420 



THE AGRIC ULTURAL GAZETTE. 



[June 22, 



Starston, some 35 years since. Catching the fl.es 1 

 found to be an endless job ; besides, my land being 

 bounded by woods on two sides, the flies so abounded 

 that they destroyed the plants after being hoed out ; but 

 on leaving the thickly drilled decoy to feed the flies, 1 

 found they did not leave to feed on the newly-sown lur- 

 nips ; and, in two instances, it appeared evident that the 

 decovs I had sown, and left, saved the crop from injury, 

 if not from destruction by the larva of the wwfly- -ine 

 black caterpillar. The decoys swarmed with both flies 

 and caterpillars during the summer.— Charles Poppy, tn 

 the Mark Lane Express. 



The Benenden New Tde Machine.-\n a "cent Nam- 

 ber we mentioned a ne W tile-making machine for which the 

 agricultural world are indebted to T. Law Hodges, , fcaq.. 

 .? Benenden, assisted by Mr. K. ft***, . .«W«jjA« 

 potter and tile-maker, of considerable scientific qualih- 

 cations and practical knowledge. M e have since had the 

 gratification of inspecting this machine at work ; and as 

 it possesses many points of improvement over any other 

 which we are acquainted with, a slight notice of it wil 

 not perhaps be unacceptable to our agricultural and 

 scientific readers. The more recent tile-mak.ng ma- 

 chines are all constructed on the principle of forcing the 



Kjnuwmg report or some c*perimen 

 by Mr. Peacock, at Popple, near Haddington, for the 

 purpose of testing the comparative influence of certain 

 manures and their combinations on the growth of Turnips, 

 and which he has kindly allowed us to publish. The 

 quantity of land allotted to each experiment varied from 

 a rood to half an acre ; but the following table has been 

 calculated for the imperial acre. The tops and roots are 

 not incruded in the results here given. The variety sown 

 was the White Globe ; it was sown in all the cases on 

 the 10th of July, on a strong, tenacious clay soil, tho- 

 rough-drained. 



Manvrk fbr Acbk. 



2 n 



-3 *• 



a a. 



£2 



Guano, 



at 

 11*. firf. 



per 

 cwt. 



Bone- 

 dust at 

 2s. 4 d. 

 per cwt. 



Rape- 



dui-t at 



5s. 6d. 



per 



bushel. 



Gypsum 



at 35. 

 per cwt. 



10 



3* 

 i' 

 U 



8 



2* 



3 



o. 

 o 



to 



c 



o 



2. 

 M 



Results 



per 



imperial 



acre. 



2 



44 



£ 8. 



2 



1 18 



1 6* 



13 



i in 



2 10 



tons. cwt. 



13 ft 



12 16 



15 15 



12 14 



12 2 



9 12 



The above statement is by no means submitted to the 

 public as examples of extraordinary, or even average 

 produce, the entire crop — from being too late sown, and 

 other causes — having been a very deficient one; but 

 merely for the purpose of illustrating the comparative 

 efficacy of the manures and combinations employed, so 

 far as may be inferred from the results of these experi- 

 ments. The first five lots were ready for thinning a week 



may oe auowea, in a umiu«uut»a .«~— ~- r - f » 

 then cut off' to the proper length for forming separate 

 tiles. The clay must, of course, be completely mixed 

 and amalgamated in a pug-mill ; and when, as in Mr. 

 Etheridge's, the die was fixed to the bottom of the pug- 

 mill, the operation appeared reduced to the greatest de- 

 gree of simplicity of which it is susceptible. Ihe ma- 

 chine constructed by Mr. Ileid is also exceedingly simple : 

 but this, like Mr. Etheridge's, is stationary, which is 

 found in practice to be comparatively disadvantageous.. 

 The tiles having to be dried by exposure to the air for 

 some days before they are burnt, must be taken by the 

 hand from the stationary machine, placed on barrows, 

 wheeled to the shed, and again taken from the barrows 

 and placed in piles. As the sheds under which these 

 piles of raw tiles are placed are upwards of 100 ft. long, 

 in order to transfer the raw tile at one motion from the 

 machine to the rows of piled tiles, the machine must of 

 course move along the rows from one end to the other. 

 This is done by the Benenden machine, which we will 

 now describe. This implement has the appearance of a 

 form about 18 inches wide and 10 ft. long, standing be- 

 tween two upright battens near to one end. On the 

 form, and between these two uprights, is a square iron 

 box, in one side of which are placed the dies from which 

 the stream of pipe rolls out on to the form. Fitted into 

 the top of this iron box is an iron cylinder, having a close 

 iron grating or sieve to intercept small stones or grit at 

 the bottom of it. This cylinder, being charged with 

 tempered clay, is placed on the iron box. A piston, 

 woiked by a toothed rack and pinion and common winch, 

 presses the plastic clav down from the top through the 

 dies, three continuous lengths of pipe, l£ inch bore, 

 emerging thus at one time. This pipe is too soft to admit 

 of being pushed along the form, so it is assisted by an 

 endless web, on which it falls from the dies, and the 



ments. ine nrst nve iois were reauy iui iuiuuiu 5 a ..^a enuiess wcu, uu w«*»/m »* *«"- • r 



at least before the other Turnips so«n in the same field, pace f w „ich i s regulated by the supplying power ot the 



i _. j i _:.u *.v„ i niUmnnno __t •. .. A_ *-K~ -«ii D ,-.f viit-.u nrnwrpfii nlnrir the form. 



on the same day, and manured with the usual allowance 

 of well-fermented farm-yard dung. The tops presented 

 from the first a very dark-green colour, visible from a 

 considerable distance, maintaining throughout superior 

 luxuriance, and, when cut from the bulb, were at least 

 double in quantity compared with those on the other 

 Turnips. It may be worth mentioning, that the bulbs 

 produced by the " fertilisers " weighed very considerably 

 heavier in proportion to their size than those grown with 

 the dung. It may also be useful to observe that the land 

 experimented upon has, during Mr. Peacock's 14 years' 

 occupying of it, always failed in growing Clover — a cir- 

 cumstance which may, in some measure, account for the 

 comparatively large produce of lot No. 4, manured with 

 gypsum (sulphate of lime), and has induced the present 

 spirited and intelligent tenant to give it a further appli- 

 cation of gypsum as a top-dressing to the Barley now 

 growing, with the view of promoting the growth of that 

 most invaluable plant, Clover. — Berwick and Kelso 

 Warder. 



Jamaica At the monthly meeting of the Agricultural 



Society, you were appointed corresponding Member of the 

 Society. You will be pleased to learn that the Queen has 

 been graciously pleased to signify her consent to become 

 its patroness, and to command that it be in future called 

 *' The Royal Agricultural Society of Jamaica." Lord 

 Stanley, too, has become a life member; and the happy 

 manner in which all this was communicated to the meet- 

 wg by Lord Elgin, with his intention of following so good 

 an example, induced our worthy Bishop to come forward, 

 and declare his desire also to become a life member; and 

 at the same time he exhorted the clergy, many of whom 

 were present, to support by all means in their power a 

 Society calculated to work so much good. This brought 

 Admiral Sir Charles Adam on his legs, who announced his 

 intention to become a subscriber also, and he was subse- 

 quently elected a Vice-President of the Society. I am 

 sure you will agree with me, that this Society, so honoured 

 by the distinguished mark of her Majesty's Royal favour, 

 is calculated to be of immense advantage, not only to 

 Jamaica, but the West India Colonies generally ; and I 

 therefore hope you will lose no opportunity of bringing it 

 before the public, and of urging, as much as lies in your 

 power, proprietors and others, connected with Jamaica 

 property, to support it by their subscriptions. The pro- 

 prietors in England of Jamaica estates are doing very 

 wrong in throwing them up, as they are doing to an alarm- 

 ing extent; it would be much wiser in them to rent tbem 

 out, even at a peppercorn rent, to practical men in the 

 island, in order to keep up the cultivation to some extent 

 until the crisis has passed ; for, as you know, an estate 

 once abandoned can only be brought back into cultivation 

 at a very heavy charge. We who are resident in the 

 island, with our good governor at the head, have deter- 

 mined to use every effort to restore prosperity by the 

 introduction of new and improved systems of Agriculture. 

 and there cannot be a doubt of our success when it shall 

 please the Al nighty to visit us with rains.— Simmonds" 

 Colonial Magazine, 



machine. As the rolls of pipe progress along the form 

 portions of the end of it are continually cut off, of the 

 nroner length to form one-foot tiles. The instrument 



proper 



by which this is done consists of a small rouud stall, 

 which is inserted into the orifice of the pipe, and on 

 which the tile is carried away after being cut ofF by a 

 piece of fine wire, ingeniously attached to the staff. The 

 shed in which the machine works is about 10S feet long, 

 and of sufficient width to admit of the machine being 

 wheeled along in the centre, and of a boy to work on each 

 side of it, in removing the tiles from the machine, and 

 placing them in a row along under each side of the shed. 

 The modus operandi is this : A stout lad brings a cylin- 

 der charged with prepared clay, and having received a 

 cylinder, and emptied and cleaned all the grit from its 

 grating, proceeds to fill that in the same way. A man 

 turns the winch with his right hand, assisting the pipe as 

 it issues from the die with his left. If a piece of grit, or 

 a '« nub" of rather harder clay affects the shape of the 

 emerging pipe, the piece is severed and carried away into 

 a basket by the eudless web, and a new issue of perfect 

 pipe proceeds from the die. During the issue, the two 

 removing boys are kept in full activity. It is estimated 

 that a man and three boys will thus make 5000 tiles per 

 day, and that the price at which they can be sold will 

 not exceed 15s. per thousand for those of 2 inches bore, 

 and 14s. for those of lj inch bore. The greatest advan- 

 tage of the plan probably consists in the readiness by 

 which the machine and the pug-mill may be transferred 

 from place to place. Both together may hereafter be 

 purchased for about 24/., and any considerable farmer 

 or landlord will doubtless find it cheaper to make his 

 own drain-tiles than to buy them, as the cost of carriage 

 has hitherto been a serious item. This improvement 

 must prove of incalculable advantage to the Weald, the 

 clay of which, after lying long in clods in the sun, rings 

 like stone or earthenware when struck with a hard sub- 

 stance, and is exceedingly stiff and retentive of moisture. 

 — Maidstone Gazette. 



The Alpaca of Peru. — We observed in a late Number 

 of a periodical, that there was some expectation of in- 

 troducing the Alpaca into this country on a large scale, 

 for the purpose of wool-gathering ; but an objection was 

 raised, because, besides other adverse circumstances, the 

 climate of Great Britain and Ireland was unsuitable. 

 We oeg to disabuse the public mind on this subject, as 

 there can be no doubt as to the climate being suitable, 

 the difficulty not being in the climate, but in the mean- 

 time to get these animals into this country in a healthy 

 state. They continue very healthy, we are informed, 

 until they reach the Cape of Good Hope, but after being 

 a very little longer at sea (either from being so long at 

 sea, or some defect of physical strength) they droop aud 

 die — at least to the extent of two-thirds. Some method 

 might be adopted whereby they could be put on shore 

 for a time at the Cape, and re-embarked into a succeed- 

 ing vessel. But be this managed as it may, we have 

 seen a male and female of the Alpaca species at Craig- 



barnet, Lennoxtown, Stirlingshire, which have been 



there for the last eight months, and they have stood the 

 severe winter without injury, aud we are assured are 

 more hardy than our native sheep : they* require less 

 food, and could exist where sheep would die. There 

 seems hardly to be any kind of food they will not eat ; 

 they eat Turnips, Hay, Oats, and Beans; they are more 

 partial to meadow than Rye-grass Hay. These animals 

 are now in the highest order, and in the most perfect 

 health ; they are jet black, and follow their keeper like 

 a dog, and are very elegant and interesting. The weight 

 of the fleeces of last year was 17 J lbs. Their worthy 

 owner, to use his own words, " anticipates, when the 

 navigation between us and South America is diminished 

 as to the length of time, which steam will most assuredly 

 accomplish, thousands of Alpaca will be brought over— 

 our hills will be covered with them, and they will become 

 a source of great wealth to the proprietors and farmers 

 of the Highland districts, for these animals will thrive 

 upon that kind of coarse bent, which neither horse, nor 

 cow, nor sheep, will look at or touch." — Edinburgh 



Witness. 



Experiments with Nitrogenous Manures. — At a meet- 

 ing of the Chemical Society, a paper was lately read, con- 

 taining a report of some experiments with saline manures 

 containing nitrogen, conducted on the Manor Farm, 

 Havering-atte-Bower, Essex, in the occupation of C. Hail, 

 Esq., communicated by W. M. F. Chatterley, Esq. The 

 experiments were suggested by the prevailing opinion, that 

 the fertilising power of some animal manures, and of the 

 salts, nitre, (nitrate of potash,) nitrate of soda, and sul- 

 phate of ammonia, depend upon the proportion of nitrogen 

 they contain. * * * A field of Wheat was chosen, which, in 

 the latter end of April, 1842, presented a thin plant ; the 

 salts were top-dressed over the land by hand, on the 12th 

 of May, and the crop mowed on the 10th of August. The 

 soil was rather poor, consisting of a heavy clay upon a 

 subsoil of the London clay. 1. No manure; corn per 

 acre 1413 lbs. 2. With 28 lbs. of sulphate of ammonia ; 

 corn, 1612 lbs. 3. With 140 lbs. of the same salt; corn, 

 199'J lbs. 4. With 112 lbs. of nitrate of soda ; corn, 

 1905 lbs. 5. With 112 lb?, of nitre; corn, 1890 lbs. The 

 increase in the Straw was also considerable in all cases, 

 except with the small proportion of sulphate of ammonia. 

 The total increase in the four manured crops was per cent,, 

 in the order in which they were enumerated,— 14.1, 41.5, 

 34 and 33.5. The cost of the manure for the three last 

 did not greatly differ, being 21*. 9c/., 24*. 6c/., 27*. Mj 

 and the profit on the outlay was, with the small dose ot 

 sulphate of ammonia. 294 per cent. ; with the large dose, 

 212 per cent. ; with the nitrate of soda, 13?> per cent. ; 

 and with the nitrate of potash 92 percent. Ihe principal 

 conclusions drawn by the author are, that the increase of 

 nitrogen in the crop is greater than is accounted for by 

 the nitiogen of the manures, showing that these manures 

 have a stimulating effect, or enable the plant, , te , dra..d. 

 ditional nitrogenised food from the soil and atmosphere , 

 ^considerable superiority of ■^^3^^ 

 the other salts, and the greater pMorti aM*fl^ 

 small, than of a large dose of that salt.-Smi//i * 



tive Farming. , N Scottish 



The best Comparison of the Old an d Aew 

 Systems that we know of, is that of Mr. Oliver, of Loch 

 end, near Edinburgh, who has the repu auon o b ij 

 one of the best practical farmers mjfo r£^ i 

 he speaks of is the Scotch acre, about 1 acre g 

 A Scotch boll of Wheat is nearly 4 busa ^ s ; a " a tl former 

 nearly bushels. ■• The mode of cropping at the tor 

 period (1723)was-first, Peas ; second .Wheat. 

 Barley; fourth, Oats; the produce being about 

 seeds, but to prevent all cavil, say *°« "f d8 ft ' farm f 

 taking the seed for each acre at one boll, over a^ 

 100 acres, is 400 bolls. The q^nti y of ^aw for 

 , boil of such a crop could not exceed W"*Jg' of 

 on 400 bolls, gives 6000 stones, or 42 ton., i 4 tbe 

 straw to be consumed by the stock and return^ ^ ^ 

 land in the shape of manure. But, upon a & 



acres, cultivated as at present, viz., a touri GraSSf 



fourth Wheat or Barley, a fourth Clove -or J 

 pastured or made into hay, and consumed on ^ 

 and a fourth Oats or Wheat, the account wo* 

 thus :-50 acres of Wheat, Barley, and Oats, 



bolls an acre, which is not aoove uic ~« -*- . j wa8 

 of the best district of East Lothian, and wen j^ 

 cultivated when Lord Belhaven wrote, tbi -, yl0 



as before, 15 stones of straw for «^ W aU C000 

 stones per acre, which, over 50 »cree. »ak s by 

 stones of straw, being equal to the quantity pr 

 the whole 100 acres under the ^//^^ are made 

 pose that the 25 acres of Clover and Ry^ nor that 

 into hay, which, however, is not the b et mod*. stone s, 

 usually followed, and that each acre yield* tons , 



Z to'tal quantity will be f 000 stones o J bei 

 14 1-lOthcwts., and add to this 500 tons A |, h is bT 

 the produce of 25 acres at 20 tons per a - d ^, 



no means above a ^ ^^1°/' n ^ a li y as feed* 

 ight of the materials produced annuaii) r ^ 



and manure, under the old and new syste 



the wei 



cattle an 



be as follows : — 



Old System, Straw 



Straw 

 !Iay 

 urnips 



New System 



fi.OOOst. or 



6,ooo »» 



f>,<)00 »> 



70,000 



42 

 4? 



3.» 



500 



for 



tons. 



,» 

 »» 



food 



Thus making the weight of * ateriaI * num bers 

 manure under the new system, in round a 



8nd 



577 



ir e under the new system, iu .-----. ig njj 

 tons ; while, under the old system, the , c ua»ti^ ^ 

 42 tons, leaving a balance in favour of th ^ who 

 tons per annum, being more than Uelve 1 1 ^ ,s 

 quantity produced under the old ! £ o ^ ^ lfl 

 necessary to show the superiority of the conce rn«d» 



so far as keeping up the fertility of the «° lture . W 

 and upon this depends the progress ot Ag 



i 



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