S-~7r^7\v1lEAT. — Any one desirous of obtaining 

 o a wheat for use this autumn, may ascertain, by applica- 

 See ,kp naviculars of the crops of two excellent varieties - 

 ^^Vopetoun, and Morton's Red-Straw White, which have 



^PpTfLD FARM, THORNBURY, GLOUCESTERSHIRE, 

 W " »if last 3 vears. This year's crop is on sale at 85. a bushel. 

 23* MO.TON, Whitfield. 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



609 



C^e ^crtcultttcal GSwttt 



SATURDAY, SEPT. 7, 1844 



MEETINGS FOR THE TWO FOLLOWING WEEKS. 



FARMERS' CLUBS. 



Sept" Abergavenny. 



" rDebenham. 

 S«Dt.20<Si«ke Ferry. 

 ** p tWrentham. 



<?«>nt o, J Gloucester. 

 Sept. 21 £ Cardiff . 



- Before proceeding further with our papers on 

 Afiricultural Mechanics, we must place before our 

 readers the following remarks by a correspondent on 

 the subject of our last week's Article, the draught 



OF FARM IMPLEMENTS :— 



" If I understand your plan aright, you intend to 

 describe the construction of each of the machines you 

 Botio- 1st, in reference to its efficiency; and 2dly, 

 as affecting the power required to work it. The first 

 of these subjects has but few general bearings. To be 

 sure in entering upon the consideration of imple- 

 ments of cultivation, you might have prefaced your 

 observations by an inquiry into that condition of soil 

 to be produced by their combined action which is 

 most suited as a seed-bed, or as a vehicle for convey- 

 ing nourishment to the roots of full-grown plants. 

 This, however, you have preferred postponing ; but 

 the subject of draught is one affecting farm imple- 

 ments generally, and it is one of great interest and 



importance. Your descriptions and illustrations of 

 the means we have of measuring it are satisfactory 

 and well-placed ; but, with the exception of a few 

 sentences on the want of constancy in the density of 

 soils as producing an extreme variability in the 

 draught of all implements of cultivation, your re- 

 marks on the subject have not that general bearing 

 which they might possess. In order, therefore, that 

 your introduction to the subject of Agricultural 

 Mechanics may not be characterised by any glaring 

 incompleteness, will you allow me to make a few 

 further remarks on the draught of farm implements ? 

 " I do not allude to the means of draught — the 

 sources of power employed — the economy, in certain 

 cases, of using steam-power — the comparativejexpense 

 of horse-labour, and that of oxen— a subject, by the 

 way, highly worthy of discussion in your columns ; 

 nor do I allude to the variety of the methods adopted 

 in arranging the cattle before the implements they 

 are to draw — as in tandem teams, unicorn* teams, 

 and teams of two or three horses abreast. The merits 

 of these various modes of arrangement must be de- 

 termined almost solely by a consideration of the faci- 

 lities they severally afford for enabling the horses ad- 

 vantageously to apply their strength ; and a slight 

 consideration — though I do not intend entering upon 

 it now— will, I think, point out the superiority to all 

 others of the mode of harnessing cattle abreast. 

 1 here are farmers, however, who defend their prac- 

 tice in this particular, upon the assumed safety it 

 affords against injury of the ground by trampling. 

 Reasoning of this kind must be fallacious, because, if 

 two teams be of equal number, for every furrow that 

 k opened, the same number of horses must walk 

 across the field, whatever be the mode in which they 

 may be harnessed to the plough. The only possible 

 istmction in this respect between two 2-horse teams, 

 wje one abreast and the other tandem, is. that while 



tpn i .t gof the latter is a11 in the furrow, and 

 ™ T , th . e Production of a hard pan or bed a fur- 

 row s depth from the surface, that of the other— as I 



f ,i ' , Iiable t0 be injurious-is partly in the 

 ftwow and partly on the unturned land. " 



nprm" • remark s, however, which I have asked 



mod n n tomak fc * allude more particularly to the 

 e oi harnessing cattle— be they horses or oxen, 

 e 0r mc *e-to the implement at work. 



in a straight line from its attachment at the Iiames 

 to the plough beam, makes an angle at the back-band 

 between those points. 



" The back band is in fact so short that it carries 

 the chain level from the point of its attachment to 

 the collar ; and thus, as I may incidentally mention, 

 it constitutes a simple mode by which the plough- 

 man can alter the line of draught. If the plough 

 tend_ to work into or out of the ground, it may, by 

 causing the horses to pull it in a more upward or in 

 a more horizontal direction, be caused to 'swim 

 fair' at the desired depth ; and the back band, by 

 being shifted backwards or forwards, evidently affords 

 the means of altering in either way the direction of 

 the line in which the effort of the animal is to be 

 exerted. 



" But the chief merit of this simple arrangement 

 is, that it takes a portion of the draught from the 

 shoulders, on which all of it formerly fell, and brings 

 the muscles of the back into play. There are several 

 advantages derived from the use of this back-band ; 

 the bringing of the back of the animal into work 

 increases its capability as effectually as if a new 

 source of power were called into action, and not only 

 so, but the arrangement by which both shoulder and 

 back are made to pull, tends to compress and force 

 together the acting muscles of those several parts, 

 and thus to produce that firmness and rigidity of its 

 parts, which must give the horse additional confi- 

 dence in its own powers. The arrangement of 

 draught harness upon draught animals is thus a 

 matter of considerable importance; and asit is equally 

 so, whatever be the implements at work, I thought 

 these remarks upon it would be properly in place 

 at the commencement of your Articles on the 

 Machines of Agriculture. 



" It is a very general and probably accurate idea, 

 that power, to be advantageously applied, should be 

 near the work to be done ; though how to explain 

 satisfactorily the advantage which appears to arise 

 from this practice, I do not know. The only two 

 apparently influential causes in producing this effect, 

 viz., the additional weight of draught chain to be 

 carried, and the indirect application of the animal's 

 power owing to the slight additional bending of the 

 line of drav t consequent nnon lengthening it, 

 appear insufficient to account for Be this, how- 

 ever, a? it may, the advantag of de of har- 

 nessing that I have been descr; ;, a such * to 

 justify the slight increase w occi 

 woodcut) in the distance of the horse from the 

 implement it is drawing, 



" It is no small advantage of the system of harness- 

 ing draught-cattie abreast, that i- an >or- 

 tunity for the adoption of this simple meau of so 

 materially assisting the effort of each of the animals 

 in the team, taking it from the few muscles which 

 are brought into play by resistance to a pressure on 

 the shoulder only, and distributing it more evenly 

 amongst these and others." 



To this we have only to add, in proof of the im- 

 portance of a right way of harnessing cattle, that, 

 though in working most Scotch threshing-machines 

 an arrangement is made by which the effort of no 

 horse can exceed a pull of 10 or 12 stones in weight, 

 while in ordinary plough-work a pull of 15 and 20 

 stones is often exerted, yet the work at the threshing- 

 machine is universally considered the more severe 

 upon the animals': the reason, so far as we can 

 see, being that, in the former case the resistance to 

 be overcome being all above them, no such advan- 

 tage as has been here stated to arise from the use of 

 the back-band can be experienced. . 



i 



owVv e . above % ure ' lt ™u be seen that the 

 __8<u-cnain of the plough, instead of proceeding 



^rar^»^i 



»n front of them. 



a 3-horse team, 2 being 



across the tield, including between them the greater 

 portion of the upper part of it, the soil of which, so 

 far as the farmer can judge, is of a perfectly uniform 

 character. The plots, being about one chain wide, 

 thus consisted of about half an acre each. To this, 

 however, an exception must be made ; the land on the 

 south side of the field, having been pared and burnt 

 the previous year, and otherwise differing from the 

 rest of it in the management it had experienced, was 

 excluded from consideration in determining the 

 results of the experiment, and therefore the plot on 

 that side, though of the same length as the others, 

 was only 7 yards wide. There were thus, on walking 

 across the field from south to north, seven experi- 

 mental plots. On No. 1 the Wheat was drilled in 

 rows 9 inches apart, the seeding being at the rate of 

 6 pecks per acre ; on No. 2 the rows were 18 inches 

 apart, and the seeding three pecks an acre; on 

 No. 3 the rows were G inches apart, and the seeding 

 9 pecks an acre; on No. 1 the rows were 12 inches 

 apart, and the seeding 4 J- pecks an acre; on No. 5 

 the rows were 15 inches apart, and the seeding 3| 

 pecks per acre ; on Nos. (5 and 7 the rows were 9 

 inches apart, and the seeding pecks per acre. The 

 land last year grew Swedes, of which it yielded a 

 fair and uniform crop. 



We are thus careful in detailing the particulars 

 of this experiment, in order to secure ourselves from 

 what experimenters on any point in Agriculture are 

 peculiarly subject to — a liability to mislead others ; 

 and still further to insure an accurate appreciation 

 of this experiment, it must be stated that the weather 

 has, during this season, been one of almost un- 

 paralleled drought— one, indeed, in which thick 

 sowing was advisable, if ever it has been so. We 

 must say generally of this experiment, that its extent, 

 the character of the soil, and the general attention 

 which has been paid to secure its accuracy, has all 

 along given us confidence in its results, whatever 

 they might be — a confidence which, if nothing 

 existed to impair it before, cannot of course be sur- 

 rendered now that the results are known. With the 

 exception of one point which became evident before 

 harvest, viz., the general superiority of the crop on 

 the north side of the field over that sown at the 

 same width on the south side of it, we know 

 of nothing to hinder us from believing that on 

 ilicious sandy il in good condition, with such a 

 season as the p t has been, the following results 

 of this ex: ouIJ be rafly °vneriencecL 



No. of lots. 



of rcw» ' Grain per acre. Straw per* 



bslm.- i •». 



30 52 



40 9 



43 SO 



46 3 



S *r»WtS, 





2 

 2 

 2 

 2 



2 



_ 



2 



2 



1 



A third edition has been lately published of the 

 excellent pamphlet by Mr. H. Davis, on the waste 

 of Corn in thick sowing ; and we take the oppor- 

 tunity of noticing it, in order at the same time to 

 publish the results of an experiment on the proper 

 width of drilling Wheat, to which we have before 

 alluded (p. 413). A 10-acre field was divided into 

 various lots of nearly one width, and sown with 

 Wheat in November last, the drills being at intervals 

 of 0, 9, 12, 15, and 18 inches respectively. The 

 soil is minerally uniform as regards the width of the 

 field, but it varies in its character longitudinally. It 

 is a sandy loam upon the old red sandstone formation, 

 and, about two-thirds of the way down the field, a 

 bench of rock — the pudding-stone or conglomerate — 

 juts out to near the surface; below this, the rock 

 resting on the clayey member of this series, a series 

 of springs occur, and formerly the land had been so 

 " served out," to use a homely expression, by the 

 watercourses and ditches, &c, connected with these 

 springs, that the operation of draining and levelling, 

 having now been completed, the soil is as variable 

 and patchy as it is possible to conceive. This por- 

 tion of the field, therefore, as well as that where the 

 soil is shallow, has been excluded from the following 

 calculations. In the month of July two lines, parallel 

 to one another, and 5 chains apart, were laid out 



* These were calculated from the yield, carefully weighed 

 and measured, and from the size of the different plots accurately 

 measured. Excepting No. I, the plots differed but little in size, 

 and averaged half an acre each. 



No mention is made of tailing Corn, for the simple 

 reason that there was none. The grain was all large 

 berried and plump, weighing rather more than 

 64 lbs. per bushel. There was a few pugs, as they 

 are provincially termed, i. c. berries unseparated 

 from their husks, amounting, perhaps, to one bushel 

 in sixty ; these were not separated before weighing, 

 but on afterwards separating them by sieve, there 

 appeared to be more where the grain was sown 

 thickly than in the other plots, probably owing to 

 the produce being riper there, and the husk thus 

 more readily breaking off along with the grain in the 



threshing. 



What inferences are to be drawn from this expe- 

 riment ? The appearance of superiority in the crops 

 on the north side of the field has been fully borne 

 out by the result; and in point of fact there is a much 

 greater difference between two of the plots (Nos. 1 

 and 7) in which Wheat was sown in equal thickness, 

 than there is between two plots (Nos. 2 and 3) in 

 which the Wheat was sown in thicknesses differing 

 most from one another. However, no great error 

 can arise from comparing adjacent plots ; and let 

 any advocate of thick sowing compare the produce 

 of the 1 8-inches-drilled Wheat with that of the 

 9-inch Wheat on the one side, and that of the 

 6-inch Wheat on the other, and say if, considering 

 the drought of the season, he is not surprised at the 

 slightness of the difference between them— a differ- 

 ence so slight that it is almost compensated by the 

 saving in the seed. 



May we presume that the superior fertility of the 

 north side of the field is the result of a unijWmly 

 increasing superiority of soil as we walk across it 

 from south to north ? If so, then substracting the 

 9 bushels and 50 lbs. from No. 7— the amount m 

 which it exceeds the produce of plot No. 1 sown 

 equally thickly— 8 bushels and 10 lbs. from No. 6, 

 6 bushels ancT32 lbs from No. 5, and soon uniformly 



