1844.] 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



577 



X momenton? ".»•». * ^ ^ wMch |t may be ro . 



L IQV1D M ;^^f e of "bWLER'S PUMPS, made expressly for 

 ^^^^iSJr portable or fixed; Garden. Ship, and Barge 

 &« porpoW. « l J^ e P ° for Distiller., Brewers. Soap-boilers, and 



fWM» s t lS °'h2 and cold liquor. Pumps kept tor hire, or 

 £.»*». for hot and coi g d heated by Hot Water, for 



Kxcavat ons and v» e. . ya Qf manufa cturing purposes. 



B«rticoltare, and eje y nU8 terms , by Bevjamiv 



The Trade « u P£ ,e % 63 Dorset-street, Fleet-street, London 



Fowl«" 



fr tie agricultural aa?ette+_ 



5 TURD AY, AUGUS T 24, 1844 . 



MEETINGS FOR THE TWO FOLLOWING WEEKS. 

 T«Ldat, Aug ^Agricultural Imp. Soc. of Ireland. 

 Tmumdat, Sept. 5 Agricultural Imp. Soc of Ireland. 



FARMERS' CLUBS. 

 , | Sept. 10 Abergavenny 



Stpt- 



The condition of agricultural mechanics ma 

 country is the best possible criterion by which to 

 Ornate the character of its cultivation -for this 

 must be carried to a high pitch before a demand can 

 «ist for well- constructed and efficient, but necessarily 

 expensive implements ; and thus the improvement 

 which has of late years taken place in British Agri- 

 culture is in nothing more satisfactorily apparent than 

 in the superiority of our present farm implements 

 over those formerly in use. Scarifiers and cultivators 

 have now, for many purposes, taken the place of the 

 tedious plough; drilling-machines, as well as 

 machines for scattering seed broadcast, have taken 

 the place of manual labour ; the threshing-machine 

 has been substituted for the flail ; and chaff-cutters 

 and Turnip-cutters are generally used where such 

 implements were formerly unknown. 



Although these substitutions have not all" been 

 effected within the last few years, yet any one who 

 has had the opportunity of attending the Annual 

 Meetings of the English Agricultural Society, and of 

 comparing the implements there exhibited from year 

 to year, must acknowledge that great improvements 

 have taken place in the Mechanics of Agriculture 

 even within the still short period of that Society's 

 existence. Speaking of the exhibition of implements 

 at Derby in 1843, the Editor of the Gardeners' 

 Chroniclefost year made the following observations : — 

 "The most rapid strides have been made in this 

 department. The show of implements at Oxford 

 was not very good ; nothing very new or perfect was 

 exhibited there. At Cambridge it was much better ; 

 Liverpool and Bristol surpassed the preceding ; and 

 at Derby there was the greatest collection of every 

 kind of implement — from the simple plough to the 

 portable steam-engine — which had ever been brought 

 into one spot. For three days we spent many hours 

 delightfully in following the new inventions and the 

 improvements pointed out by the different makers ; 

 and many more days would have been required to 

 notice all that was worth the attention of the agri- 

 cultural mechanician." 



Our Report some weeks ago of the Exhibition at 

 Southampton shows how far this rapid progress of 

 improvement has been sustained. 



Those who have been unable to visit the show- 

 yards of the Society at its Annual Meetings may 

 easily estimate the extent of this improvement by 

 comparing the works which have been published on 

 the subject. The latest of these, that by Air. J. 

 Allen Ransome, of Ipswich, is incomparably the 

 best that has appeared ; it is descri r tive of a greater 

 variety of better implements than y of its prede- 

 cessors, and it exhibits a thorough piaintance with 

 the principles on which the efficiency of the different 

 machines depends. We shall have opportunity, in 

 course of future Articles on Agricultural 

 anics, of noticing Mr. Ransome's opinions on 

 various farm implements; and it is therefore unne- 

 cessary at present to refer particularly to his descrip- 

 tions of them. In illustration, however, of the im- 

 provement in them to which we have been alluding, 

 we take the liberty of extracting the following re- 

 marks on their condition centuries ago : — 



" In our own island, ploughs were, during the 

 farly and dark ages of its history, rudely constructed, 

 intolerably heavy, and of all kinds of shapes ; a re- 

 volt which might have been reasonably anticipated, for 

 D y an old British law, every ploughman was required 

 10 make his own plough. The harrows, and other 

 agricultural implements, were equally ill-shaped. 

 -L/nlls were utterly unknown until about the 

 sixteenth century ; and when, about the year 

 *'30, the celebrated Jethro Tull endeavoured to 

 banish the flail from the barn, his neighbours loaded 

 jum with execrations. The tradition of the neigh- 

 bourhood of Prosperous Farm, near Hungerford, 

 which lull cultivated, still is, that he was * wicked 

 enough to construct a machine, which, by working a 

 ** °f sticks, beat out the Corn without manual 

 jaoour.' This is the first traditionary notice of a 

 uiresrung-machine w j tn w hj c h I am acquainted." 



-Ine chapter on threshing-machines in this work— 



the 

 Mechi 



one of the best in the book — details the successh 

 steps in their improvement since that period. We 

 shall endeavour hereafter to describe, and fairly to 

 timate, the value of the various farm-implements 

 now used, in the condition to which they have been 

 brought by that process of improvement to which we 

 have been alluding; and we are glad to be able to 

 say, that in preparing these descriptions, and in form- 

 ing these estimates, we have been promised the assist- 

 ance of many eminent manufacturers — that of Mr. 

 Ransome, among others. 



We have been asked by a correspondent if the 

 practice suggested by Mr. Hannam, and detailed in 

 a late Number of this Paper, on the subject of 

 harvesting grain crops, is applicable to Barley 

 and Oats, as well as Wheat. 



In the latter case this point has been already 

 determined by almost universal practice — upon other 

 grounds, however, than those indicated by Mr. Han- 

 nam's experiments. Oats are generally cut before 

 their straw has lost its green colour, simply because, 

 when left till quite ripe, they are very liable to shed 

 their seed, its attachment to the stem being much 

 slighter than that either of Wheat or Barley. Most 

 probably, however, this practice is productive here, 

 as well as in the case of Wheat, of a better quality of 

 grain than we should otherwise be able to grow. 



With reference to Barley, again, the almost universal 

 practice is to let it remain on the field till it is dead 

 ripe. Whether this practice be correct or not, Mr. 

 Hannam's experiments cannot, we think, be held to 

 condemn it ; they only determined the influence 

 which the time of harvesting grain exerted on its 

 quality as food. Barley being generally grown for 

 malting, is seed to be sprouted, not, grain to be eaten ; 

 and there is but littlejn the experiments to which we 

 allude to indicate the effect of early or late cutting 

 on the quality of grain as seed. On this subject 

 Nature is as yet our only guide, and if it be safe to 

 follow her, farmers are certainly right in permitting 

 Barley to become thoroughly ripe before cutting it, 

 for seed is naturally never shed or sown till dead ripe. 



The practice, however, of permitting Barley to 

 remain on the field till thoroughly ripe, has not, we 

 believe, arisen from any notion of the propriety of 



1 receives a cultivation peculiar to itself, only taking part 

 in that of the whole field. Now, as the soil both on the 

 inferior and the upper oolite, the one immediately below, 

 and the other immediately above the clay of the fullers' 



imitating Nature in the matter, but from the circum- 

 stance that it is of importance in malting grain that 

 it should all sprout together, so that the process may 

 take place fully within the time allotted for it ; and 

 it is probable that the evenness of sample which is 

 thus so essential in malting Barley can only be 

 obtained by ripening it thoroughly. The only way 

 to obtain grain all of the same stage of ripeness is to 

 make it all dead ripe. 



Whether, if it were possible, with our variable 

 soil and irregularly sheltered fields, to cut the crop 

 all in one stage of growth before it became thoroughly 

 white, the quality of the grain for malting purposes 

 would thereby be improved, remains an unanswered 



question. 



GEO-AGRICULTURAL NOTES ON SOUTH 



GLOUCESTERSHIRE. 



(Continued from page 562). 



Fullers* Earth. — Below the Ba'hstone lies a bed of 

 clay, from 40 to 50 feet in thickness, in which, near 

 Bath, the fullers' earth is found. This bed crops out 

 below the limestone rock, under which it lies, and its 

 course, dependent as it is on the windings of the hills 

 and valleys, is most tortuous. It is, however, easily trace- 

 able along the lower edge of the Bath-stone. This bed of 

 clay is generally of a yellow colour ; and near and beyond 

 Bath the fullers'-earth occurs in it in isolated masses, 

 in search of which pits are dug at random. It throws 

 out a great many springs ; many streams take their rise 



from above it. 



Auricultural Character of the Fullers Earth.— -The 

 surface of the narrow band In which this bed of clay is 

 exposed is most irregular. It may be easily traced at a 

 distance by the contrast in this respect which it pre- 

 sents to the surface of the ground on either side of it. 

 This unevenness is sometimes owing to the occurrence 

 here and there of masses of debris, which have fallen 

 from the rock above, but may be more generally due to 

 the wide cracks made in the clay during the summer, 

 and to the slight slips which consequently take place on 

 the fall of rain. This bed of clay is of very little conse- 

 quence in an agricultural point of view ; it is not only of 

 very little extent, being a mere band, but is steep, being 

 situated on the side of the hills. It is almost wholly in 

 pasture, and this pasture is of the poorest description. 

 When left to itself, as in commons, it becomes covered 

 with the Bramble, the Sloe, and the Briar, which are 

 characteristic of clayey land in general. When arable 

 the soil is very stiff and clayey. It is well seen at the 

 top of a row of fields immediately below the road into 

 Bath, as it winds along the edge of Charney Down. me 

 soil is there a dark (nearly black) stiff clay, forming a 

 narrow band along the upper edge of the fields, wn.cn 

 are chiefly of a brashy soil, of a ruddy brown colour 

 overlying the rock of the inferior oolite. It is adapted 

 for the growth of Wheat and Beans, but, m the tew 

 instances in which it is arable, it usually forms, as in the 

 case just cited, merely a portion of fields, including both 

 it and the sod on the rock below it, and thus seldom 



earth, is of a brashy nature, and peculiarly a Barley 

 it is evident that the soil on the clay between them, 

 receiving the same kind of cultivation as they do. cam 

 seldom be cropped and cultivated in a manner suited to 

 it. It is only when a crop of Wheat is taken that this is 

 the case, and even then it does not show that superiority 

 as a Wheat soil that might be expected, being so wet 

 that crops of no kind will succeed on it till it is drained. 

 The clay of the fullers' earth, when it thins out on the 

 inferior oolite' below it, does not appear to produce that 

 improvement which might be expected to follow the 

 mixture of soils of such opposite characters. This it 

 perhaps owing to the extreme wetness of the land during 

 six or eight months in the year, the whole of the rain 

 falling on the upper oolite being turned out by the clay, 

 over the surface of which it runs until it meets the rock 

 of the lower oolite, through which it sinks. 



Inferior Oolite.— The member of the oolitic series 

 upon which, in the descending order, wc next come, is 

 the inferior oolite. This consists of two beds, the upper 

 a limestone rock, and the lower a calcareous sand. This 

 rock comes out to the surface all along the edge 

 of the hills, as will be seen by a reference to any 

 geological map of the district. This limestone has 

 much more of the oolitic structure than the upper 

 limestone of the series. It is a softer rock, ca- 

 pable of being worked with the saw as well as the 

 chisel, and is more easily worked for ornamental pur- 

 poses. It does not, however, stand the weather well. 

 The whitest and finest stone is found in the lower beds of 

 this rock, the impurity of the limestone, owing to the 

 presence of clay, increasing upwards. The uppermost 

 bed, which varies from 20 to 30 feet in thickness, con- 

 tains as much clay as lime. This top bed consists chiefly 

 of large concretions of shells ; it gets the name of Hag- 

 stone. The lowest bed of this rock, that, resting on the 

 sand, differs from the rest of it in not being much 

 affected by the weather, is a weather-stone, and ac- 

 cordingly, in quarries and other sections, where both are 

 exposed, it projects uninjured from the midst of the 

 debris produced by the action of the weather on the rock 

 above. This bed does not exceed two or three feet in 

 thickness. Below the limestone rock, and of about 

 equal thickness with it, occurs a bed of calcareous sand, 

 generally of a yellow colour. This sand, in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Wotton-under-edge, is ferruginous in a high 

 degree, and presents a curious oolitic appearance, which 

 is not common to it. There are also concretions and 

 hardened masses occurring in the midst of it, generally 

 in layers. These are provincially termed Sand-bats. 

 They are owing either to a more indurated st-tte of the 

 sand, or to the presence in abundance of shells, of 

 which generally there are but few. 



Agricultural Character of the Inferior Oolite.— The 

 soil on the lower oolite is of two kinds; that on 

 the limestone rock necessarily differs from that on 

 the sani. The one is very shallow, full of fragments 

 of rock, and of a brown or ruddy-brown colour ; while 

 the other is a light sandy soil, partaking more or less of 

 the yellow colour of the subsoil, according to the degree 

 of cultivation it may have received. The stony brashy 

 soil on the rock is generally situated on the steepest 

 part of the hill-side; and being thus too steep for 

 arable land, and too shallow for good pasture land, it is 

 generally covered with wood. The Beech is the tree 

 natural to the thin calcareous soil occurring on this rock. 

 The valleys of Hawksbury, Wotton-under-edge, and 

 Waterleigh, and a great part of the valleys of Ozzle- 

 worth and Uley, are thus surrounded by wood. This is 

 the case very generally along the whole of the oolitic 

 escarpment, and some of the finest Beech woods in the 



kingdom are to be found here. 



Where the land is arable, the practice of the farmers va- 

 ries very much. Some take successive crops of Wheat and 

 Potatoes, and thus sell everything off the land ; others 

 take Wheat, Potatoes, Barley, and fallow or seeds or 

 Turnips, in succession ; but whatever the principle be, 

 if there be any which they adopt, whether it be good or 

 bad, the mode in which they carry it into practice and 

 follow out the details of cultivation is slovenly, this is 

 attested by the foul st »te of the land. The Barley and 

 Wheat crops are, during the spring months, buried in 

 Charlock, the wild Mustard, and a hundred other weeds. 

 The slovenly state in which this land is generally to be 

 seen is, perhaps, owing to its being let in small farms, 

 and to the practice of sub-letting, whicn is common, 

 especially when the Potato crop comes round. To this, 

 however, though it is general, there are exceptions. Even 

 a bad system may, in the hands of an active farmer, be 

 made the means of cultivating his land well. The soil 

 on the sand is of a much more valuable kind than that 

 on the rock. Where both exist in their natural state, 



as in the many commons occurring on this rock, 

 a shower of rain, after a long drought, will ena- 

 ble one to trace to an inch the junction between 

 the two ; the Grass on the sandy soil b- comes as green 

 as the contrast which it presents to the withered herbage 

 on the brashy sod can make it. The soil on the sand is 

 chiefly in pasture, and some of the richest pasturage in 

 the county is to be obtained on it ; whoever has wit- 

 nessed the freshness and richness of tbe verdure which 

 the many beautiful valleys intersecting these strata pre- 

 sent to the eye after a genial rain, will not doubt «hi«- 



It also form, good arable land j and "^UnrLomb? 

 as in the cas/of Mr. Dimmery's farm at Stinchcombe 

 a report of which by Mr. Morton appeared in the first 



