738 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



perfect tour-de-force of after-dinner oratory at a recent 

 farmers' meeting, is worth preserving as a relic, indicat- 

 ing the sort of idea entertained by speakers and thinkers 

 of that calibre, of the use of Chemistry to Agriculture. 

 That they have been applying, and do apply its powers 

 and results, in some of their most miraculous and com- 

 plicated forms, almost every day of their lives, upon 

 their fields and upon their stock, would probably be as 

 startling a piece of information to them as the announce- 

 ment that he had been il talking prose M all his life was 

 to the Squire of Barton, or the news of the Waterloo 

 Victory to the Warwickshire man who, when the bells 

 rargthe merry tidings that peace was proclaimed, asked, 

 '♦ \V hat ! have we been a-warring then ? " 



Nothing indeed, to speak but too generally, can be 

 conceived more absurd than the ordinary estimation in 

 which, respectively with its actual rank and importance- 

 Chemistry has been held among the sciences. To this 

 hour a vast and respectable portion of the community 

 are only aware of its existence, so to speak, as a sort of 

 Apothecary's lore— the " Doctor's Assistant "— a kind 

 of subservient pestlc-and-mortar affair, over which th<- 

 magi of the sickroom and hospital wield a cabalistic 

 power, by the aid of certain hieroglyphic signs and 

 symbols scratched with the stump of an execrable 

 pen upon a magic quarter- sheet of paper; a thing 

 of bottles and pill-boxes, hiding their conscious hide- 

 ousness behind pharisaic rows of enormous glass globes 

 of many-coloured liquids glistening in the blaze of 

 shop gas-!amps ! There is a story told of a tribe of 

 American Indians in days long past, who had treated 

 with incredulity and contempt the representations of 

 some English wanderers who had settled amongst them, 

 of the national importance and naval skill of their coun- 

 trymen. All assurance and explanation were vain, until 

 by chance a British seventy-four happened to anchor off 

 the coast. The natives came from tar and near to see 

 it, and some of the chiefs were permitted to go on deck : 

 the stupendous mass of masts and rigging, deck upon 

 deck bris'ling with guns, mountains of cordage, hundreds 

 of men — through all that there is to see of that 



" Sight to dream of, not to tell 1" 



they were led, speechless with awe. They returned in 

 silence, overwhelmed and downcast, to their homes, and 

 never were heard again to speak upon the subject. 



Now, if by some miraculous process of intuition, the 

 great body of those who call themselves Farmers could 

 be gifted with an instantaneous and complete perception 

 of the whole powers of Nature comprehended under that 

 word Chemistry — the natural history of all created sub- 

 stances — of everything cognisable by the physical senses 

 of man, and the laws which govern their infinite unions 

 and variety, co-extensive with matter, perhaps with 

 space itself! — could they be shown at one comprehen- 

 sive glance, what it has done for the other arts of life, 

 and its too long neglected importance and specific appli- 

 cability to theirs — good Heavens! what would they 

 think of their former — their now-existing pretensions 

 and aptitude, as Professors of the art of Cultivation I 

 Would they wonder much at the startling paradox 

 which has lately been quoted from mouth to mouth — 

 '* That of all members of the community the Farmers, 

 taken as a class, are the least acquainted with the true 

 meaning of the word Agriculture" And why ? Because, 

 of ail pursuits. Agriculture is the one wh'ch calls into 

 use the most extensive acquaintance with Nature, and 

 consequently the widest range of physical Science : and 

 of all members of the community Farmers have hitherto 

 had, generally speaking, the least advantage of an educa- 

 tion comprising guch studies, and therefore adapted to 

 the true exigencies of their future occupation. It is 

 said that a person applying to the late Lord Leicester for 

 a vacant Farm, said in answer to a question put to him, 

 that he had 4< followed the Plough ever since he was a 

 boy, so he ought to know something about farming." 

 " About ploughing you mean !" replied the veteran Ag- 

 riculturist ; *' the best Farmer I ever knew was a retired 

 Tallow Chandler I*' The philosophy of this answer 

 seems borne out by Middleton in his " View of the Ag- 

 riculture of Middlesex," where he says, alluding to the 



renegades from other professions to that of the Farmer : 

 " This class forms the most intelligent and accurate of 

 husbandmen. Like converts in religion, they have more 

 zeal, give more application, in short, have fewer preju- 

 dices to surmount, and more enthusiasm for their new 

 profession, than those who have been brought up in it 

 from their infancy. They are at the first outset liable to 

 error and mistake from want of practice, but their inde- 

 fatigable attention makes more than amends for their ig- 

 norance of minutiae ; and as they have been at some 

 pains to acquire a knowledge in the Theory of Agricul- 

 ture, and hence established their ideas on rational princi- 

 ples, they most commonly in the end make a distinguished 

 appearance, as their labours, if judiciously pertormed, 

 though often in a new and experimental channel, seldom 

 fail of being crowned with success." A remarkable in- 

 stance of the truth of this occurred in the recent remem- 

 brance of a few of our readers in the West of England. A 

 gentleman whose early life had been devoted to a very ge- 

 neral flirtation with the Sciences took to Farming. On 

 an inquiry being made, about a year afterwards, of a 

 neighbouring land-steward (himself a well-known judge 

 of stock), how this gentleman got on with his farm, the 

 answer was — " Oh ! dear— all the Farmers round laugh 

 at him : he goes into a field, and digging up a b ; t of the 

 tinder soil, pours something upon it, out <f a phial he 

 carries in his peck ct — if it phizzes he says to his Bailiff, 

 * You need not put any lime to it this turn \ and if it 

 doesn't, he gives some other order about it !" Four 

 years had passed away before another opportunity oc- 



curred to the same party, of asking after him. " By the 



way, how does Mr. get on with his farm ?" " Why, 



bless vou, Sir !" was the answer, "he's the best Farmer 

 in the whole county ! his crops beat anything that ever 

 was seen or heard of, upon that land." Now, here was 

 a man, the better half of whose life had been spent in 

 mere theoretical study and amusements ; a good geolo- 

 gist, it is true, and an excelleut chemist ; indeed, of a 

 mind as acute, as it was devoted to science in general ; 

 and what was perhaps better than all, of a singularly per- 

 severing temperament ; he takes the plough in hand 

 between the age of 30 and 40, and in four or five years is 

 " the best farmer in the county." Can anything prove 

 more strongly than this— not that a man is necessarily 

 the better farmer for beginning late in life, but that an 

 education is at least as essential for attaining anything 

 like perfection in Agriculture, as in any other of the 

 laboriously pre-studied pursuits of human industry ? and 

 that the mind must be early directed to the investigation 

 of the great truths of Nature, and to a course of experi- 

 mental acquaintance with them when practically applied, 

 " equally at home," in fact, "in the closet and the 

 field" (as they say of another sort of generalship), it 

 ever it would attain to that rapid and almost innate-seem- 

 ing perception of efTects, and adaptation of causes, with- 

 out which, every operation of mind upon matter must be 

 mere empirical drudgery and chance-work. — C. W, H. 



{To be continued.) 



~fiiE, PLOUGH. 



There are, I conceive, but two questions of any mo- 

 ment connected with the construction of the plough. 

 One of them is, What form of the plough will insure 

 the attainment of those effects which are or should be 

 the object of ploughing ? and the other is, What form of 

 the plough will insure the accomplishment of these effects 

 with least exertion of force? These questions about the 

 plough refer, one of them, to the nature and the other to 

 the expense of its operation. 



There is no difficulty in determining which of these 

 comes first to be considered. We must, in considering a 

 machine, evidently first ascertain whether it answers the 

 purpose for which it was intended, and then as a subor- 

 dinate consideration, inquire into the expense of its 

 working ; and this view of the subject has, I think, been 

 too much neglected with regard to the plough. True 

 economy most certainly advises the farmer to have bis 

 work well done though it be attended by additional 



expense. 



Before attempting to answer the question which thus 

 comes first for our consideration, we must ascertain what 

 those effects are which it should be the object of ploughing 

 to accomplish. The farmer ploughs his land before winter, 

 in order that the frost may exert its influence to ad- 

 vantage in mellowing the soil, and in leaving it when 

 spring arrives in a loose and friable state. He ploughs 

 it also repeatedly before seed-time, either in spring or 

 autumn, in order to loosen and pulverise it, and thus 

 form a good seed-bed. He also ploughs it repeatedly 

 during a lengthened fallow — his object being in ail these 

 cases the same, viz. to expose a fresh surface, and leave 

 the land loose in order to be acted on by the weather. 

 Land is also sometimes ploughed to assist the extirpation 

 of weeds, either by burying them or by loosening the soil, 

 and so letting them be more easily dragged to the surface; 

 and it is also sometimes ploughed in order to cover 

 manure or other matters spread upon its surface. 



I need not "state here the condition in which land 

 ought to be left by the plough, either when it is intended 

 for a seed-bed, or that it may be most rapidly prepared 

 for one. Both the farmer and the philosopher agree on 

 this point; the latter having the advantage only of know- 

 ing why such a condition is a good one. 



Whether the question be looked at by the eye of the 

 practical, or that of the scientific man, the answer given 

 by each is the same in fact, however different the 

 phraseology may be in which it is expressed. The one 

 says that land should be in sound heart and healthy con- 

 dition, and the other means the very same when he says 

 that it should be in such a state that free access be given 

 to air and moisture, by which the manure in the soil may 

 be rapidly decomposed, or the germination of the seed 

 rapidly effected. — Af. S. 



[Nov. 2, 



If even 300) lbs. of these ashes are brought on one 

 acre, the soil will only receive Gibs, o/ gypsum, 3 lbs. of 

 common salt, and 4£ lbs. phosphate of lime, so that only 

 the lime and magnesia (350 lbs.) may expect to produce 

 some effect. The great amount of phosphate of iron 

 (580 lbs.) might, on the contrary* prove hurtful to the 

 plants. 



2. Peat-ashes from BrunU'ick (blood-red). 100,000 

 parts consist of — 



48,300 parts of silica. 



4,1G0 

 29,090 



0,480 



16,100 



1,810 



0,060 



it 



it 



»» 



ft 

 it 



alumina. 



oxide and protoxide of iron, partly 



combined with phosphoric acid, 

 oxide of manganese, 

 gypsum. 



sulphate of magnesia, 

 common salt. 



T * 



ON MINERAL AND INORGANIC MANURES. 



No. XXVI II. 

 By Professor Charles Sprengel. 

 If peat-ashes contain very little gypsum, common salt, 

 phosphate of lime, and, generally speaking, little of those 

 substances which are amongst the chief nutriments of 

 plants, they have (as a matter of course) little value as 

 manures, which is still less the case the more phosphate 

 of iron they contain. I have analysed several sorts of 

 peat-ashes, which were almost useless, and will state a 

 few of the results, for the sake of proving my assertion. 

 1. Peat-ashes from Luneburg (reddish). 100,000 

 parts cons sted of — 



43,300 parts of silica. 



100,000 parts. 



Although these ashes contain much gypsum, and 

 might thus bs expected to be useful, this is by no means 

 the case, because what is effected in one way by the gyp- 

 sum, is spoiled on the other hand by the phosphate of 

 iron, and perhaps also the sulphate of magnesia. Large 

 quantities can never be used, and if 500 lbs. were to be 

 put on the Magdeburg acre, the soil would receive there- 

 by as much gypsum as is ever used of this substance by 



itself. 



Very often peat-ashes are mixed with burnt lime 



previous to being used, the effects of which have always 



been beneficial. With 1000 lbs. of ashes, an equal 



amount of lime is mixed, and conveyed on one acre of 



land. There is no doubt that the lime decomposes (in 



lying in a wet state with the ashes in a heap) the 



phosphate of iron, and thereby essentially improves the 



ashes. It might therefore be possible that even the 



worst ashes, viz., such as possess much phosphate of 



iron, could be improved by being mixed with lime ; which 



deserves to be experimented upon. Even if it were to 



contain much sulphate of iron, it would be improved by 



the adding of lime, as this substance, although it is a good 



manure, still easily injures the plants. 



In Belgium, peat-ashes, previous to being used, 

 are often mixed with cloacine, whereby the latter 

 are always improved. There it is also asserted that 

 peat-ashes will improve by lying some time in the 

 air, protected from rain. t Such ashes most probably 

 contain much sulphuret of'calcium, which, as it is more 

 easily soluble in water than gypsum, might supply the 

 plants with too much sulphur; but exposed to air, it 

 changes gradually into gypsum, which is less soluble. 

 In small quantities, however, this substance is not hurt- 

 ful ; on the contrary, it is then a useful vegetable food. 



In some places (for instance, the county of Diepholz, 

 in Hanover), sandy loams are improved by peat ashes in 

 the following way:-The offal of peat, but especially 

 the black soil, which lies above the peat of the high 

 moors, and which has been generated by the decomposi- 

 tion of the peats there growing, is strewed 1, inch thick 

 over the fields, and then worked in dry weather with 

 harrows, till it is dry, when it is burnt with straw, 

 proceeding against the wind. The fire will soon extend 

 over the whole surface, and the peat be converted into 

 ashes ; these are now ploughed under shallow as soon as 

 possible, the field is harrowed and sown (alter being once 

 more ploughed somewhat deeper) with Rye, which will 

 grow exceedingly well after this operation. This is easily 

 to be explained, by considering that the gashes * ill not 

 only manure the soil, but the heat also kills all seeds of 

 weeds, and the insects and worms ; acting, moreover, be- 

 neficialiv upon the humus, and the protoxide of iron of 

 the soil decomposing the former, and disposing the latter 

 o be converted into an oxide. If, on the other hand; the 

 to De couvciw „ rnfnx ide of iron, ammonia will be 



peat-ashes conta, proto* de ot ,ro ; ^ ^ ^ 



^fbe Iml a er U L been just stated, that for this 

 deration the black .oil lying above the mossy peat , o 

 °C high moor is used, as we have seen that it will 

 IrLlv improve the growth of crops. Th.s again proves 

 IhaLZtant parts 8 certain mineral substances perform 



SuSfS SJSS i*WKS£Sr 





these substances, and no potash at all.™ » auo , 



of imnerfect combustion the field will oe ub 



9,700 

 19,300 





3,500 



7,100 

 4,000 

 0,160 

 0,100 

 0,200 

 12,040 



tt 

 tt 



tt 

 tt 

 tt 



tt 

 tt 



J 100,000 parts. 



alumina, 



oxide of iron, and a little protoxide 



of iron, partly combined with 



phosphoric acid, 

 oxide of manganese, 

 lime, 

 magnesia. 



phosphate of lime, 

 common salt, 

 gypsum. 



carbonic acid, combined with lime 

 and magnesia. 



Si^f Yor ZsaW maimg «« that the whole has 

 o en converted into ashes the burning _ bw, .not be rt 



%X t^a ff CKWSS Sg 



mix the eartn w operation will be 



to $rz? stt - ° f —«•»■• with **&& 



made in the cultivation of high moors ; nay, it is here 

 ^dispensable to bnrn a great part of the peaty sub- 



=1 in^er-that the soil may be planted, as *£ 



hurnine not only the superfluous amount ot hum" 



•3 dest'oved, which (as we have seen before), injur 



vegetation by depriving it of the necessary ««".' S- 



the plants are supplied with the required mineral suO 



stances. At present not onlyarable flelds but also «e*do£ 



are manured most advantageously with peat ashes.. tt _ 



] Holland where the, are most employed lor that purpos , 



