598 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



[Aug. 31, 



rdinary manure has a peculiar eiieci upon *m 

 nd pastures, for on the application of boiled 

 den change takes place in the appearance of 



growing a little bread-corn ; and I think it would be for 

 the general good of the agricultural community if every 

 cottager with a family was enabled to keep his cow.— 

 Mr. Palin on Cheshire-farming, in the English Agri- 

 cultural Society's Journal. 



Utility of Peat- Ashes. — Peat-ashes cannot be said to 

 have been totally overlooked or disregarded throughout 

 Eiu'l «nd, though they are so very much in Scotland and 

 Wales ; and, indeed, they are only very partially used in 

 England, where their manufacture is almost exclusively 

 confined to Berkshire and Hampshire, and some few 

 spots of Bedfordshire, but from whence they are carried by 

 land for upwards of thirty miles, and sold at about 9d. 

 per bushel. Indeed, so strong and powerful is the peat- 

 ash that is burned in immense heaps at Woolhampton, 

 near Newbury, that ten bushels per acre are sufficient to 

 apply, but the usual average elsewhere runs about thirty 

 bushels per acre. Considerable doubts have been ex- 

 pressed as to the quantity of peat-ashes to be used per 

 acre on an average ; but this cannot be exactly defined, 

 as so very much must always depend upon two several 

 points — first, the preparation of the ashes, and their 

 sorts ; and, second, the various soils, and their various 

 natures, on which the ashes are to be used. One general 

 rule as to the method of preparing the ashes may suffice, 

 as the best and most approved one, which is to have the 

 peats cast in their proper season, aud properly dried, and 

 to be burnt in a kiln, properly covered in at the top, 

 with a quick draught. This is the method of treating 

 the " best cast peats," but the top, outsides, and the 

 sedgy and even foggy peats, may be burned in conical 

 piles, and may still be brought into useful application, by 

 miking a freer use of thern, as this mode of burning this 

 class of peats will cost but very little, and the outside 

 cover has only to be pared away to get at the under and 

 best ashes. But taking the average run of peats, neither 

 the best nor the worst, the quantity per acre may fairly 

 be stated, as an average, at from twenty to thirty bushels 





per acre, and for old upland meadow, or any old green- 

 sward, this quantity will produce as much or more Dutch 

 Honeysuckle and small herbage as either soot or ashes 

 from sea-borne coal, at one-sixth of the cost, and, when 

 mixed with lime or fine sand, will not only be a very su- 

 perior top-dressing for all upland and other meadow, and 

 Red Clover without Rye-grass, but will also prove a most 

 valuable compost and manure for Carrots, Parsnips, or 

 Mangold Wurzel, when used in stiff ground, with a strong 

 and lar^e dibbling stick, as is used in Leicestershire or 

 Warwickshire, in all heavy grounds,* and for Potatoes 

 in common drills. The value of the peat-ashes in War- 

 wickshire and Leicestershire is from 9d. to Is. per bushel, 

 and as climate, or too great a similarity of soil may be 

 brought forward as an objection, the writer begs leave to 

 say he has tried these ashes in the bleakest and least pro- 

 tected part of Aberdeenshire, with greater success than 

 he ever did in Hertfordshire, Warwickshire, or Leices- 

 tershire, and he feels confident that these peat-ashes 

 need only be generally tried to be as generally esteemed 

 and used all over Scotland. — The Earl of Strathmore, 

 in the Transactions of the Highland Society. 



Bone-du^f on Pasture Land.— There is, perhaps, no 

 county in England where the pasture lands (particularly 

 the poorer soils) have been so much improved during the 

 last ten or twelve years as in Cheshire; and this princi- 

 pally by the application 'of what is termed bone-dust. 

 This extraordinary manure has a peculiar effect upon the 



poor clay la 



bones a sudd... „ r - .. 



the fields, and instead of the carnation-leaved, or pink 



Grass, which so much abounds on this kind of land, a 



luxuriant herbage presents itself, consisting ot red land 



white Clover, Trefoil, and other Grasses, of which the 



cattle are so fond that they eat up almost everything 



before them ; even Thistles and Hushes are very much 



weakened, and eventually reduced, by being constantly 



eaten off by the stock after the pastures have been bone- 

 dusted. — Mr. Palin on Cheshire-farming, tn the 



Enqlish Agricultural Society's Journal. 



Growth of Beans and Cabbages together.— The Beans 



are dibbled in February in double lines four inches apart, 



and with an interval of three feet to the next row. This 



enables the double mould-board or the subsoil-plough to 



pass freely along without injury to the Beans, as often 



as the state of the soil may require it, until the time of 



planting the Cabbages. The latter are of the thousand- 

 headed sort, and should have been raised the previous 



autumn, then pricked out in March (in a corner of the 



garden), and finally planted in their places between the 



rows in the field in May or June, taking advantage of 



showery weather for the purpose. The distance from 



plant to plant is about two feet ; they should be from five 



to eight inches out of the ground. They do not grow 



much until after the Beans have been removed, which is 



generally done early in August. When the latter are gone, 



the space they occupied is ploughed, and the Cabbages 



grow with such rapidity as effectually to prevent any 



■weeds from making head that season. No one, ignorant 



of the practice, sporting over the field in the beginning 



cf September, would imagine that the then luxuriant crop 



was the second of the season. The Cabbages yield a great 



bulk of green food towards Christmas, and if their leaves 



are then pulled, a second sprouting takes place at the 



end of March or the beginning of April; but as food is 



of much more consequence to a breeding flock at the 

 latter period, they have been left (without plucking from 

 them in December) till the Turnips are over. They are 

 then eaten on the ground by couples, and the land is 

 ready with a single ploughing for any sort of spring Corn. 

 The quantity of keep derived from them by this arrange- 

 ment is equal to what the same extent of Turnips would 

 give, but inferior to Swedes. 1 was led to try the expe- 

 riment for the first time in 1838, from having accident- 

 ally real an ount of the husbandry of M. de Fellen- 

 bergh, at llofwyl, in Switzerland, in which a similar 

 custom is mentioned. The success has been complete, 

 and it has never been omitted for a single year since its 

 introduction at Ockham ; and I see that, so far from the 

 Bean crop being diminished (in consequence of the greater 

 distance at which the rows are planted to admit the Cab- 

 bages between them), it has, on the contrary, been 

 increased from about 35 bushels, the average yield for 

 five years before the mixture, to 41 bushels, the average 

 yield for five years, since the Cabbages were introduced. 

 — Earl of Love/ace in the English Agricultural Society 1 s 

 Journal. 



Cottage Allotments. — About three years ago I selected 

 two pieces of land, together about 30 statute acres, from 

 a farm of Lord Crewe's, which land had heen very hard 

 tilled, and, lying more than a mile from the homestead, 

 had not for many years received any support in the way 

 of manure — besides which it was naturally a weak light 

 soil, with a bad subsoil ; and so little did the tenant prize 

 it, that he said I was quite welcome to take it from the 

 farm if I would release him from the rates and taxes paid 

 in respect of it, and make any deduction from his rent I 

 might think proper : this I did to his satisfaction, and 

 set it out in proper allotments, averaging about half an 

 acre each. I allowed the poor men draining-shells, 

 which they put down themselves under my directions, 

 and charged them as much rent as was just sufficient to 

 cover the rent formely paid by the farmer, together with 

 all levies, tithe, rent-charge, &c. ; and although the land 

 has only undergone this superior method of cultivation for 

 three years, aud was in the lowest condition to commence 

 with, and consequently will improve for years to come, 

 yet notwithstanding these disadvantages the crops grown 

 upon these 30 acres of poor land last summer were as 

 follows : — 1497 measures of Potatoes, 298 measures of 

 "Wheat, 22 measures of Barley, 10 measures of Vetches, 

 and 70 measures of Oats ; which crops, after paying the 

 rent, poor-rates, tithe, and all other charges, amount to 

 nearly 250/., even calculating them at the present low 

 prices of agricultural produce. It is, therefore, impos- 

 sible that this amount of produce could be distributed 

 amongst these poor men without adding greatly to the 

 comfort of themselves and their families ; besides which 

 all these necessaries of life were procured by the applica- 

 tion of those leisure hours which would, most likely, 

 have been spent in the beer-house, and might have pro- 

 duced the bitter pains of domestic strife and wretched- 

 ness, instead of making the cottage a peaceful and happy 

 home, and the allotment a healthy training-school for the 

 children. I am extensively concerned in the manage- 

 ment of cottage property, and necessarily come in con- 

 tact with some hundreds of cottage tenants (and, I hope, 

 I pay some attention to their habits, wants, and. feel- 

 ings), and I am decidedly of opinion that no able-bodied 

 labourer ought to have less than halt an acre of land, 



which will enable him to raise Potatoes sufficient for his whicb angwers very well> and does not poach the groumi like 

 own consumption and to fatten a couple of pigs, besides horses and the lightest mounted carts. 



three weeks old. How deep the root of the perfect plant ex- 

 tends we do not know. Perhaps some of our readers have 



Notices to Correspondents. 



Alpaca.— Viwirium.— It is the name cf that variety of Llama 

 whicb yields wool. The other variety, which is nearly naked, 

 is used in Peru as a beast of burden. See article " Llama," 

 Penny Cyclopaedia. 



Application' of Gai.vavism. —Anon. — Perhaps the following 

 extract from a New York paper may assist you. We do not 

 know, though it came from America, whether or not it be, what 

 it looks like, an Americanism: — "At a late meeting of the Far- 

 mers' Club in New York, Mr. Ross presented a Potato 7 inches 

 in circumference, and others no larger than Peas, all planted in 

 the same soil, at the same time — the 2.1th of May. The large 

 one was from a small plot under the influence of a galvanic bat- 

 tery. Plates of copper and zinc were placed at distances of 

 about 200 feet apart, the Potatoes planted between. They were 

 connected by a copper wire. This formed a battery, the mois- 

 ture of the earth exciting the galvanic fluid, which was thus 

 constantly passing through the soil in which the Potatoes were 

 planted." 



Boast's Patent Manures. — P. — We have no experience of 

 them. Purchase guano in a safe^quarter, and you know you 

 buy a useful fertiliser. 



Books.- T. Wighton. — Low's ''Elements of Practical Agri- 

 culture." 



Cultivation. — Humbug. — Use a scarifier or grubber, and work 

 the land lengthwise and across ; harrow, gather weeds together, 

 and burn; then you may plough, and use the scarifier again 

 across the furrows ; harrow as before and burn the weeds ; that 

 will clean your land. Cart on 30 cubic yards of farm-yard ma- 

 nure per acre, and sow Wheat; or, which would be better, 

 plough the land up in ridges, let it lie all winter, cultivate and 

 manure well in spring, and drill in Turnips, which you may eat 

 on the land with sheep, and sow Wheat in November of next 

 year. Good lst-yearV Clover, and Rye-grass may keep 8 to 14 

 sheep per acre (according to its quality and the size of the sheep), 

 in improving condition lor six months in summer. 



Depth ok Roots.— J. JJ.—We have traced the radicle of the 



young Wheat plant to a depth of 1 foot when the leaf was not 



• — 1 — 



* This method of dibbling Carrots, Parsnips, and Mangold 

 Wurzel, with peat- compost in the heavy lands in Leicestershire 

 and Warwickshire, has uniformly succeeded where every other 

 culture and manure l^ve failed, and is managed thus:— 

 Plough your land in the end of September or beginning of 

 October with a good strong furrow, and in the month of March 

 (about the middle) let your dlbblers begin, always dibbling 

 backwards, and making a hole about as wide as a pint bottle, 

 and thirteen inches deep j fill up the hole with the peat-com- 

 post to within four inches of the top. Put into each hole eight 

 or ten seeds, cover them over with the peat- compost till level 

 with the ground, then draw a slight but strong *' bush harrow " 

 over them. Wheu they have shot, let the three best shoots be 

 left, and the rest weeded out carefully, as they may do to trans- 

 plant and fill up any vacancies where the seed may have failed. 

 This will be done by women and children better than by men. 

 Let the remaining plants be earthed up, and this will be as 

 good as one hoeing, and, on a second and final looking over 

 the dibble-holes, let all the plants be removed but one, and 

 earth that well up. In the very deep lands in Leicestershire, 

 which will not bear a cart in the spring, donkeys are used with 

 large panniers to carry the compost up and down each furrow, 



certained this ; if so, we should be glad to hear from them. 



Grass L av d.— Inquirer. — A farmer would require to see the 

 Grass land which it is proposed to break up. before he could 

 judge whether or not he would profit by permission to cultivate 

 it. If be should prefer it as arable land, he would, of course, be 

 willing to pay a higher rent for it in that condition; if occupy. 

 ing a stiff and wet soil, he would not break up his pasture 

 thoujTi permitted. We do not know if there be a particular 

 species of Oat adapted for winter-sowing. Wheat will diminish 

 in hulk before summer, after threshing in winter, in the propor- 

 portion in which it may have become drier ; how much it may 

 generally diminish from that cause we do not know. Can any 

 one give information as to Darnell's manure having proved 

 useful as a manure for Wheat ? 



Gypsum. — H. D. — We cannot imagine that the small quantity of 

 iron mixed with your gypsum can render it atall injurious to 

 vegetation. 



Insects.— J. N. V.'s grubs are the caterpillars of a moth called 

 Noctua exclamationis, whose history was given in the Royal 

 Agr. Jour., vol. iv. p. 106, together with figures of the insects. 

 We can recommend no better mode of freeing crops of th 

 pest than hand-picking. Its effects have been lately shown with 

 regard to the wireworm in a calculation published in the last 



Number of the same Journal, li. W. L. W. —Your grubs 



are the same as the above, and we beg to call your attention to 

 their history In the work just alluded to, where the various 

 modes of extirpation are discussed. We feel much obliged by 

 your remarks regarding the wireworm, and would recommend 

 you to try the effect of gas-water upon them in a cup, and as- 

 certain the length of time they can resist its effects. If it be 

 satisfactory, you can prosecute your experiments In the field. 

 The curious snake-like animal changes to a fly called Thereva. 



R. A Cotswnld Farmer. — Your Turnips are infested with 



plant-lice, or aphides; and the animals transmitted are the 

 larva? of the lady-birds, whose history you will find in this day's 

 Chronicle. They are amongst the best friends you have. R. 



Parsnip. — J. B. F.— We do not know the Giant-Cow-Parsnip. 

 It is, doubtless, propagated by seed. We cannot recommend 

 seedsmen. 



Sulphate op Magnesia.— A. L. M.— The mode in which alum 

 is manufactured, both on the Continent and in Yorkshire, is to 

 roast clays containing sulphuret of iron and potash. The sul- 

 phur is converted by heat and subsequent exposure to the air, 

 into sulphuric acid, which combines with the alumina ; this is 

 dissolved out, and as it rarely occurs that the clay contains suf- 

 ficient potash to form alum, (which is a sulphate of alumina and 

 potash), a solution of potash is added to the ley obtained from 

 the roasted clay ; it is then boiled, after which the iron is allowed 

 to deposit; and lime as sulphate of lime, if lime exist in the 

 clay, when it is evaporated and crystallised. If magnesia ex- 

 isted in the clay the sulphate of magnesia would be found in the 

 mother water, for water of crystallised sulphate of magnesia and 

 carbonate of ammonia do not mutually decompose each other, 

 therefore it is incapable of fixing the ammonia in liquid ma- 

 nure. But ammonia in its caustic state will decompose a solu- 

 tion of sulphate of magnesia, precipitating the magnesia as a 

 bulky hydrate of magnesia. Dr. Turner says " The bicarbonates 

 and the common carbonate of ammonia do not precipitate mag- 

 nesia."— A. G. 

 Water for Cattle.— Iwprouer.— Soft water is decidedly more 



wholesome for both horses and cows than hard water, the latter 

 owing its hardness chiefly to the presence of sulphate of lime 

 (gypsum), or carbonate of lime (chalk), neither of which is de- 

 sirable as an addition to the element as it comes from the 

 clouds, but renders it more apt to cause spasm ot the Dowels 

 (cholic). Rain-water is certainly the purest that can be ob- 

 tained, and only requires care that it does not contain the im- 

 parities from the roof of the building, and that it does not 

 remain unused long enough to putrefy. W. C.8. 

 WnmAT.-ImprovetZ-If you will send your address we shall be 

 happy to forward some for experiment, : TOTOO ,i;«tPlv 



rWTM Vetches.-^ Subscriber may begin to sow mme diate ly 

 for his earliest crop if his land be late. Ihe middle or end ot 

 next month will be sufficiently early on eaily soils, w e do not 



know the Emperor Cabbage. . f ;„-iVftli -which 



Woon-AsiiES.-T. W.-Fresh ashes contain can: » ^J.^ 1 '™^ 

 whatever be the form of the ammonia with wl »ch u may c ome 

 in contact, will take from it, by virtue o its gr ea « affiniO, the 

 acid which holds it fixed, and thus let it free. J f the "Jf t £ 

 old, they will not thus volatilise the ; am on .because tne 

 alkali will, by uniting with the carbonic acid ***** j! 2 

 lost its causticity. The use of guajojU not dim n sh any n 

 cessity which may atpresent exist for the use of lime, i 



Sou d volatilise the ammonia just as caustic ashes do. 

 *. * AS usual, mauy commuuica.ions have been received too late. 



\Y 



Jfflarfeets 



SMITHF1ELD MO.DAV Au, 2^-Per rton^of Srts. 



'Scots, Hereford,,** 3.10 »«0 §.« Down 



Bei 



Best Short Horns 

 Second quality Beasts 

 Calves * 



3 

 3 

 3 

 3 





 10 



3 6 



4 4 



3 3 l °6 EweMnTsecond quality 3 4 

 8 4 4 1 Lambs 



The supply of Beast, to-day Utog^ {J^^^^ A* -p 

 inferior quality: the increase in numbers nay^ ^ ^ ^ g coW> &l .. f 



the trad*-, and 

 although some fe' 

 ready a sale as any 

 very nearly 4. per 



and «, me «..!. »-■• -T^'gHi -«* ^uTnVy'ih. prT.e, wUK 



lo hue -pwi>* &c . cannot 

 .'several f.fff'»°", ' v ,, , tA 



Veal is a dull trade— *» *» 



be sold at all- Lamb is W««« t 'VT; tolerably brisk, 

 is hardly realised for anything. Pork is toier y 



Friday, Aug. 30. description 



The supply of good Bee 



continues about the same as on Monday; on 

 and trade heavy; many m 



the whole, the supply 



»son Monaay, u» ». - - ,. ' d {. what are som 

 iddling Beasts canm.t be d.^seao, ^^ y 



make nearly the same as on Monday ^Bj^^tSP trade seems 

 about the same "// late, and pneej are a ade is a h , U e more lively, 



more brisk for the best «l ua,l " e * * adv 



Si are no better. ^^'"io'^Cafves, 361 ; Pigs 230 

 easts, 884; Sheep and Lambs, 9ti8», »>*" ^ ^^ Snmhfie id. 



somewhat 



but the prices 

 Beast 



HAY.— Per Load of 36 Trusses. 



Smithfikld, Aug. 29. t0 30i 



CUMBKRLAND MARKET, Aug. 29- 



00. to 105. | Superior Clover 1 18. to 196. ^ ^ 33, 



on fit; I Interior .. * uu ?' 



New Hay „ 



Superior Old 

 Interior 

 New Hay 



Hay J 



90 



ill 



X00 1 New Clover^m BAj l£ ^ Sale8inan , 

 Whitechapel, AU£. 30. 



Fine Old Hay - 

 New Hay 



»6 9 to lOHs . Old Clover JJOs lg» | StraW ». to 34s 

 88 95 New Clover 100 1» | 



• „ Inferior 90 w 



WOOL.-BRIT1SH, ^"tT'reJorted it. The pric" 

 Oua Wool Market is much the «™f ."^'g JpSr. can afford, and the 

 22LZl bv the Farmers are hurl- j'-^^/from advancing ^ 



per lb, 



SStt at present in«hj 



Long-wooled Wethers l. P (Sito U Id 

 Do- Hog-ritts 11 1 a* 



Sout' down Fleece* 



J0 11 



.outhdown Hogait" ^"7?* 

 Kent ;iSJ > pBEBnr , : Woo'. Broker. 



