490 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



[July 





It is a striking instance of the good that may be obtained 

 from accurate analysis, showing that time may be saved 

 "by minute attention to its indications, and that the total 

 failure of a crop may be prevented." 2. As to the 

 Analysis of Guanos. Three several kinds of artificial 

 guano, well known in the market under different names, 

 and selling at as high a rate as natural guano, were 

 during the last six months sent to the laboratory by 

 members of the Association, that their agricultural value 

 might be determined. In each case it was found that 

 the prices charged were from one-third to one-half above 

 the real value of the compound, and that in truth it would 

 be better to spend the sum proposed to be laid out on 

 these mixtures in buying natural guano. It is hardly 

 necessary to add that the advice so given was very readily 

 followed. But the farmer must be on his guard against 

 adulterations, even in what is sold as natural guano ; for 

 ■very recently a large quantity of a manure alleged to be 

 genuine guano, was sent down to Dumfries for sale there, 

 by one of the most respectable houses in London, which 

 on examination was found to contain 75 per cent, of 

 chalk, and to have been coloured by spent bark ground 

 to a fine powder. The committee may farther mention 

 under this head that a chemical manufacturer in Leith 

 had a quantity of waste refuse, considered of no value, 

 and which had accumulated on his premises — to the 

 extent of about 100 tons — when it occurred to him to 

 send a sample of it for analysis to Professor Johnston. 

 He found that it contained substances extremely valuable 

 as a manure, and recommended that it should be sold as 

 such, at the rate of 3/. per ton. The result of this dis- 

 covery has been, as may be supposed, eminently bene- 

 ficial, not only to the manufacturer, but to the farmer, 

 and in so far to the country at large. Further, the com- 

 mittee may refer, in illustration of the benefits derived 

 from analysis, to a letter addressed to their secretary, by 

 a member of the Association, and one who is himself an 

 extensive farmer :— " Sir — In answer to your query, 

 Whether or not, as a practical farmer, I have as yet 

 benefited from the existence of the Agricultural Che- 

 mistry Association ? I beg to say that my annual outlay 

 for foreign manures, such as rape-dust, guano, bones, &c. 

 upon an average of years is much about 150/. Previous to 

 the existence of the Association, I was obliged to make my 

 purchases, with no other means of judging of their pro- 

 bable genuineness or fertilising properties than by what 

 their appearance indicated ; but this last season I have 

 invariably made my selection after obtaining a minute 

 analysis of the different samples, and choosing the one 

 most favourably reported on by the chemist, and, upon 

 delivery of the stock had a second analysis performed, in 

 order to satisfy me that it was not inferior to the samples 

 irom which I bought. I have no hesitation, therefore, 

 in concluding that, by such means, I have been enabled 

 to spend my money with a degree of certainty and satis- 

 faction, which amply repaid me for the trifling expenses 

 I incurred. In illustration, I may mention that part of 

 a cargo from which I obtained my supply was found in- 

 ferior to the rest by 10 per cent., but I, of course, was 

 enabled, by the plan adopted, to demand compensation, 

 which was immediately conceded. With regard, like- 

 wise, to the feeding of my live stock : — Having obtained 

 from merchants samples of such foreign cake as they had, 

 I submitted them for analysation to Professor Johnston, 

 and from amongst them was enabled to select one which 

 ■was offered to me as a manure, which I purchased at 85s. 

 per ton. Having confidence in what it was composed 

 of, I gave a regular supply to a breeding stock of black- 

 faced ewes, at a very small cost indeed ; and I am not 

 exaggerating my probable gain, by that discovery, at 

 from 50/. to 60/. The ewes, though feeding on stinted 

 hilly pasture, were in a condition, at lambing time, never 

 ■witnessed in former seasons. I have never as yet got any 

 soil analysed ; but I doubt not that much ignorance pre- 

 vails among farmers as to the application of lime ; and 

 fcy simply obtaining a correct report from the chemist as 

 to whether that ingredient is present to the necessary 

 extent in the soil, one might determine upon a system 

 of management, either most profitable to adopt, or save 

 themselves an outlay which might be very needlessly and 

 ruinously made. I trust many of the difficulties that 

 presently embarrass practical men, will be gradually 

 removed when the officer of your Association obtains a 

 better acquaintance with practical agriculture, and thus 

 better enabled to test, by the aid of science, those con- 

 flicting results which so often baffle and perplex the most 

 experienced and enlightened farmers. What I have 

 mentioned will, I hope, be considered a sufficient answer 

 to your query. I am a rent-paying farmer, and must 

 not lose sight of profit and loss. I have no idea of sub- 

 stituting mere theory for practical results, but I envy 

 not the landlord or tenant who will refuse to consult a 

 man of science, in order to see whether or not the art 

 might be advanced, by which they not only live, but for 

 its improvement are responsible to the whole community." 

 Whilst thus explaining the great practical benefits 

 afforded by chemical analysis, the committee would beg 

 to remind subscribers that in applying to Professor 

 Johnston it is material that the party should inform him 

 of the precise object he has in view, seeing that testing 

 for a particular ingredient can be had for '6s., whilst an 

 analysis ascertains all the ingredients, and costs at least 

 12s. 6d. To assist subscribers in this matter, the com- 

 mittee intend to draw up and circulate among them a 

 list of charges, with such explanations as will remove all 

 difficulty. And here the committee would take the 

 opportunity of adverting to the cheapness of the terms 

 on which these benefits may be obtained through the 

 medium of the Association. Most persons not being 

 aware of the labour and cost attending chemical analysis, 



Tt may be right to state the expense which has been 

 bond fide incurred by Professor Johnston during the last 

 six months. These expenses— consisting of salaries to 

 his assistants, chemical tests, &c, house rent, taxes, 

 gas, &c— amount to 250/. ; whilst for the 242 analyses 

 performed during that time, only 98/. of fees has been 

 received, thus leaving a deficit for the half-year to Pro- 

 fessor Johnston of 152/., and impairing to that extent 

 his income out of the subscriptions received by the com- 

 mittee of management. The laboratory has been useful, 

 however, in another way than in merely affording ana- 

 lyses to subscribers. It has been employed also in ex- 

 tending our knowledge of the science of Agricultural 

 Chemistry, of which the committee might give several 

 interesting illustrations. But here they would be out of 

 place, and other means will be adopted for bringing them 

 before the public. It appears, however, from some of 

 these researches that the ash of plants varies much more 

 in composition according to the soil and manure in 

 which they are grown, than has hitherto been supposed, 

 and that more is really within the power of the skilful 

 farmer, in the way of modifying the nature of the vege- 

 table food he raises, than without these researches could 

 have been expected. In Mr. Johnston's Report, lately 

 distributed among the members of the Association, men- 

 tion was made of the composition of Turnips raised with 

 guano and with farm-yard manure ; some experiments 

 recently made with the same Turnips, under the direction 

 of Lord Elantyre,have shown that they not only differ in 

 composition, but have very different feeding properties, 

 thus showing the connection between the manure em- 

 ployed and the value of the food raised. — Sir John Hope 

 moved that the meeting approve of the Report now read, 

 and give their best thanks to the committee of manage- 

 ment for their services during the last six months. — Mr. 

 Scott of Craiglockhart seconded the motion. Every one 

 (he said) must be convinced that the institution had done 

 a great deal of good to practical agriculture ; and espe- 

 cially in relation to the testing of guano. A subject to 

 which he was desirous of alluding was the disease of 

 Potatoes. It extended this year further than it did the 

 last year, and if it continued to extend in the same 

 proportion in which it had done during the two last 

 years, the consequences to the country would be most 

 disastrous. The diseases, which were three in number, 

 he considered to be of so many several kinds, and he 

 thought it would be extremely desirable for the Associa- 

 tion to endeavour to throw some light upon the subject. 

 Many of the most careful and most experienced agricul- 

 turists were at this moment suffering from it to a very 

 great extent, notwithstanding the exercise of every pre- 

 caution which skill and experience could suggest. — Mr. 

 Milne, advocate, as one of the committee of management, 

 thanked the meeting for the approval of the Report, and 

 expressed satisfaction at the manner in which Mr. Scott, 

 a practical farmer, had expressed his approbation of the 

 way in which they had brought the Association to its 

 present state. Before sitting down, there were two points 

 to which he was desirous of calling the attention of the 

 meeting. One was the advantage of obtaining analyses 

 of manures ; the other the advantages of agricultural 

 schools. In regard to the first, it was inconceivable what 

 a vast sum of money was expended by the agriculturists 

 of this country for manures. They all knew that farm- 

 yard manure was generally insufficient for the purposes 

 of cultivation, and, therefore, recourse must be had to 

 other manures. One farmer expended 150/. a-year on 

 foreign manures; and he (Mr. M.) held in his hand a 

 note of the sums expended on an average in the year for 

 manures, as follows :— Bone-dust, 91,755/.; rape cake 

 and rape-seed, 169,331/. ; guano (being the amount im- 

 ported, not for the country at large, but to Liverpool 

 alone, in one year), 59,240/. ; being a total of upwards of 

 320,000/. These were the sums expended in manures ; 

 and if they were to believe the accounts in the news- 

 papers, which stated that 300 vessels are to be sent to 

 bring home guano, they would soon have an expenditure 

 by the farmers of several millions for this article alone. 

 Now, it was of the greatest importance to check adultera- 

 tion in guano, because it was hardly possible to take up 

 one of the new publications devoted to this subject, with- 

 out seeing the enormous extent to which the industrious 

 farmers of this country were defrauded by its adultera- 

 tion. He had brought with him a number of the Gar- 

 deners' Chronicle, edited by Professor Lindley, a perio- 

 dical which was of essential service to agriculture. In 

 this publication many places were mentioned where ma- 

 nures were sold, containing hardly one of those sub- 

 stances whose specific virtues were required. (Mr. Milne 

 then read several extracts from the publication in ques- 

 tion, detailing cases at Hull, in Cheshire, and Dumfries- 

 shire, in which guano and bone-ash were sold as pure, 

 although they were adulterated to an almost incredible 

 extent with other substances, either of a noxious nature, 

 or useless as manure. It was a remarkable fact, he con- 

 tinued, that while England had been inundated with these 

 spurious mixtures, Scotland had been in a great measure 

 free of them ; for it appeared that of the seventy-seven 

 analyses of Professor Johnston, not one of them had been 

 spurious. Whether or not these dishonest dealers were 

 afraid of venturing upon our soil, knowing that a check 

 existed, and that there was, therefore, a risk of exposure, 

 he did not know ; but such was the fact. He mentioned 

 this to show of what consequence it was to the farmers, 

 who spent such large sums upon manures, to have the 

 means of protecting themselves against these frauds, 

 which had the effect of causing them not only to throw 

 away their money, but also to injure their land and their 

 cattle. — A motion for a vote of thanks to Mr. Coventry 

 was then unanimously agreed to, and the meeting then 



broke up. — Abridged from the Edinburgh Event 

 C our ant. 



n 9 





FARMERS' CLUBS. 

 Burton-upon-Trent. — At the usual monthly meeting, 

 Mr. Lathbury read some remarks on The Application 

 of Steam to Agricultural Purposes. He had erected a 

 steam-engine on his farm, and had applied its power to a 

 threshing-machine, a chaff-cutter, and a corn-crushing 

 machine, and had connected with it an apparatus for the 

 steaming of cattle provender. The outlay had been con- 

 siderable, and would have been better repaid on a larger 

 farm, as the engine and machinery was capable of doing 

 three or four times the work he required it to do. Still, 

 taking into consideration the saving he had effected in 

 threshing his corn, and in a more economical plan of 

 feeding his cattle and horses through the winter, the re- 

 sult, had been on the whole very advantageous to him. 

 The whole outlay for his six-horse-power engine, and the 

 rest of the machinery, was about 180/. The interest on 

 this sum, together with an allowance for wear and tear, 

 he calculated at 15/. 15s. He had used his threshing- 

 machine 23J days. He required, on an average, the 

 labour of one man and four women, besides his own 

 superintendence, and his coals cost about 2s. 6d. each 

 day. The whole expense in labour had amounted to 

 rather more than 8/. Reckoning Wheat at hd. per 

 bushel, Barley at 2s. per quarter, and Oats at Is. 8d.> 

 the quantity of corn he had threshed would have 

 amounted to rather more than 36/. if thrashed by hand. 

 The saving effected by the threshing-machine had there- 

 fore more than repaid the whole annual expense of the 

 outlay ; but in the cutting and steaming cattle food he 

 had, as he thought, saved much more. With regard to 

 the steaming ot food there were various opinions. The 

 experiments which had been tried seemed to prove that 

 no advantage attended it in the case of grain or roots; 

 and though it was admitted that the steaming of dry 

 fodder enabled cattle to extract a larger portion of nutri- 

 ment from a given quantity, yet it was doubted whether 

 the cost of the process did not outweigh the advantage 

 gained. He was of opinion that where the cost could be 

 reduced to so insignificant a sum as by his method, the 

 advantage was great. The effect of steaming was not to 

 alter the nature of the food : it did not convert poor 

 food into rich: its simple effect was to render more of 

 the nutritious part of the food digestible. By bruising 

 grain, every particle was exposed to the action of the 

 juices of the stomach; and cattle could break down the 

 substance of roots and green crops thoroughly with 

 their teeth ; but in dry fodder some part of the nutri- 

 ment escaped the action of the stomach, because the fibre 

 could not be thoroughly broken up by mastication. By 

 cutting fodder into short lengths, and steaming, it was 

 rendered tender, and was made to resemble green food. 

 By steaming, both hay and straw might be made more nu- 

 tritious, and we might substitute a portion of straw for hay, 

 and still keep cattle doing as well as on dry hay alone. 

 He thought it a great advantage to consume a good part 

 of the straw as provender, provided you could do so, 

 and yet keep cattle in condition. The necessity of mow- 

 ing pastures to a large extent was thereby avoided ; it 

 was unprofitable to exhaust pastures by mowing them, 

 and to repair the waste by manure. The manure would 

 be better employed on the arable land, and the pasture 

 would yield a better profit by having its produce con- 

 sumed on the ground. During the last winter he had 9U 

 head of neat cattle and horses, and he fed them during 

 the whole time on steamed hay and straw. He had a 

 simple apparatus for steaming attached to the boiler oi 

 his engine, by means of which the chaff was steamed 

 with great quickness. The coals for the work of the engine 

 and for the steaming, each time cost i If .He cu * ** 

 steamed 600 or 700 strikes twice a week, and the ^labour 

 of two men for two hours was sufficient. The cos* 

 was not, therefore, more than Am. a week for steam 

 ing the food of 90 head of stock. Up «° Ae ^S 

 February he kept all his stock on one-third , hey ^ixed 

 with two-thirds straw. After that ^finding W» 

 cows get in low condition, be used half ^ and hall 

 hay, and gave the milking beasts a foddering of hay 

 moVningand night. As they calved he added a poun ^ 

 of linseed to their steamed food. W i jh this a 

 cows grew fast and got into milk as well a. he ever r 

 membered. Contrasting his consump turn oM bay > 

 this and former years, he calculate ^^ d Ld 10 ons 

 40 tons ; but he thought that if he had ™*J t 

 more it would have been better, and h the efcre 



down 30 tons as his saving. The « ffe ~f h ^ We ^. of 

 consuming price of 30 tons of hay and the 3° * BB 

 straw which supplied its place, reckoning hay at ^^ 

 and straw at 1/. 5*., would amount to 6'\ l ™'>" than 

 expense of cutting and steaming *» 0B ^ ^t'iu 

 5/. P A very general opinion was "^^U I 

 more advantageous to have Barley threshed oy 

 when thrashed by machine the pile was cut off ■<£ 

 that it turned out much less measure ^ ^ 

 would, notwithstanding the g rea , te ^ we,g " d L flail at 

 threshed by machine, prefer Barley »"*'*? y Excep t 

 2t. per quarter more, for the purpose of malting 

 for very extensive farms, it was thought tW * 



outlay required for steam-power, rend * r * a mach ines, un- 

 dient to use either the flail or horse-power mac ^ 



less the landlord would be at the cost or 



necessary buildings. meeting of this Club, 



Darlington.- At the late monthly mec ""* ative Adv an- 



the subject for discussion was The comp gand 



tages of Stall and Pasture-feeding for Uraugn ^ ^^ 



other Cattle during Summer ; with £e ^ A 



| profitable Green Fodder for Soiling or 2»»u 





