

fortiroTthTthoughts in two directions, and a 

 1 g ? 1 m8 »Ln«fer of ideas from a remote station in one, to 

 8 *ua 1 d Want one in the other-is required to start 

 a ? T f idea of applying science." 

 th T^lv stated in P the Gardeners' Chronicle my admira- 



• f the bold attempt which Mr. Mechi has made to 

 11011 nut the views of modern speculators in the im- 

 ""Impnt of Agriculture. I saw a notice this last week 

 ? n°nne of our local papers that a practical gentleman has 



„n^d his attempt to be a complete failure, and he 

 States It is so considered to be by the whole of the 

 • uwmrhood. Possibly these strictures may be some- 

 JSI ? wmat«e ; but still, if Mr. Mechi should prove 

 T? Agricultural Curtius, and by his vigorous hazard suc- 

 *Ld in assisting to close the gulf which at present 

 ^rn S between science and practice, his fearless devo- 

 tion must command the respect of all who are not so 

 bathetic to admire the zeal he has manifested for the 

 fnterests of Agriculture. Very possibly some parts of 

 his scheme have been injudiciously laid, and may be 

 imoroved upon; and perhaps some of his calculations 

 may have been grounded on insufficient premises. It is 

 terv possible, also, that whilst Mr. Mechi possesses a 

 laudable faith in the abstract truths promulgated by 

 scientific men, yet he may have fallen into a common 

 error of practical men, in supposing that science is 

 already sufficiently advanced to dictate to practice what- 

 ever may be executed on a grand scale. Now practical 

 men must still be assured that thejeap to which Sir John 

 Her6chel alludes has not yet been taken. Science is at 

 present only training the athletic for the leap he must 

 take if Agriculture is to become a scientific art ; but she 

 is not exactly requiring him to part with all his flesh and 

 muscle, and so contrive to lose the stakes for want of 

 strength sufficient to spur an unwilling horse. The 

 method which science for the present proclaims to be 

 most advisable for securing the advance of Agriculture, 

 is that which I have so pertinaciously pointed out in the 

 several writings of some of her best mouth-pieces, viz., 



* experimental co-operation upon an extended scale." My 

 schedules A are now coining in, and I already see with 

 increasing conviction the importance of this plan. A 

 gentleman devoted to Agricultural Chemistry was here at 

 the beginning of this week, and he remarked to me that 

 he had himself found how impossible it was to trust to 

 the results of any one, two, or a dozen such experi- 

 ments as those which must be tried. He admitted it is 

 necessary they should be attempted by hundreds and by 



• thousands. A correspondent in the Agricultural 

 Gazette a week or two ago, sneers a little at " March of 

 Intellect Men," and complains that some of their 

 schemes have so far misled him as to have marched the 

 profits off his farm. I suspect we must class your cor- 

 respondent among those M Halt of IntellectMen"whoso 

 frequently verify the old proverb of ■ the more haste the 

 worse speed." They fancy that some well-established 

 principle in science will lead immediately to great prac- 

 tical results ; and then they proceed to apply it accord- 

 ing to their own conceits, in a way which insures to 

 them abundance of disappointment. When they thus 

 fail in their calculations, they fall in dudgeon with sci- 

 ence, and sit down abruptly in " the seat of the scorner," 

 and declare they will have nothing more to, do with 

 "new-fangled schemes." Ex. gr. The value of liquid 

 manure is now pretty generally acknowledged by gar- 

 deners at least, if not by farmers. It was asserted, 

 many years ago, that its value was duly appreciated in 

 the more advanced agriculture of some foreign nations ; 

 and some of our English farmers, with their usual enter- 

 prise, bought manure carts and dug tanks, and then 

 failed in applying this manure beneficially. The tanks 

 were filled up, and the carts allowed to rot. But it was 

 mismanagement in the application which led to these 

 failures. Science was right — foreign farmers were right 

 —English inexperience was at fault. Within the last 

 *eek I have heard of a farmer who built a large tank, 

 about two years ago, and carefully filled it with liquid 

 manure. He found it produce no beneficial result. My 

 informant ascertained that he had delaved the appli 

 won too long. He had suffered it to putrefy ; and Lau 

 not attempted to prevent the escape of the carbonate of 

 ammonia ; and had only applied it after it had become 



i ^ m P ara tively worthless. If farmers wish to see science 

 successfully applied to practice, they must either obtain 

 ror themselves a sufficient knowledge of chemistry, 

 "otany, entomology, geology, &c, to enable them to 

 perrorm the requisite experiments, or they must trust to 

 «*e guidance of those who are acquainted with these sci- 



uh« C u aS t0 the sort of experiments it is necessary they 

 would undertake. A time will come when the leap shall 

 « r e , een taken » but, in the mean time, we can only say 

 shw^nllf the Plough '" as heretofore.— J. s - IIen - 



ON THE APPLICATION OF MANURES. 

 adv DMI T TING the accuracy of the principles I have 

 need m these papers, the proper mode of applying 



Dor i U ? re i 1S 6asily asc ertained. I allude to manures— 

 Popularly so called. As the root has hitherto been con- 



W* V ° nly inlet of nourishment to plants, the 



the 6 been treated of only as digestive organs, 



and 8r0una ha * been considered the only storehouse, 



a we have closed our eyes to the evident indications of 



tabl Ure 1Q the volatilitv of decomposing animal and vege- 

 on t l lDatter8, In a vain attempt to force these matters 

 which r ° 0t8 ° f P lant8 > we hav e buiied them at depths 

 effluvi *V h ° U8ht would P rev ent the escape of their 

 leavf . • i w as their volatil e parts are taken in by the 

 near th m » ° f bur J in E we sh ould lay them on or so 

 lde ,ur «ce as to be accessible to our surface opera- 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



611 



ca- 

 had 



tions, which let loose the effluvia, while the plants are 

 growing; and as a plant from its earliest growth, from 

 the first shooting of its plumule, takes in these effluvia, 

 and as on a strong and vigorous early growth the future 

 strength of the plant will much depend, a portion at 

 least of these matters, in an advanced stage of decom- 

 position, should be placed at or as near the seed as pos- 

 sible ; guano may be usefully and, from its portability, 

 handily employed. Whether we think proper to top- 

 dress a growing crop or not, frequent surface hoeings are 

 requisite to keep up a continuous discharge of thee 

 effluvia from the soil. There can be no doubt that re- 

 peated, continuous hoeing, by giving to the plant its 

 food, must promote its more rapid development ; but in 

 order to continue these operations to a late period of its 

 growth — for at a late period they are most valuable — we 

 must make our rows at considerable distances, in grain 

 crops at much greater indeed than we have been accus- 

 tomed to do : from eighteen inches to two feet I think 

 would give us distance enough ; and from experiments 

 stated hereafter, this will give a greater return of grain 

 and straw than any other distances. At such a distance 

 I feel assured a greater number of stems would be found 

 in a given space of ground than would be in a broad-cast 

 or narrower drilled crop, and these would carry a better 

 head, have a more standing crop, be reaped with greater 

 facility, and, from the absence of weeds, be carried much 

 sooner. But the advantages of a wide row system are not 

 confined to thegrowing crop — they extend to future and far 

 distant ones. Apart from the cleanliness produced, the 

 constant fallowing process so opens the soil, as to induce 

 the solution by the atmosphere of those inorganic bases 

 which are required by plants, and the want of which 

 makes the alternation of crops necessary ; the soil may 

 thus, by this thorough cultivation, be made to bear the 

 same crop successively, or at shorter intervals ; or, 

 which amounts to the same thing, to yield a heavier 

 return in the course. The dews and light rains, instead 

 of evaporating, enter the soil to assist the chemical 

 changes, provoked by the moving of its parts ; light per- 

 vading all the spaces between the plants, in these wide 

 rows, enables the leaves to appropriate and decompose 

 the carbonic acid of the air. In the country from which I 

 write, the general adoption of the wide-row system would 

 be necessarily attended with peculiar public good. Here 

 there is a want of capital, which alone frequently places 

 a difficulty in the way of the small farmer, in seeding 

 his ground, and often delays him till the proper season 

 is past ; and from this a want of employment follows. 

 Here in the wide-row system a remedy, to a considerable 

 extent, is at hand. The value of the excess of seed, 

 which is everywhere shed over the ground, would pay 

 for an amount of manual labour that would leave none 

 but the will-be-idle unemployed throughout the growing 

 season of the year. From three -fourths to two-thirds of 

 the seed would be saved, and this alone is a national 



object.— J". M. Goodiff, Granard. P. S.— About 



twenty-four years ago a small plot of ground was 

 sown with Barley— it was divided into five equal parts ; 

 on the first, the seed was thrown broadcast by the hand ; 

 on the second, it was sown in rows ~\ inches asunder ; in 

 the third, 15 inches asunder; in the fourth, 22^ inches 

 asunder ; and in the fifth, 30 inches asunder. The pro- 

 duce both in grain and straw (separately), was carefully 

 weighed as soon as possible after being cut. No. 1 gave 

 the least return in both Corn and Straw ; Nos. 3 and 

 5 gave an equal return, but more than 1 and 2 ; and No. 

 4 gave the greatest return of both. The distance between 

 the rows in this case from which the greatest return was 

 derivable was between 15 and 30 inches. The following 

 year a strip of Lammas Wheat was sown, chiefly with a 

 view of ascertaining how late Wheat might be sown in 

 wide rows; on the 25th March in rows 22J inches 

 asunder, in a field where the same description of \\ heat 

 was sown the November previous in drills 9 inches 

 asunder, the strip of wide rowed Wheat was reaped 

 before the rest of the field was carried, say within ten 

 davs after the rest was reaped (it is the custom in Ire- 

 land to leave the Wheat in field-stacks some short time, 

 generally till the whole is cut and fit to be carried). 

 When the wide-rowed strip was in stook, I drew at ran- 

 dom five straws from it ; I did the same from the stacks 

 of five or six Wheat-fields in the neighbourhood, and with 

 private marks to the samples I showed them to several 

 farmers; they all were of opinion that the wide- 

 rowed sample was the best. I have this year nearly 

 half a statute acre of Chevalier Barley sown in rows 

 18 inches asunder, with the exception of one patch 15 

 yards by 6 yards, sown at 9 inches ; this has not been 

 hoed but hand-weeded ; the rest has been hoed three or 

 four times ; the patch was at once distinguished some 

 time before harvest by the lightness of its green. The 

 wide drills were sown at the rate of six stones to the 

 statute acre in the middle of May (could I have sown it 

 in April I would not have given more than three or four 

 stones to the acre) ; in the patch a double quantity of 

 seed was sown— that is at the rate of 12 stones to the 

 statute acre ; yet I do not think there are more stems 

 in it, and I would challenge any broadcast field to pro- 

 duce more of good Corn. Notwithstanding the late 

 rains it is a standing crop. When the crop is cut I will 

 forward a statement of its produce. [Thank you. J 



SKETCHES OF EAST LOTHIAN HUSBANDRY. 



Harvesting— East Lothian being somewhat cele- 

 brated as a Corn-growing county, a brief description of 

 its mode of harvesting, or manner of cutting and securing 

 grain-crops, may prove acceptable at this season, before 

 noticing the cultivation of individual crops. 



There is some diversity of opinion amongst agricul- 



turists respecting the degree of ripeness necessary befor 

 cutting down Corn, but the practice of the best farmers 

 in this county appears to sanction the performance of 

 this operation before the grain and straw become dead 

 or thoroughly ripe ; grain-crops, particularly Wheat, are 

 therefore generally cut before attaining perfect maturity. 

 The common criterion of sufficient ripeness, as indicated 

 by the straw, is when it begins to shrink and become 

 white about an inch below the ear. The circulation of 

 •ap to the grain is then cut off, and all further benefit 

 arising to the crop from remaining longer uncut is con- 

 sequently terminated. 



Although the scythe is now, and has been for many 

 years, much employed by some farmers, reaping, or 

 shearing, as we here term it, with the sickle, is by far the 

 most general mode of cutting down the Corn-crop. There 

 are two kinds of sickles made use of— the serrated and the 

 imooth-edged or scythe-hook ; the latter is generally 

 preferred, as being more expeditious and less difficult to 

 work with than the formeT ; but as the farmers now find 

 it extremely troublesome to prevent the reapers, when 

 the scythe or smooth-edged sickle is used, from cutting 

 down the crop in a peculiar manner, termed slashing, 

 which is at the best but a very imperfect and objection- 

 able process, strictly prohibited by good farmers, the 

 serrated instrument is again coming into general use, 

 Low reaping is particularly insisted on, and, generally 

 speaking, everywhere practised. Some farmers are in 

 the habit of giving a small additional allowance, as an 

 encouragement or reward to such reapers as have, dur- 

 ing the course of the harvest, executed the lowest and 

 cleanest work. The ridges being usually 18 feet in 

 breadth, three reapers are placed upon each of them ; one 

 man, denominated a bandster, binds and stooks the 



sheaves to six reapers. 



In ordinary cases, the stooks, or shocks as they are in 

 some places termed, are made in every alternate ridge ; 

 but when the crop is light, two neighbouring bandsters 

 often stook together. In the case of Wheat, six pairs of 

 sheaves make a stook ; but when the crop is Oats or 

 Barley, the stook may consist of only two, three, or four 

 pairs of sheaves, according to the state of the weather 

 and the inclination of the firmer. In many places two 

 hooding sheaves are placed on the top of each stook to 

 protect the grain from the effects of inclement weather ; 

 but they are here entirely omitted, of whatever kind the 

 crop or season may be. As binding and stookmg are 

 operations of the greatest importance, to wlrch too much 

 attention cannot be devoted, none but the most careful 

 and expert are employed in that department. The stooks 

 are invariably set in a direction from north to south, 

 that the sheaves may be equally dried on both sides. 



Small-sized sheaves are always preferred, but especially 

 when the crop has been cut rather prematurely, or in a 

 damp state. In general cases, the binding and stooking 

 are carried on simultaneously, but it frequently becomes 

 necessary in this county to cut part of the crop in a 

 wet condition ; and in this case, instead of the usual me- 

 thod of binding, the sheaves are loosely tied near the 

 corn-ends. Each sheaf stands singly on its own basis, 

 the bottom being drawn out in a circular manner to 

 maintain it erect. This operation is termed \ga\t\ng. It 

 is applicable only in the case of Oats and Barley, and 

 beincr attended with a considerable deal of after- trouble, 

 is never resorted to except when the Corn is cut while 

 in a damp state. When ready for stacking, the gaits are 

 all firmly bound in the usual manner, and either con- 

 veyed immediately to the stackyard, or stooked m the 

 field until it becomes convenient to remove them. 



Reaping with the sickle is decidedly the most general 

 mode of cutting down grain crops in this county ; but 

 the scythe, as already observed, has been long though 

 partially employed for the same purpose, and is, on the 

 whole, gaining ground, as with it the straw is cut muctt 

 closer to the ground, and the whole operation performed 

 more cheaply and expeditiously than can be done with 

 the sickle. The principal objections here urged against 

 mowing grain-crops are-that the Corn is not laid down 

 with the same regularity, nor the ears made to lie ! in one 

 direction, so uniformly as when the sickle is used ; that 

 the grain is more liable to vegetate and sprout while m 

 the stook, in moist weather ; that the stack of mown 

 sheaves has a rougher appearance ; and exposes more 

 grain to the weather and the depredations of birds , and 

 fhS mown sheaves are more difficult to be threshed 

 either by the flail or threshing-machine. It is contended 

 on tue o'ther band,by the advocates of scytbe-cutting that 

 the irregularity and imperfection imputed to mowing 

 arise chiefly from the want of skill, dexterity, and care 

 on the part of the mower and his attendants ; that a 

 man can bind and stook one-fourth more sheaves in a 

 given time, when mown, than he can when reaped-, that 

 mown sheaves dry quicker, and are ready for stacking 

 several days sooner than reaped ones ; and, above all, 

 that the scythe possesses a great superiority over the 

 sickle in point of economy and despatch. In Aberdeen- 

 shire, and some others of "the northern counties of Scot- 

 land, the whole of the grain-crop is mown without 

 exception, and the labourers there have acquired, from 

 continued practice, much dexterity in the use of the 

 scythe. A considerable quantity of Oats was last year 

 mown by Aberdeen men, in this county, and the fanners 

 appear anxious to introduce and extend the P™ c " ce ; 

 The usual custom is for the farmer to contract : witl one 

 man for performing the mowing, liftwft bwd log, Bto ok 

 ing, and taking per acre. This man, who engages to 



