.4 



• 



434 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



[June 29, 



of plants— their fibrine, albumen, and caseine— -may be 

 obtained without difficulty by the amateur desirous of 

 investigating their properties for himself. Vegetable 

 fibrine may be obtained in a state of tolerable purity from 

 "Wheat-flour, by mechanical means, with water, it being 

 insoluble. The albumen is obtained from the juices of 

 various plants— cruciferous plants especially ; and is 

 found in great abundance also in Nuts and Almonds, in 

 ■which a peculiar kind of oil takes the place of starch, 

 80 abundant in the seeds of gramineous plants. Caseine 

 is found in leguminous seeds, and, like albumen, is 

 soluble in water ; but the solution is not affected by heat. 

 These three substances, though differing in their mecha- 

 nical properties, are found to be identical in composition, 

 not only wiih each other, but also with the chief con- 

 stituents of blood— animal fibrine, and albumen. The 

 salts of iron, present to a greater or less extent in vege- 

 tables, supply the blood with its colouring matter; and 

 their earthy salts contain the ingredients necessary for 

 the formation of bone. 



The nitrogeoised compounds of vegetables, therefore, 

 are those only which supply the animal system with the 

 materials required for reproduction or the supply of 

 waste ; and from the foregoing observations it will be 

 seen how admirably they are adapted for that purpose. 

 But it has been seen that a large expenditure of carbon 

 and hydrogen is also taking place during every moment 

 of existence, by respiration; and for the supply of these, 

 nncorobined with nitrogen, these compounds do not make 

 provision. It is from vegetable substances, in which 

 nitrogen is net present, that the supply to meet such 

 expenditure must be obtained; and such substances, 

 accordingly, form a large proportion of the food of 

 gramineous animals. In the earliest stages of existence 

 these are supplied by the mother's milk, the caseine of 

 which supplies the constituents of blood; and the butter, 

 and remaining ingredient, known as sugar of milk, 

 supply the carbon destined to be consumed in the 

 respiratory process. As the young animal advances 

 in growth, the nitrogenised compounds of plants furnish 

 the former, and those abounding in starch, gum, or sugar, 

 furnish the litter. The similarity of composition or 

 these substances is well known ; starch is, indeed, capable 

 of being converted into sugar by very simple means, as in 

 the process of malting, or by the addition of acids. — 

 J. Sproule. 



yard itself are seldom thought of, it being a sine qua non 



AGRICULTURAL IMPROVEMENTS. 



(Continued from page 414.) 



The weak points of the present system. — I believe I 

 am quiie correct in 6tating, that in our heavy land dis- 

 tricts only 50 acres out of every 100 are available to pro- 

 duce food tor man or profit to the farmer. Full 20 acres 

 are corisutmd by the farm horses, 25 acres in long fal- 

 lows growing nothing, but involving an outlay of nearly 

 5/. for each acre, and from five to ten acres occupied by 

 banks, ditches, and farm buildings, leaving the tenant 

 the produce of from 45 to 50 acres' to pay all charges on 

 100 acres. I think it is high time such a system should 

 be altered ; that by perfect drainage, economy of manure, 

 and superior cultivation, 12 acres should keep the 

 horses, and all the rest (save the homestead and an ex 

 ternal iron or wooden boundary fence) be available for 

 corn or roots. That this is perfectly practicable is proved 

 in Lincolnshire, parts of Scotland, and other highly cul- 

 tivated districts. It is an easy and profitable way of adding 

 40 per cent, to our territory without the cost, cruelty, 

 and trouble of conquest, military protection, or migra- 

 tion, with ihe still more pleasing reflection of not having 

 to rend asunder those kindly ties of home, affection, and 

 friendship, the want of which is bitterness in the cup of 

 many an honest emigrant. With regard to fences, there 

 appears a sort of veneration for th^m entirely unaccount- 

 able. I object to them in toto, except such as are of 

 wood or iron. The banks on which they stand are pri- 

 vileged receptacles for every description of noxious weed, 

 insect, bird, and vermin. Unhoed, unploughed, they 

 furnUh an annual crop of seed-weeds, carried by winds 

 and by birds on the land, that defies all the farmer's 

 attempts to clean it ; that renders long fallowing neces- 

 sary, and involves a perpetual expense in hoeing, and 

 loss by superseding so much of the regular crops. In 

 fact, in a varieiy of ways they involve a loss far beyond 

 the annual interest, for the repair of wood or iron fences, 

 or charge for their gradual deterioration. I object even 

 to well-regulated thorn fences, on the score of exhaustion 

 by their roots, the expense of clipping, and the impossi- 

 bility of distuibing the ground on which they stand. But 

 my dislike amounts to positive indignation at seeing the 

 generality of fences occupying one-tenth of the land that 

 should grow our food, and employ our labour and our 

 capital, spoiling another tenth by their supply of weeds 

 and vermin ; their interruption of air and light— to s-ay 

 nothing of ihe facilities they afford for fraud and neglect 

 of duty, and the difficulties they interpose to a ready 

 supervision by the farmer or his bailiff. If shelter is 

 needed at particular seasons, it can readily be afforded 

 by other means. In cold and elevated district*, well- 

 regulated plantation-belts are essential, but cannot be 

 required in our midland and southern counties, where 

 there should be well-arranged homesteads, through which 



no north or east wind should be permitted to breathe 



much less blow. 



Another gross oversight is in the placement of build- 

 ings. How olten is profit unwittingly sacrificed to minor 

 consideration* I To gain the view of a road, or because 

 the premises would show better, we starve our cattle 

 with a north or east aspect, shutting out the sunny 

 mth. Gutters to the buildings or drainage to the 



that a farm-yard should be both cold and wet. 



There are many other matters that strike me as requir- 

 ing amendment. Time is money (at least it is paid for 

 in money), therefore light spring carts and improved im- 

 plements, with active but strong horses, will necessarily 

 make quick smart men ; but this cannot be till we drain 

 our lands, knock down our fences, and substitute dry 

 firm land for knee-deep muddy lanes. If, as a matter of 

 calculation, there are 40 points in Agriculture (and there 

 are more) a saving of one-half per cent, in each will 

 clearly make a difference of 20 per cent. 



I have been found fault with for removing the trees, 

 "spoiling the landscape and beauties of the country," as 

 if farming were not a business, and carried on for profit 

 rather than appearance : one might almost as properly 

 suggest to the manufacturer costly and spacious orna- 

 ments to take the place of his spindles and machinery. 

 Besides, perfect drainage of house, buildings, or land, is 

 impossible where you have trees and fences; their roots 

 will travel many yards in search of moisture, will seize on 

 and occupy a drain (as a Vine-root would on a bone), and 

 effectually choke it. I know an instance where the root 

 of a Pear-tree followed the retreating water of a well 40 



feet. 



I have been censured for erecting so spacious a barn, 

 and for building it with bricks on the plea of its endan- 

 gering the sample in a damp season. This objection is 

 untenable, the roof having gutters, and the ground on 

 which it stands being perfectly drained inside and out, 

 a matter of great importance, as water rises by capillary 

 attraction. We have also about four dozen of iron air- 

 bricks as ventilators, and take care not to fill it entirely, 

 but leave a space for ventilation between the corn and 

 the roof. Last season, with its contents of twenty-five 

 acres, the sample was excellent, and having just hastily 

 filled it before that heavy rain which wetted most of the 

 stacks through, and deteriorated the samples five shil- 

 lings a quarter, it saved us at least 20/. 



Threshing machines are valued principally for their 

 facility of conversion, and the quantity they perform. 

 To me their more perfect extraction of the grain, and 

 prevention of fraud or neglect, are far more important 

 considerations. A single grain of wheat in fifty is two 

 pounds in every hundred, or five shillings per acre, and 

 an examination of straw whenever we have the oppor- 

 tunity, gives us fearful evidence of what is lost by im- 

 perfect threshing and shaking. 



I frequently see with pain the farmer engaged in 

 laborious pursuits (the work of his labourers), when his 

 time should be much more profitably employed in keeping 

 correct and daily accounts of all his monetary and other 

 transactions, so that, by a reference to each particular 

 department, he could at once detect generally, or in 

 detail, the weak points that require amending. 



I am not one of those who think a farmer more likely 

 to succeed for dressing or acting like one of his common 

 labourers — it is the mind and calculation makes the man. 

 The Non- application of Capital to Land Improve- 

 ments. — It seems singular that in this age of super- 

 abundant capital and superfluous unemployed labour, 

 there should never have been a concentration of wealth 

 for the purpose of improvement in Agriculture. We 

 have had companies with unlimited capital for the 

 wildest and most unprofitable schemes, as well as the 

 most trivial. We lend without compunction our hun- 

 dreds of millions to employ the labour and strengthen 

 the hands of foreign nations, who are now our com- 

 petitors in Agriculture, commerce, and manufactures, and 

 who may be to-morrow our greatest enemies in warfare. 

 It seems like a national di-grace, that whilst we have had 

 companies for almost everything, from a railway to a 

 steam-washing and milk company, we have had no " Im- 

 provement of our Native Land Company." And yet 

 there is nothing so grateful as the soil — so safe — so per- 

 manent — so large in pecuniary amount — so honourable 

 and pleasant in pursuit. 



There may appear difficulties in the way — but in 

 what undertakings are there not? Under a well- 

 arranged Act of Parliament, thousands of landlords 

 whose mortgaged estates are now almost an incum- 

 brance to them, would readily avail themselves of an 

 opportunity that would render their sterile lands valu- 

 able properties, increase the capital employed on 

 them, improve the condition and diminish the com- 

 petition of our farmers, reduce pauperism and discontent 

 by furnishing employment to the willing labourer without 

 emigration, and keep in our own country and for our 

 own benefit that large sum annually paid for foreign 

 corn. If there had been such a company, I, for one, 

 would have invested my spare capital in it ; but there 

 not being one, I have carried out individually, at no 

 small personal trouble and thought, those improvements 

 which I hope to see some day effected, as a matter of 

 course, by a well-regulated charter of associated capital- 

 ists, who will derive not only a good pecuniary benefit, 

 but the more enviable gratification of having conferred 

 a valuable boon on their fellow countrymen. — I.J. Mechi, 

 4, Leadenhall- street, London. 



P.S. I am preparing drawings and ground plans of 

 my buildings and machinery, which, with copies of my 

 letters, I shall be happy to give to any gentleman inter- 

 ested in agriculture. The plans and designs are my 

 own. The general application of the expenditure is as 

 follows : — 



Draining, fencing, levelling, ditching, and roads .^2200 

 Barn, stabling, tanks, sheds, yards, &c. . . 2000 



House and offices 1000 



Machinery, implements, steam apparatus, &c. . 500 



Manure, marl, &c , 5oo 



The item for house has been objected to, but I have 

 yet to learn that a farmer is not entitled to be as well 

 housed as a tradesman or manufacturer, and I am con- 

 vinced brick and slate buildings are ultimately much 

 cheaper than board and thatch. I would caution gentle- 

 men who may visit my farm this year, against raising 

 their expectations too high, for although the land is all 

 cropped and doing well, considering the dry season, I 

 would have them remember that last year it was considered 

 the poorest farm in Essex ; that since January 1843, we 

 have cut 80 miles of drains, and spread their contents 

 (nasty yellow stiff loam) on the surface; that we have 

 removed 5000 yards of banks and fences, filled up the 

 ditches, cut new ditches (on the heavy land there should 

 be one every seven or eight acres), made new roads, cut 

 down and converted between 200 and 300 trees, carted 

 across the land 60,000 bushels of stones, 300,000 drain- 

 pipes, 400,000 bricks, 200 loads of timber, slates, iron, 

 stone, sand, lime, and building materials; that we have 

 removed all the old buildings, and erected new ones on a 

 different site ; that everything has been out of order and 

 out of time, and that all this was done in sixteen months, 

 without long fallowing a single field. 





ON MINERAL AND INORGANIC MANURES. 



No. XX. 

 By Professor Charles Sprengel. 



{Continued from page 415.) 



The main requisite is to mix the clay and loam inti- 

 mately with the soil, the reasons of which have been 

 stated under the head of marl. However little difficulty 

 there may be to mix loam with the furrow-slice, it is dif- 

 ferent with clay, on which account the former is always 

 preferable, especially if marshy soils are to be manured. 

 The surest way to succeed with clay is to use only small 

 quantities at once ; if, therefore, 300,000 lbs. are intended 

 for one acre, it is best to take only 100,000 lbs. every 

 five or six years. It must always remain spread on the 

 surface of the field during winter, as the absorbed and 

 then frozen water will best convert it into a powder. If, 

 however, humic earth is to be had, nothing better can be 

 done than to mix it with the clay or loam before they 

 are used in alternate layers in large heaps, to let them 

 remain so for some time, and to work it up once or twice, 

 by which the clay will be loosened and so more easily 

 mixed with the soil. By these means a soil sufficient in 

 humus will be supplied with that amount of humic acid 

 which is required for decomposing the silicates of the 

 clay. In some places clay or loam is also put into heaps , 

 in alternate layers with manure ; but in order that both 

 these substances may become thereby mixed, the heaps 

 must be left standing at least a year, and worked up dur- 

 ing this period several times. In other places they con- 

 struct of the loam, intended to improve ihe fields, a wall 

 three feet high around the dung sink ; on the top of this 

 wall is a gutter, in which at times the superfluous liquid 

 is poured. In this way the liquid manure is consumed 

 and after the lapse of a year an earth is obtained, which 

 being saturated with many powerful ingredients, will act 

 very powerfully ; still, it is to be remembered that as 

 the loam is deficient in humus, much ammonia will always 



be volatilised. . . 1 



Fields which have been manured with loarr or clay, 

 and have borne one crop, are generally left ^rwird. 

 for pasture, as time will effect the mixing much better 

 than the most careful work. Loam contains mostly 

 more soda, potash, gypsum common salt &c , m tne 

 lower strata than in the higher ones, and it is _ bUtei : to 

 use the former ; on this subject, however, no thing but ■ 

 chemical analysis can yield certain data Clay, on l the 

 other hand, does not contain in its lower strata any more 

 of the easily soluble mineral substances, as the water 



cannot filter through them. 



Manuring toilh Loam and Clay m a Roasted I Stale. 



A long experience has proved, especially in | J" 1 ™^ 

 Scotland, that the manuring properties of loa«r and ay 

 are considerably increased, if exposed previously to 

 action of fire. The advantage which this operation wUl 

 produce with a good material and in aPP ro P riat * 10C that 

 ties, is striking; and it has even gone ^.o f*. 

 some have asserted, that manuring ™* ™™ hth i 

 renders manuring with dung superfluous. A»ftoug ^ 

 assertion is not borne out by fact, still it •&" [s 

 doubted that by roasted clay or loam one sub tanc 

 conveyed to the soil, which is a most impor ant ^ 

 gredient of dung, viz. nitrogen. ^^^ iron 

 clay is roasted, which contain already protoxide 

 or manganese, or in which these substances areW 

 during burning from the oxide of iron or mnngj e , 

 ammonia will be formed the moment that wate and 

 nitrogen of the atmospheric air have access as t WP^ 

 oxides of iron and manganese decompose the w ^ 

 combine with its oxygen into an oxide , by w 

 hydrogen will be set free, which will then unite w. 

 nitrogen of the air into ammonia the lat.e r being 

 condensed in the pores of the clay or r eceived by 

 moisture which is at hand. That this process £ 



takes place, I have found by many experiments, on 

 account I recommend that sort of clay or loani^ 

 roasting which are rich in iron or manganese. A 

 lation made by me shows, that if the clay or loam 

 for the manuring of one acre, contains 1°™ ^/ thft t 



of iron or manganese, there is a pos 



Ability 

































 

 



jchho) 



than benefit tegeution, but thi. is not *" ""j^,*, 

 will lose by heat the property of "e-SJ-^ d „„«- 



i ;iU A # norhnmp. nr humic acid. Ixoasuug ** 



ia either carbonic or humic aci 



