5,070 

 31,889 



0,960 

 17,728 



>* 



0,520 

 0,120 

 0,072 

 6,188 



it 



1,183 



5» 



0,084 

 4,486 



V 



18440 



-T~Peat^ashes^from Luneburg, found to be a good 

 manure (reddish-yellow). 100,000 parts consist of— 



31 700 parts of silica. 

 ' alumina. 



lime partly combined with silica. 



magnesia. 



oxide of iron, and a little protoxide 



of iron, 

 protoxide of manganese, 

 potash, 

 soda, 

 sulphuric acid, combined with lime 



into gypsum, 

 phosphoric acid, combined with lime 



and iron, 

 chlorine, 

 carbonic acid, combined with lime. 



100 000 parts. 



Of the peat-ashes No. 1, 3000 lbs. are often used on 



one Magdeburg acre of land ; as thereby about 180 lbs. 

 lime, 300 lbs. gypsum, 48 lbs. common salt, J 50 lbs. 

 magnesia, and 120 lbs. phosphate of lime, are conveyed 

 to the soil, it may easily be understood why the indus- 

 trious Belgians value them so much. Gypsum, common 

 salt and phosphate of lime are the substances by which 

 they act most powerfully. 3000 lbs. of peat-ashes per 

 acre may appear much, but if only 1000 lbs. should be 

 applied the gyp sum only could be expected to act, as 

 the other substances would not be present in sufficient 

 quantity to benefit the soil. If the above quantity be 

 new it will act for 5 or 6 years. Of the Luneburg peat- 

 ashes still greater quantities are used, viz. 3 or 4 tons per 

 acre, and by such quantities the texture of a clayey soil 



will be improved. 



We may conclude, from the component parts as well 

 of this as all other peat-ashes, that they can decompose 

 but little the humic parts of the soil ; they serve the 

 plants mostly as food ; and as, in the main, they do not 

 possess much of the easily soluble salts, even a greater 

 proportion than the above stated might be applied per 

 acre without any chance of injuring the crops. It is the 

 small quantity which has been hitherto used of peat- 

 ashes which has led to the opinion that they are worth- 

 less as a manure, whilst occasionally a great quantity has 

 not produced any effect, because they contained a salt 

 not easily soluble in water, for instance sulphate of iron ; 

 or because they contained much of phosphate of iron, 

 which, if not soluble in water, is so in liquid humic acid, 

 by which the plants were supplied with more iron than 

 they could bear. Peat-ashes, however, which contain 

 sulphate or sulphuret of iron, are, as we shall hereafter 

 see, amongst the most valuable manures, if used in small 

 quantities, and they entirely supply the place of gypsum. 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



659 



ON THE REGISTRATION OF FACTS TENDING 

 TO ILLUSTRATE QUESTIONS OF SCIEN- 

 TIFIC INTEREST. 



RUST IN WHEAT. 



It was good advice which I once heard given by a 

 dealer in objects of natural history to a friend who had 

 offered to procure specimens for him in some foreign 

 country he was about to visit — " If you really wish to 

 serve me," said he* "do not send me pretty specimens, 

 nor yet anything that you may fancy particularly curious. 

 I am already overstocked with such objects. Just keep 

 a jar at hand, filled with spirits of wine, or gin, and when- 

 ever you see some very common-looking reptile or insect, 

 pop it into the jar. The chances are, that everything 

 you may consider least worth preserving will be of most 

 service to me." The fact is, that persons who are not 

 naturalists are no judges of what objects are most likely 

 J° be of interest in a strictly scientific point of view, 

 botanists would rather receive one of our most common 

 weeds from a newly-discovered or newly-explored country 

 than a new species of an already known genus. There 

 are higher departments of botany than mere collectors 

 ot specimens are aware of. To ascertain the geo- 

 graphical distribution of a well-known species is a point 

 oi vastly superior interest to the mere acquisition of a rare 



then 'T*' My friend Darwin wel1 understood this (but 

 step d 18 - Bn accorn P lislied naturalist), when he so often 

 to n 81< * e fr° m n * s geological and zoological pursuits, 

 fnrmT 1 ^ 6 8 P ecimen s of plants for me ; though botany 



ther n °f P ° rtion of his immediate studies. I suppose 



det 1% P ers ons possessing a healthy taste for the 



ails of real adventure, who have not by this time read 



Beae*° » intere8tin S " Journal of the Voyage of the 

 li?,, _ e '.. an( * from what they must there have seen of 



his 



hear tK t G f ° r observati on, they will not be surprised to 

 of \Vh haVe ]nst received from him two blighted ears 

 worth ?! Which few P ersons would have bought it 

 which T k t0 carry with them roun d the world, but 

 inggoiT- f 8ht . bome upon the chanee of their afford- 

 a nddev f° . orn3a ^ on on the cause of those extraordinary 

 subject i a « In§ bli Shts to which the crops are occasionally 

 toade un** °J ltn An P er ica. As the memorandum he has 

 e yes of • sub J ect w iH possess an interest in the 



waders . agn S Ult l Urist8 ' l shal1 here P resen t it to your 

 blieht* ' ., then mention the cause to which these 

 & aiR must be ascribed :— 



" Vn 1 ^ 1 ™" 1 *" 8 MEMORANDUM. 

 " No 1 <\Qi b . Bank °f the Plata, Nov. 20-30, 1833. 



blight raiui .u e !T ded Wheat materially injured by a 



it seems " he PolviI1 °-' When a field ia attack * d ' 

 a PPearance n * d ! stance » burnt up, and of a red 

 s °oe 8 and Jm- T Akln 8 an ™ngst the Corn, the 

 loured 'L SerS l becon ~ co *ered with a fine rust- 



lodged in Per : hence the **me. ™„ ™,W E. 

 S ed m minute oblong patches, 



The powder is 

 eneath the epi- 1 



dermis, which may at first be seen partially raised, 

 and forming a scale. It attacks all parts indiscri- 

 minately. If the leaves are a little infected, the 

 grains of Corn are light and dry ; but if the ear and 

 stalk are attacked, the crop is entirely spoilt. The 

 blight is not observed before the grain is pretty full ; 

 and its attacks are very rapid— three or four days being 

 sufficient to spoil a whole field. It is endemic in the 

 whole district, though not equally destructive through- 

 out. From this cause, last year, when the weather was 

 wet, no grain was gathered. Hence an immense impor- 

 tation of flour took place from North America. This 

 year, the weather being fine and dry, the blight will de- 

 stroy or injure the greater part of all the crops. Fields 

 thrown up in Buts, clear of weeds, on high ground, are 

 equally attacked with those of less favoured aspect. It 

 is here attributed to the sun's action after heavy dews. 

 Crops grown from grain of the country, from the Cape 

 of Good Hope, and from Rio Negro in Patagonia, were 

 all more or less affected. It is remarkable that the 

 Wheat at Rio Negro itself (which is grown on low dilu- 

 vial lands) produced, even last year, its immense crop 

 uninjured. This blight is a prodigious evil to the 

 country, and most mortifying to the agriculturist, who 

 does not know that all his labour will be lost, till within 

 a week or fortnight of the time when he was expect- 

 ing to reap the fruits of it." 



This account of Mr. Darwin's would alone have 

 inclined me to suppose that he was describing an 

 example of a very virulent attack of rust or red- 

 gum, a form of fungus which I have noticed in 

 the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, vol. 

 ii. p. 9, and again at p. 220, where I have endea- 

 voured to prove its specific identity with mildew. The 

 two forms of rust with which we are acquainted in Eng- 

 land have been termed Uredo rubigo and Uredo linearis; 

 and it should seem that the form which ravages the 

 banks of the Plata is the latter, for 1 sent one of the 

 two specimens with which Mr. Darwin supplied me to 

 the Rev. M. Berkely, who is far better authority on such 

 a point than myself, or than any one else in this country. 

 His remarks are as follows : — " Your rust appears to me 

 the same with what I have received from Ohio, and agrees 

 with our European species, which is referred to U. 

 linearis, distinguished from U. rubigo vera by its longer 

 spores, and by the more inflated cuticle of the sori. I 

 believe U. rubigo vera to be the young of the common 

 mildew. I have never myself gathered U. linearis. The 

 La Plata specimen exhibits plainly the myceloid base. I 

 have also U. rubigo vera from Ohio with the European 

 characters." — J. S. Hejislow, Hitchanij Sept. 9. 



ON SEA-WARE. 

 Some of your correspondents have noticed the pro- 

 perties of the Alga marina, and the modes of using it, 

 but not so fully perhaps as might have been expected. 

 The names of Varech, Wrack, or Wreck, by which it 

 is designated by the farmers on the coasts of Brittany 

 and Ireland, where the Celtic is the vernacular language, 

 explain to the etymologist their true signification — sub- 

 stances thrown up or torn away, as the sea-weed is, by 

 the force of boisterous waves. Strange to say, the 

 authors of the " Cours Complet d'Agriculture" have 

 asserted, without even a modest doubt of the correctness 

 of their judgment, that all marine plants, so called, are 

 animal productions, though resembling the latter in form 

 and organisation : they considered them to be either the 

 remains of animal matter or the receptacles of animals, 

 confounding all the tribes of Algae marinae with coral 

 fabrications, &c. 



The primitive mode of using sea- ware was, probably, 

 that of spreading it on pasture land ; the more artificial 

 system of applying it to the formation of composts, and 

 the blending of it with the soil by the plough or spade, 

 were subsequent steps in the progress of husbandry ; 

 yet, though various methods of combining this substance 

 with the earth have been adopted, there is no uniformity 

 of practice observed. The spreading of sea-weed very 

 thinly and as fresh as possible produces a rapid alteration 

 on coarse and unsavoury pasture ; the quality of the 

 herbage unequivocally shows the beneficial effects of the 

 saline substances which the weed contains, and the 

 cattle which feed upon the new Grasses improve in 

 health and condition. 



The best season for putting out sea-weed in this way 

 is in the early part of the spring, at which time too it 

 yields the most abundant supplies ; but unless the fields be 

 adjacent to the coast, and the quantity of weed excessive, 

 I do not consider this so economical a mode as that of 

 mixing it with other substances in compost, or that of 

 spreading it on stubbles, if in the winter season, and 

 ploughing it into the ground, by which means it becomes 

 an active agent in decomposing the short straw, which 

 otherwise would be suffered in many instances to wither 

 away on the surface of the land, instead of being rotted 

 and incorporated with it. 



It is a common practice in some parts of Ireland for 

 the peasantry whose fields may be a few miles from the 

 strand, to collect and dry the weed in the latter part of 

 spring, if it should at that period be wafted to the coast, 

 and to convey it when dry from the influences of the sun 

 and wind, in large bulk to their Potato-drills, over which 

 they shake it thinly, but not actually in contact with the 

 germinating sets, which perhaps have been in the ground 

 a fortnight previously. This mode, however, indicates 

 the inability of the person who so uses the weed, to 

 manure his crop at the usual time, and with a better 

 material. Four moderately-sized (one horse) cart-loads 

 saved in the above way is sufficient for a rood of Pota- 

 toes, the ultimate success of which is most uncertain, 



depending on the timely application of the weed (which 

 in a calm season may not be collected), and the subse- 

 quent humidity of the atmosphere. As regards the suc- 

 ceeding crop of Corn, this mode of applying the weed is 

 the most defective ; but the immediate effect upon the 

 vegetation of the plant from the absorption of the saline 

 matter is very apparent, though I have never seen large 

 tubers raised in this way (nor very farinaceous ones with 

 any modification of the manure in question), compara- 

 tively with the other methods. In dry weather the weed 

 lying on the surface shrivels up ; but when affected by 

 moisture it expands again. The salt, which does not 

 evaporate like gaseous matter, acts in a humid atmo- 

 sphere continually as a stimulant ; yet common salt, if 

 scattered over the ground, would not serve in the same 

 manner. There must, therefore, be certain combinations 

 formed that favour vegetation, by means of the excessive 

 susceptibility of absorbing moisture from the atmosphere 

 which the Algae marinas possess. 



On the coasts of Brittany and parts of Normandy, 

 sea-weed is sometimes reduced to ashes in order to obtain 

 the alkalies they yield by this process for manure (I am 

 not alluding to the common operation of kelp-making), 

 which is spread on the surface. This, I think, is a waste- 

 ful way of using it. The most generally convenient and 

 profitable manner of converting sea-weed into manure is- 

 to remove it from the beach as soon as circumstances 

 admit, and to lay it on a substratum of sand, loose 

 mould, or scourings of ditches, to absorb the oily juices 

 and salts which the weed contains, until he can find 

 leisure for taking it away. The force and rapidity with 

 which the fluid penetrates through the subjacent layer, 

 and rots whatever vegetable substances it may contain, is 

 astonishing. In the course of putrefaction the weed 

 generates maggots and flies in immense quantities — a 

 living testimony to the richness of the matter which pro- 

 duces them. For stiff soil, which this weed of itself has 

 a tendency to render still more cohesive, a mixture of 

 sea-sand is preferable to that of clay, as the latter would 

 answer better for a light sandy soil ; but any calcareous 

 sand and a rich loam can never be otherwise than valuable 

 recipients of the sea-weed, which should be fully blended 

 with the substratum, whatever that be, until the whole 

 becomes a black mass of well-pulverised compost, which i 

 any one possessing the sense of smelling will perceive to 

 contain a great portion of carbonic gas — the principal 

 food of plants. A compost of this nature is a chief re- 

 source of the farmers in the baronies of Forth and 

 Bargie on the Wexford coast ; without it many of them 

 would be poor indeed ; by means of it they are enabled 

 to raise some of the heaviest crops of Beans and Potatoes 

 that I have ever seen. 



In the Sketches of East Lothian Husbandry it is con- 

 sidered a very useful species of manure for the light dry 

 soils adjacent to the coast, but not advantageous on 

 clays — "immediate, but transient in its effects," 

 " seldom lasting longer than a single crop." It is cer- 

 tainly much better for light than heavy lands, but I have 

 found it very efficacious on stiff soil also, when applied 

 in the compost form ; it is " seldom mixed," in Berwick- 

 shire, as the Report continues to state, "with other 

 substances." If it were combined with sand, the 

 mechanical effects of which in loosening cohesive soil are 

 o perceptible, it would be found effective. As to its 

 eing transient, " only lasting for one year," so is guano, 

 which, on the high authority of Professor Buckland, is so 

 volatile, that it produces but one crop. But this mode 

 of expression is practically incorrect, for these volatile 

 manures causethe earth toyield two crops,sometimes three; 



Potatoes or Turnips, succeeded by a Corn-crop, may be 

 followed in many cases by Clover. Though the properties 

 of such manures be too evanescentto afford nourishment to 

 a second or third crop, they are the agents through which 

 the farmer is enabled to pursue the course of preparation 

 of the soil, by which he renders his land productive of 

 the succeeding crops. The great degree of tilth which 

 usually accompanies manured green crops insures, on 

 | a soil of good quality, which has not been exhausted by 

 over-production, a crop of Barley succeeded by Clover. 

 Supposing a sufficient quantity of lime applied to the 

 Clover-ley, for Wheat, after it has been fed off by sheep 

 or cattle (not mown), the farmer will find his compost of 

 sea-ware, &c, again successful in the second rotation, 

 immediately after the Wheat ; but he will act more 

 judiciously in using farmyard dung, the superior value of 

 which is undoubted, if he can. Judiciously managed* 

 sea-ware, though far less permanently beneficial than 

 other manure, is a valuable auxiliary to any sea-coast 

 farmer, because it affords him the facility of pursuing his 

 regular rotations if the farmyard dung be insufficient ; and 

 to the poor peasant it is in countless cases the sole 

 means which he possesses of raising his Potato-crop. 

 But except to husbandmen, whose land is clos« to the 

 shore, the collection of sea-weed ought not t*> be systema- 

 tically an object of anxiety, because the gathering and 

 removal of it, if the distance exceed a very short space, 

 greatly interrupts the regu'.ar routine labours of a farm, 

 and occasions much fatigue to the horses employed in 

 drawing it from the shore to the bank, during the busy 

 intervals between the tides which bear it to land ; and 

 such labour and fatigue are hardly compensated by the 

 acquisition of it, unless the subsequent cartage be incon- 

 siderable : to the farmers who cultivate the sea- coast of 

 Berwickshire, and who are, in every respect, among the 

 magnates of their valuable order, I can well conceive tnat 

 an influx of sea-ware is unimportant; to those who can 

 accumulate, ad libitum, the best farmyard dung by means 

 of cattle, Turnips, oil-cake, and straw, the extraneous 

 manure which the sea affords, with more or less profusion, 

 is not an object of much value. 



s 

 b 



