1844.] 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



529 



SEED-WHEAT.— Any one desirous of purchasing 

 Seed for next rear is invited to inspect the two varieties 

 of Wheat, SHIRREFF'S HOPETOUN and MORTON'S RED- 

 STRAW WHITE, 120 acres of which are now growing; on 

 WHITFIELD FARM, THORNBURY, GLOUCESTERSHIRE. 

 The present is the only season of the year when the value 

 of any variety of Wheat as Seed can be ascertained by inspec- 

 tion ; for, if the examination of a mere sample of the gram, 

 which can be seen at any time, be nearly unmstructive as to 

 its quality in the eye of the baker (see Ag. Gazette, No. 5), it is 

 entirely so as to the productiveness or habit of growth of the 

 variety to which it belongs. These points, which are of the 

 highest importance in the eye of the Farmer, can be ascertained 

 only by an examination of the growing plant when in full ear. 



John Morton. Whitfield, Thornbury. 



m)t gtarfcultucal ffiWtte 



SATURDAY, AUG. 3, 1844. 



MEETINGS 



Wbdnksday, 



Thursday, 



Wbdnksday, 



Thursday, 



Friday, 



Wednesday, 

 Wednesday, 

 Thursday, 



FOR THE TWO FOLLOWING WEEKS. 



7 Agricultural Society of England. 



8 Agricultural Imp. Soc- of Ireland. 



Meetings of the Highland Agricultural 

 Society at Glasgow. 



Aug. 

 Aug. 

 Aug. 

 Aug. 

 Aug. 



Aug. 

 Aug. 

 Aug 



14 Agricultural Society of England. 



14 1 Meeting at Dublin of the Agricultural 



15 J Imp. Soc. of Ireland. 



On agricultural subjects, many of which involve 

 interests of such magnitude — where erroneous ideas, 

 when developed in practice, will cause loss, and per- 

 haps ruin — it is of great importance that the terms 

 used in demonstrating opinion, or in communicating 

 experience, should be perfectly understood. 



This remark is intended especially to apply to the 

 use of one word often met with in works on drainage, 

 which has certainly a tendency to mislead, and to 

 which we are inclined to attribute much erroneous 

 and uneconomical practice. We often hear of drains 

 drawing the water from the soil — of deep drains 

 drawing the water from a greater distance than 

 shallow ones. The natural consequence, we think, 

 in the mind of any one in the habit of hearing this 

 word thus applied, is the entertainment of an idea, 

 which first notions on such a subject would probably 

 favour, that a large drain would be more powerfully 

 attractive of any superabundance of water in the soil 

 than a small one. And we are disposed to attri- 

 bute much of the useless expenditure in the thorough 

 drainage of land by tiles of large size, which is fre- 

 quently to be met with, to some such idea as this, 

 thus originated. Draining- tiles of a much smaller 

 size than has hitherto been common, are now gene- 

 rally used : experience has ascertained their efficiency. 



The fact of the matter is, that, excepting the 

 maximum limit which it places on the flow of water 

 from land — a limit which, in practice, is rarely if 

 ever in action — the size of drains — we mean their 

 sectional area— has nothing to do with their efficiency. 

 When a drain is completed and exists as an inclined 

 tube some 30 inches under ground, to the interior 

 of which water can readily obtain access, the first 

 consequence is that the water in the soil around 

 this tube oozes into it, and whether this dry- 

 ing of the clay, if it be a stiff subsoil, produces cracks, 

 as Mr. Smith contends, or not, it must evidently 

 create a porosity in the neighbourhood of the drain, 

 which did not before exist. The superabundant 

 water in the subsoil near this porous part, thus falls 

 or trickles through it into the drain, and the earth to 

 which it was attached, in its turn losing its imper- 

 vious character, becomes a vehicle for the passage of 

 water from a still farther distant part of the subsoil. 



When drains have once got fully into action, the pro- 

 cess of drainage, which commences immediately after 

 rain has fallen in greater quantity than is required 

 simply to moisten the earth, is as follows : — Each 

 addition to the water already present in the soil not 

 being attracted by the already moistened earth, 

 trickles or drops downwards wherever there is a way 

 for it, from particle to particle, and unless a previous 

 drought has extended deeper, as soon as it reaches 

 the level of the drain, whether it be in the middle 

 between two drains, or at the very side of one, there 

 it will stop. The idea is obviously absurd that drains can 

 afford an opportunity for water escaping from any part 

 of the subsoil which is below them. And it is equally 

 impossible to suppose that when they are once in full 

 action, stagnant water will be found in any part of 

 the subsoil much above their level inland which has not 

 been artificially puddled in any way ; for, supposing 

 the water whose course we are tracing to have fallen in 

 the very centre between two drains, as far from them 

 as possible, yet as soon as so much more should come 

 as would raise it above the level of the neighbouring 

 subsoil, which was dry, it would trickle away to one 

 side, and so ultimately reach the drain. Given, the 

 porosity of a medium of any kind, and the degree of 

 its molecular attraction for water, to find the least 

 angle of a plane down which water would trickle 

 through it, is a problem capable of solution; 

 and it is upon the data of such a problem that the 

 efficiency of drains, though dug at wide intervals, 

 depends. If, in the case of drains 2 feet deep, water 

 being stagnant at 2 feet below the surface over the 

 drain, is, in consequence of the angle of inclination 



of the plane to which we are alluding, to be found 

 15 inches only below the surface at a distance of 12 

 feet, then the efficiency of the drain would cease at a 

 distance of 24 feet from it; for supposing the cha- 

 racter of the soil to remain the same, water would at 

 that distance be found stagnant within 6 inches of 

 the surface : it would in fact be stagnant in the active 



soil. 



It is on this principle that the greater efficiency of 

 deep drains is explained, for in their case this same 

 plane of inclination, down which water will consent 

 to trickle through such a medium, commencing as it 

 would at a lower level, would extend a greater dis- 

 tance on either side, before coming so near the surface 

 as to be injurious. 



On the use of the subsoil plough as a means of 

 diminishing the angle of inclination of this plane, 

 and so increasing the efficiency of drains, we shall 

 speak hereafter. Our remarks at present are 

 confined to an exposition of the inaccuracy and in- 

 jurious tendency of the terms often used in explain- 

 ing the efficiency of drains. Drains do not draw or 

 attract water. They simply receive that which 

 naturally trickles down to them. If of size suffi- 

 cient to carry it off as fast as it arrives, well — if of 

 greater size than sufficient so to act, an unnecessary 

 exper.se has evidently been incurred in making them 

 so large — if of a size insufficient thus to act, they will 

 take as much as they can, the rest accumulating in 

 the soil till a drier season, when it will be ultimately 

 removed; but the injuiy done by this accumulation 

 of stagnant water for so long a time, will soon prove 

 that the policy of the proprietor, or whoever it was 

 that had this inefficient but cheap drainage exe- 

 cuted, though it may have been penny-wise, was 

 pound-foolish. 



THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 



[The following observations were made by Colonel Le 

 Couteur, on this subject, at the great dinner of the 

 English Agricultural Society at Southampton.] 



The islanders are either farmers, sailors, or soldiers. 

 Enjoying a delightful climate, a rich soil, an inexhaustible 

 supply of manure from their rock-bound shore ; blessed 

 with mild laws, liberty of the subject, a free press, an 

 extended commerce — privileges which Englishmen dearly 

 cherish — the people have attained a degree of wealth and 

 contentment almost unequalled. 



These advantages have not been unworthily gained. 

 Descendants of that ancient Norman race who visited 

 England with William the Conqueror, they have ever 

 since continued connected with the Crown of England. 

 King John granted them a jury and their charter some 

 years previous to signing Magna Charta. On eleven 

 occasions they have successfully resisted invasions from 

 France, and on every such occasion the Sovereigns of 

 England have granted them some new privilege. 



Among other institutions connected with these islands, 

 an Agricultural Society has been of great benefit. It has 

 been formed on the same basis as this Society, viz., on a 

 total exclusion of all politics from its meetings and pro- 

 ceedings ; and a like result has attended its progress — 

 entire harmony among its members, and a friendly 

 rivalry for good. 



The improvement of Wheat for seed, and the general 

 cultivation of crops, have been among the objects of its 

 attention ; but the chief one has been to improve the 

 admirable breed of cattle — admirable for the production of 

 large quantities of rich and yellow butter. The chief 

 defect was in the falling off of the hind-quarters ; it has 

 taken nine years of close attention to remedy this defect, 

 and as I have personally kept a record of its progress of 

 improvement, I would urge upon young farmers who 

 seek to improve their stock, not to expect success in 

 less than such a period ; at the same time, roundness of 

 barrel, a better handling, and a tendency to fatten, when 

 dried off from milk, were points which had been gained 

 without injury to the milking qualities. The cream of 

 the cows of the Channel Islands was so rich and yellow, 

 that in dairy farms where creamer's milk is sold, one 

 such good cow to every three or four ordinary English 

 cows, would be found useful to impart richness to the 

 cream or butter. 



With reference to the highly-instructive and interesting 

 speech of Doctor Buckland on Wednesday, Colonel Le 

 Couteur said, the learned Professor seemed to think that 

 a considerable part, if not all the value of guano, 

 evaporated in one season. He was intrusted, two years 

 since, by the Agricultural Society of Jersey, to carry out 

 some experiments with guano — that season was equally 

 dry with this one — and the effects of this manure was 

 imperceptible on either Wheat, Barley, or Grass ; but 

 this year the crop of Grass where the guano had 

 been placed, was so rich and succulent, that the scythe 

 could scarcely be drawn through it. Hence it would 

 appear that it may not be quite so evanescent as is sup- 

 posed ; and it is useful in dry weather diluted with 

 water, and thus applied to plants. Its effects will be 

 found surprising in field or garden. 



1 REMARKS ON DRAINAGE. 



I can hardly divest myself of the idea that you must 

 have been quizzing the Debenham Farmer's Club when 

 you published the report of their meeting of 28th June 

 last, as it is hardly conceivable that men who have 

 evinced so much anxiety for improvement as to have 

 instituted a club for discussing agricultural improvements, 



with the 

 nish the 

 are fully 

 to do so 



who 

 only 

 in a 



should, after all that has been said and written on the 

 subject, talk seriously about making drains with straw : 

 indeed, the whole report is so extraordinary as to court 

 remark. In the first place, all the speakers agreed that 

 the drains should run obliquely across the field. Now 

 this, as a general proposition, has been shown to be per- 

 fectly erroneous. Vide Stephens' " Book of the Farm," 

 pp. 537 to 542 ; Thomson, in " Prize Essays of the 

 Highland and Agricultural Society," vol. xiii. p. 295; 

 and Smith's (Deanston) M Remarks on Thorough Drain- 

 ing," p. 9, where he says — " Drains drawn across a 

 steep cut the strata or layers of subsoil transversely, and 

 as the stratification generally lies in sheets at an angle to 

 the surface, the water passing in or between the strata, 

 immediately below the bottom of one drain, nearly comes 

 to the surface before reaching the next lower drain. 

 But as water seeks the lowest level in all directions, if the 

 strata be cut longitudinally by a drain directed down the 

 steep, the bottom of which cuts each stratum at the 

 same distance from the surface, the water will flow into 

 the drain at the intersecting point of each sheet or layer 

 on a level with the bottom of the drain, leaving one 

 uniform depth of dry soil." It would have been fortunate 

 if the speakers at the Debenham Farmers' Club had 

 stated their reasons for preferring the oblique direction, 

 which is so much at variance with what may now be 

 termed an axiom in thorough-draining. In the second 

 place, with regard to filling the drains with straw, a 

 material of such a very perishable nature must certainly 

 be very improper for filling drains where every requisite 

 for its speedy decomposition exists ; let us hear what an 

 eminent agricultural writer says on this subject. M It 

 could," says he, " only be dire necessity that would induce 

 any man to fill drains with straw twisted into ropes ;" 

 and again — " Only conceive what a mess such a drain 

 must be that is filled up to the height of 8 or 1 inches 

 either with brushwood stripped of the leaves — Oak, Ash, 

 or Willow twigs being the best— and covered with long 

 Wheat-straw twisted into bands." — Booh of the Farm, 

 vol. i., p. 607. Now, although I agree most cordially 



resolution that the landlords ought to fur- 

 tiles, and am satisfied that landlords 

 alive to their own interests ought not 

 but see that the drains are executed 

 permanent and substantial manner; still, if it can be 

 shown that tile drains can be put in for nearly the same 

 price as those of straw, there will be no excuse for the 

 tenant (even if his landlord objects to assist him when 

 asked) using the latter. Making an approximate calcu- 

 lation then, say that there are 68 roods of drains (6 yards 

 to the rood) in an imperial acre, when 28 feet apart, the 

 cutting and filling for the straw drain must cost at least 

 Id. per rood more than for tile, as the former requires 

 to be deeper, and the filling is much more difficult and 

 troublesome (see report in question) ; the straw re- 

 quired cannot be less than 2 imperial stones per rood, 

 perhaps more, which, at the price of 2d. per imperial 

 stone, or 26*. 8d. per ton, will make the account stand 



thus : — 



£ *. d. 



Cutting and filling: 6s roods drains, at id. . • .12 8 

 136 stones straw, at 2d. . . . • . • .12 8 



If twisted, the expense must be added— 



Cutting and filling 63 roods drains, at 3d. . 



980, 15-inch tiles, at 20*. per 1000 . • 



980, 15-inch soles, at 10*. „ . . . 



8 stones straw, at 2d. . . • • 



Leaving in favour of straw per acre only— £0 2 4j 



But I believe Ethridge's drain-pipes can be had much 

 cheaper than 30s. per 1000, which would turn the 

 balance in favour of tiles. Both of the estimates are 

 exclusive of carriage, which would, no doubt, be greatest 

 in the case of tiles ; but as there are seasons when 

 horses are comparatively idle on most farms, they might 

 be employed at a trifling expense drawing the tiles 

 (which, after all, are only three single horse-loads per 

 acre) to a convenient place near to where they are to - 

 be used. 



The most absurd part of the whole report is one indi- 

 vidual gravely stating that he uses M plashings of ditches 

 and borders," i. e. brambles and weeds, to fill the drains. 

 Fancy a man growing weeds to such an amount on the 

 borders of his fields as to thorough-drain his farm with 

 them ! What is the Royal Agricultural Society of 

 England about? Where is Debenham ? It was fortunati 

 that the true interpretation of "plashings" happenel 

 to occur to me, or it might have been mistaken for tht 

 mud taken out of the ditches in cleaning them.— John 

 Girdtcood, Featherhall, Mid-Lothian. 





£2 



5 



4 



s. 



d. 







. 17 











. 19 



7 







. 9 



94 







. 1 



4-2 



- 



8± 



ON the FAILURE of the RED CLOVER CROP. 

 The Red Clover in this village has failed this year to 

 a very remarkable extent. The fact had attracted my 

 attention, and upon inquiry I find the farmers at a loss 

 to account satisfactorily for the circumstance. Some say 

 it is owing to grubs, or insects, which have destroyed the 

 plant ; some suppose the land has become tired (as they 

 express it) of growing Clover. They think our land here 

 (which is the bed called blue- drift, by geologists) requires 

 generally a longer rest than eight years, which is the 

 more usual period that elapses before introducing this 

 crop again in the regular four-course shift. AH seem o 

 agree that Red Clover is now-a-days much more l»wew 

 fail than it used to be some 10 or 20 years ago. «- 

 matter is really very serious ; and the fact a PP"[Yshall 

 so curious, in a physiological point of Tie *> f in 

 invite a little I/perat.on from d.fle «nt ^«, » 

 hopes that we may see whether we i»" « 

 real cau,e to which the mUchief »»T be uenbed. How 





