e best), and 



the P cLXV«wV ,from u dayt0 day ' the C ° nte '' ts 0f 

 wonally At U ♦ a ' ° be Stirred and mixed occa ' 



a f arm consisting f 8 aCrCS may be thus manured at 

 ch emical correal °i 8S many P ersons - Some of vour 



■id chan ge 7S entS Wl11 ' P erha P s ' ex P lain the che- 

 and tell us whm- ° CCUr under these circumstances, 



Wham. D6W com Pounds are formed.— U. D. f 



th e farm e 7can°h Sider T^ 68 t0 be 8S vaIuabIe a cr0 P as 

 r ead r at a season of th/^' lf £ r0wn P ro Perly, they are 

 18 o»ost wanted ?i 1 en an artificial S re en crop 



good Wheat s «;i t d l have to grow them on is 



* he * most ne aP H Ut IP ? iU not brin & them at the time 

 af ter harvest in lRii T Havin K sow » some immediately 

 P r °gress f and th ♦• they did not make much 



"** kind of manure/ 6 fought m y self of W^ng 



th 



the 



Mar ch, I844 I - a f a top-dressing, and on the 25 

 Proportions menti? 800t and 8alt broadcast in tne 

 val « a ble publicat ( °„ ned b / C * Johnson, Esq., in his 

 !°ot and 8 f S a V I ° n Fertili ^s, ™; 30 bushels of 

 f ° r Wheat, it won /r acre ' thinking that if beneficial 

 kt t0 *y grea? Hi ° St like, - v be dually so for Tares ; 

 £5* meas ^e to t [ Sap P°i nt «ent, owing no doubt in a 



d °e ° wed in this pa n h faV0Urable ^ weather which 

 S n f0yed » ^d it i, ° f the cou ntry, half the crop was 



8 7* e ieltsown MwIkmV^ * )00r P M 8 ht "deed. 

 Th/ r ? m th e precedTnl' ° h . happened to be left in the 

 fe^ l iQ 'er & n tin 0P ' ,S ^ rowin ^ery luxuriantly. 

 ,ere nt, ai^ a v ■ 8 «opting next season will be verv dif- 



manu ^ Which w?U L n 1 d f n11 tbe Tares ™ witb some 



lU hdp t0 force the crop - ke ep hoeing 



and watering with a liquid-manure cart in dry weather, 



if necessary and by this means, the weather proving 

 favourable, I hope to insure a good crop. Although 

 mine was an unsuccessful experiment, it might answer 

 on different land ; but I would caution your readers to 

 be careful as to the use of salt, and onlv try a small por- 

 tion of ground at once ; as many know.'aad I have found 

 out by experience, what a deleterious substance it is when 

 applied in too large quantities to the soil.— ri/i« Oats, 

 Nottingham. ' 



f u 6 r'"~,°-M eXtensi T e P asture lands > near the summit 

 of Birl.ng-hill, two miles north of Town-Mailing, Kent 



are a great many old and several young Yew-trees The 

 cattle sheep, and horses kept there have never suffered 

 any ill effects from eating the green branches. About 18 

 years ago, a large tree was cut down in the winter season • 

 the trunk and large branches were removed, and a few of 

 the smaller ones used to fill up a gap in one of the hedges. 

 A few days afterwards several bullocks and horses died 

 and on opening their stomachs a small quantity of the 

 sere bark and leaves was found in each. The cattle 

 seldom or never browse them when other green food can 

 be found; indeed, during the spring and summer the 

 farmers are careless about removing the trees or branches 

 that may be blown down by the wind, as they never see 

 that the sheep or stock will then touch them.— Jr. P. 

 Keane, Legbourne Grange. [Another correspondent,' 

 " H. T.," states that the apparent want of agreement 

 amongst the witnesses on this subject is owing to one 

 party describing consequences which have followed when 

 cattle have eaten Yew on a full stomach, while the in- 

 stances recorded by the other party have occurred when 

 Yew has been taken on an empty stomach.] 



Rabbits.— Under the initial •• C." I some time back 

 made inquiry about the destruction of rabbits. For 

 numerous replies from public and private correspondents 

 I beg to return my best thanks. I have used many of 

 the plans recommended. No information has been so 

 conclusive as that from an " Old Poacher ;" he recom- 

 mends to get three or four dozen either polecats, martens, 

 or young kittens just fit to take from the old cats, and 

 turn them out in different quarters. Nothing will be 

 more likely to destroy all the rabbits, game, or°the rest 

 of the gamekeepers. — C. 



Rooks. — I must say one word in favour of this mis- 

 understood bird and valuable farmers' friend. It is true 

 they do sometimes attack the Corn, when it first appears 

 above ground, but I believe they do not eat it before it 

 begins to vegetate ; and they amply repay the farmer for 

 the damage they do to the sprouting crops, by the destruc- 

 tion of the larva? of insects, which, were it not for the 

 rooks, would do ten times as much injury. Many years 

 ago I was drilling a field with Beans ; the rooks were 

 very numerous and busy, chiefly on the freshly-drilled 

 ground. My ploughman was much annoyed to see them 

 so actively employed, and insisted that they were devour- 

 ing the Beans. Happening to have my gun upon my 

 arm, I shot one to convince him of his mistake ; on 

 opening it, the crop was found full of the larvae of the 

 cockchafer, but not one Bean was to be seen in it ! I 

 would recommend your correspondent •• Facile " to read 

 the article on the Rook in Yarrell's " British Birds;" 

 he would not then consider them useless to the farmer, 

 because they do not destroy the Turnip-fly.— Lusor. 



Nitrate of Soda. — Some time since I dressed three or 

 four acres of old and new Grass with nitrate of soda, at 

 the rate of 1 cwt. to the acre, as recommended by Mr. 

 Grey, of Dilston. Notwithstanding the dry, harsh, and 

 ungenial weather, the present appearance of the Grass, 

 especially the new Grass, is very luxuriant, so much as 

 to attract the attention of passers-by ; and the experi- 

 ment promises well. A neighbour of mine, an old 

 farmer, however tells me that he tried the same experi- 

 ment, and had a very good crop ; but at the expense of 

 his aftermath and subsequent crop. He therefore 

 denounced nitrate of soda as impoverishing to the soil. 

 Now, I am neither farmer nor chemist enough to argue 

 the point with him, or to decide the matter for myself. 

 It seems to me, however, that the argument is fallacious, 

 for every good crop exhausts the soil, and the better the 

 crop, the more complete the process of exhaustion. A 

 farmer might as well lament having a good crop of 

 Wheat or Turnips on the ground, because they were 

 impoverishing his land. It seems to me that the proper 

 way of meeting the difficulty is not to abstain from using 

 that which will give a good crop, but to restore to the 

 land the constituent elements of which the good crop 

 complained of may have deprived it ; and suppose this 

 is a correct idea, my desire is to learn what is the best 

 and most desirable mode of proceeding with land that is 

 to be ploughed next spring for Oats, and which is now, 

 thanks to nitrate of soda, bearing an exhausting crop of 

 new Grass.— S. L. B. [The ploughing in of the Clover- 

 root is generally sufficient surety for the succeeding Oat- 

 crop.] 



Steeping Seeds. — When I last wrote to you from Dor- 

 setshire I promised to send you the analysis of Camp- 

 bell's solution, or steep for Wheat. I distrusted my own 

 skill in assaying, and submitted to Mr. Morion, in 

 Southampton-row, a sample of the mixture. He writes 

 — H This salt consists almost entirely of muriate and 

 sulphate of ammonia, with a small quantity of iron and 

 silica ; but as all impure salts of this class are contami- 

 nated with iron, it may be regarded as a mixture of them 

 in an impure state, in "the following proportions:— 



Muriate of ammonia . . . . 22 parts. 

 Sulphate of „ .... 75 



lion, silica, and loss .... 3 



417 



These salts being imperfectly mixed, it if probable tome 

 variation would be found in different samples." Mr 

 own experiments prove that a solution of the nitrates of 

 soda and of potash, sulphate of ammonia, and superphos- 

 phate of lime, in equal p.rts-1 lb. of the mixture dis- 

 solved , n IJ gallons of water, .cts more quickly, i. e. r 

 produces a more rapid and darker vegetation than Mr 

 Campbell s.-—^. Huxtable. 



Swedish Turnips.— Knowing the value of Turnips at 

 this season of the year, and particularly in the present 

 year, when the Grass is still very short,"l beg to say that 

 I have Swede Turnips at the present moment (on which 

 my cattle are feeding) perfectly sound, and I have nearly 

 sufficient for another month. They have been kept by 

 placing wattled hurdles at a cart's breadth apart, and 

 sloping outwards at a gentle inclination, not lined with 

 straw, which prevents a free circulation of air to per- 

 meate the heap, and carry off the damp vapours ; the 

 Turnips are then piled up as high as they will stand, and 

 brought to an edge, and thatched after the heat has in 

 great measure evaporated, placing only some loose straw 

 on the top to keep out the heaviest rains. My heap was 

 40 yards long without a single unsound root. Mangold 

 \V urzel I keep in the same way. I find great benefit at 

 this time of the year when they are dry, from allowing 

 the cut Turnips to stand for an hour or two in water, 

 before being given to the cattle, as they imbibe a large 

 portion of moisture.— J. L. T. [We can state from 

 experience that this is a very excellent plan of housinr 

 roots, having this year had about 1200 tons of roots, Tur- 

 nips, Mangold Wurzel, and Carrots, under this sort of 

 cover, which preserved them well. We shall refer par- 

 ticularly to this subject at the proper season.] 



CL 



ocictics. 



»» 



100 parts 



ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY of ENGLAND. 



A Weekly Council was held at the Society's House, 

 in Hanover square, on Wednesday last, the 19th of 

 June ; present— the Right Hon. Earl Spencer, President, 

 in the chair; Duke of Richmond, Earl of Ilchester, Earl 

 Beauchamp, Earl of Burlington, Earl of Lovelace, Lord 

 Bridport, Hon. Colonel D. Pennant, M.P. ; Hon. Capt. 

 Spencer, Hon. G. H. Cavendish,. M.P.; T. Alcock, 

 Esq., M.P.; R. Archbold, Esq., M.P. ; T. Baines^ 

 Esq. ; D. Barclay, Esq , M.P. ; T. R. Barker, Esq. ; J. 

 R. Barker, Esq. ; J.Benett, Esq., M.P. ; II. Blanshard, 

 Esq. ; Sir A. de C. Broke, Bart. ; F. Burke, Esq. ; Dr. 

 Calvert; Col. Challoner ; H. Colman, Esq. ; J. Dean, 

 Esq.; J. E. Denison, Esq., M.P. ; B.Forrester, Esq. ; 

 A. E. Fuller, Esq., M.P. ; B. Gibbs, Esq.; J. B. 

 Glegg, Esq.; W. F. Hobbs, Esq.; Sir H. Hoskyns, 

 Bart. ; Sir J. Johnstone, Bart., M.P. ; Col. Le Couteur ; 

 Sir C. Lemon, Bart., M.P. ; Col. M'Douall ; J. L. Na- 

 per, Esq. ; Sir J. Ogilvie, Bart. ; A. Ogilvie, Esq. ; J. 

 Parkes, Esq., C.E. ; E. Parkins, Esq. ; E. W. Pen- 

 darves, Esq., M.P. ; Sir R. Price, Bart. ; H. Price, Esq. ; 

 J. Roddam, Esq. ; E. A. Sanford, Esq. ; Prof. Sewell ; 

 J. V. Shelley, Esq. ; R. A. Slaney, Esq. ; R. 

 Spooner, Esq. ; E. Thomas, Esq. ; T. Tweed, Esq. 1 

 and J. L. White, Esq. 



The following new members were elected :— 



Knight, J., Southampton 

 Gatrell, W., Lyraington, Hants 

 Thoume, J., Guernsey 

 Edwards, R., Roby Hall, Liverpool 

 Parsons, G., Bursledon, Southampton 

 Martin, J.,Evershot, Dorchester, Dors. 

 Raphael, L., Bushill Park, EdmoLtoa 

 Buchan, H., Southampton 



Hall.E. C. L., Emlyn Cottage, Newcastle-Emlyn, S. W. 

 Phillips, J., Lordship-lane, Tottenham 

 Betts, W., Leicester 



The names of 23 candidates for election at the next 

 meeting were then read. 



The attention of the Council was called by Viscount 

 Howick, through Mr. Shelly, to the best mode of col- 

 lecting and publishing the numerous details connected 

 with draining, and the cheap production of the most effi 

 cient tiles for that purpose ; by Mr. Parkes, to the im- 

 provements effecting in the Benenden Pipe-tile Machine 

 of Mr. Law Hodges, at the manufactory of Messrs. Cot- 

 tam and H alien ; and by Messrs. Barrett, Exall, and 

 Andrews, of Reading, to their invention of a new and 

 cheap machine for the production of pipe-tiles. — Dr. 

 Play fair, Consulting- Chemist to the Society, announced 

 to the members the extensive arrangements he had made 

 at I Manchester, for analyses of soils at rates of one-half 

 the amount of those he had formerly transmitted to the 

 secretary for their reference. — Mr. Pellatt presented a 

 new glass milk-pan, with an inner circular groove for the 

 reception of the milk last left in the pan, agreeably with 

 the suggestion of Sir John Lubbock ; and announced his 

 engagement in perfecting glass syphons for dairy use. — 

 Mr. Frere, C.E., Bitton Rectory, near Bristol, presented 

 a small supply of Neapolitan skinless Barley he 

 had received by the last Mediterranean mail from a friend 

 in Malta.— The Imperial Agricultural Society of Vienna, 

 and the Royal Society of Agriculture at Caen, each pre- 

 sented to the Library of the Society a set of their re- 

 spective volumes of Transactions The Royal Agricul- 

 tural Improvement Society of Ireland transmitted copies, 

 of the prize sheets for their ensuing Show in Dublin ; and 

 Mr. Mechi, of Leadenhall-street, copies of the last report 

 on his agricultural improvements in Essex.— Mr. Slaney 

 presented Mr. Ford's new junction-tiles, made agreeably 

 with a suggestion of Mr. Pusey. For all which commu- 

 nications and presents, the Council ordered their best 

 thanks. 



The Council then adjourned to Wednesday next, the 

 26th of June. 



