1844.] 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



741 



is capable of producing green crops, while in the | opinions on the question; the difference in the statements 



t- *■. Ll - "- rn„__ : made to him by different farmers, amounted to 15, 20, 



25, and even to 50 per cent. He thought that there 

 should be some fixed rule, that some of the practical men 

 of the neighbourhood should give the subject a careful 

 consideration, and state in a tabular form their conclu- 

 sions, so that what was deemed a day's work, according 

 to the custom or usage of tbe neighbourhood, should be 

 generally known. He thought that this would open the 

 way to a much greater quantity of labour being done by 

 piece-work, a mode of labouring every way more desir- 

 able for the labourers, and tending in his opinion to 

 improve their condition — especially the industrious and 

 able-bodied among them ; a mode, too, which would 

 ultimately tend very much to the advantage of their em- 

 ployers. It might, perhaps, be objected that the great 

 difference found to exist on the same species of work- 

 would prevent its general adoption, but he would remind 

 them that it was the same with manufactures, and yet 

 most of that work was done by the piece. Others might 

 say, the men will slight their work ; but they had the 

 same resource as they have in manufactories ; such men 

 should be discharged, and others taken that will do better. 

 — An interesting discussion followed, concluded by Mr. 

 James moving for a committee to ascertain the quantity 

 of labour of the various kinds usually performed, and to 

 settle the hours of labour, in order that a uniform system 

 might obtain in the district. 



Horncastle.— The Annual Meeting of this Society was 

 held at Horncastle, on the 3d instant. The following 

 remarks were made by Mr. Loft, of Trusthorpe :— -"The 

 landlords have not done all they might do, in promot- 

 ing the employment and welfare of the industrious classes. 

 There is one thing in which they can materially assist 

 them — by breaking up of Grass-land. There is a great 

 deal of Grass-land (I should call it waste land) that might 

 be broken up with the greatest advantage. I know verv 

 well that it would be utterly profitless to break up the 

 worst descriptions of Grass-land. But the land that I 

 mean should be broken up is not of the worst quality 

 but of a middle description — land full of water, and gene- 

 rally producing nothing but Rushes. You are all prac- 

 tical men, and I know will bear me out in what I am 

 saying. You must break up Grass-land if you would 

 increase the value of your farms, the amount of your 

 produce, and the demand for labour. Which farm is it 

 that does most good to the community ? I answer, and 

 you will all answer, that which affords the greatest amount 

 of labour, and yields tbe greatest quantity of food; and I 

 say by this means you will give employment to more 

 labourers, and greatly increase the produce. I know 

 that great improvements have taken place in this part of 

 the county of late years, by breaking up what is called 

 Grass-land. I can recollect, and my life is not a long 

 one, when you might travel from this very town of Horn- 

 castle to Caistor, and see wold land covered with Gorse 

 and Bracken, and now they produce plentiful crops of 

 Wheat, of seeds, and of Turnip?. I know that landlords 

 generally entertained a great prejudice against ploughing 

 up Grass-land, but where they have permitted it, it has 

 been attended with the best results. I occupy a farm 

 at Market Stainton, where I have had liberty to break 

 up upwards of 100 acres. Tt is now only twelve years 

 since I entered upon it, and I will venture to say that I 

 grow three times more corn, and keep more stock by 

 half; and I am sure I have no hesitation in saying 

 that if the property were brought to the hammer, it 

 would make from 15/. to 20/. per acre more than in its 

 original state. I know there is a great abundance of 

 land in this county which is now almost profitless, which 

 might be made to produce a great deal of corn, employ 

 a large amount of labour, and be greatly improved in 

 value by this process." — Mr. Brothwell stated that he 

 went to visit a large farm, but looked in vain for a piece 

 of Grass-land. He said, " Where is your Grass-land ? " 

 11 1 have none," said his friend, "and I want none; it's 

 only the old-fashioned folks on the other side of the 

 Witham that want Grass-land." Mr. B. stared at him, 

 and began to think that bis horse would only be badly 

 off for provender, but he found he need not have feared"; 

 his horse was well supplied with com and seeds, and his 

 friend, who is a most successful and intelligent farmer, 

 had no more Grass-land than his house paddock.— Mr. 

 Stanhope said, "1 ha^e thought the matter over a good 

 deal, and have talked with several gentlemen on the 

 subject, and I think nobody would plough up good land, 

 and at the same time nobody would keep bad. I do not 

 wish to do in a hurry what 1 should afterwards be sorry 

 for. It is easy to say plough up Grass-land. I know 

 it is so much easier to plough up Grass-laud than it is 

 to restore it to its pristine condition, that we ought 

 to well consider the matter. Only the other day I 

 rode down into the Fen : 1 was shown a piece of land, 



South of Europe they are unable to grow a Turnip or 

 Mangold Wurzel. South Australia is not capable of grow- 

 ing a third of the turnips we are able to produce. The 

 subject of draining is in this country most important ; 

 in other countries there is a lack of water, while in ours 

 there is a superfluity. Arthur Young, when he went to 

 Spain, said he saw at a glance that land there was 

 nothing — water everything. The subject of irrigation 

 deserves every attention ; for himself, he proposed to 

 make 15 or 16 acres of water meadow ; and he would 

 tell them the result of what he had already done. On a 

 piece of 7 acres he had mown on an average of 3 tons 

 per acre for his first crop, and 2-j tons for the second, 

 which under ordinary circumstances would not have pro- 

 duced half as much. But there was another kind of 

 irrigation. He had constructed a tank for the reception 

 of the liquid from this dung heap, by the use of which a 

 piece of land not an acre, is now worth five acres of com- 

 mon meadow. It had been fed by sheep for a month, after 

 which he cut away 2 tons, and afterwards 2£ tons, being 

 at the rate of more than 4 tons of hay from two crops ; 

 and there was another crop on the ground which he 

 hoped to mow in eight or ten days. Suppose hay to be 

 worth 4/. a ton, that would be at the rate of 24/. an acre ; 

 and he would defy them to produce anything else of that 

 value on the same quantity of land. 



Oltery St. Mary's. — Hedges. — I send you a copy of a 

 resolution unanimously agreed to at the last meeting of 

 this Club — 16 members present. The subject of discus- 

 sion for the evening was, The most suitable Size for In- 

 cisures on Devonshire Farms, and the best Mode of 

 keeping the Hedges. It was resolved unanimously, That 

 on a farm, containing 100 acres of arable land, with an 

 average proportion of pasture, the tillage land may be 

 best cultivated by being divided into inclosures of not 

 less than 10 acres each. A majority of the meeting were 

 prepared to say not less than 15 acres ; but the number 

 10 was inserted for the sake of unanimity. With regard 

 to the hedges it was agreed that they ought to be pared 

 down to the narrowest practical limits, consistent with 

 the keeping of a sufficient fence, and annually shorn. 

 As the above are the opinions of practical men, they may 

 he interesting to some of your readers. — Western Times. 

 North Cornwall. — At the late meeting of this Club, 

 the subject of Pickling Wheat for Seed was intro- 

 duced for discussion. Mr. Bray recommended the 

 application of sulphate of copper (blue stone) dissolved 

 in water, poured on the grain at the rate of 1 lb. of sul- 

 phate of copper per 16 gallons of Wheat — to draw off 

 the liquid not imbibed by the grain, and add half a 

 pound of blue stone and a sufficient quantity of water to 

 each following bag. — Mr. Rowe stated that a paper was 

 read by Professor Henslowat the meeting of the British 

 Association at Plymouth, on the Diseases of Wheat, and 

 that after reviewing the several methods adopted in pre- 

 paring the grain for seed, Professor Henslow gave the 

 preference to the sulphate of copper. — The Rev. Mr. 

 Wright stated, that he had applied during the season 

 some manure of the finest description as top-dressing, 

 and in the same field he had also applied the straw 

 covering. The result was, that where he applied the 

 straw his Grasses were improved in quality; while the 

 parts of the field to which he had applied the manure, 

 omitting the straw covering, produced only the Eaver 

 and Daisy. He also mentioned that his dairy imme- 

 diately improved when his cows were put on his strawed 

 field ; that the quantity as well as the quality of 

 the milk was improved. — Mr. Williams, of Launcells 

 Barton, had applied the fibrous covering. From 

 the portion of a field which had been under the 

 operation of the straw for seven weeks (during which 

 time he had lifted it twice) he cut 3 tons 2 cwt. and 

 96 lb. of green Grass per acre, which weighed when dry 

 exactly a ton. From the portion not strawed, he could 

 not cut an ounce. He applied 58 bundles per acre, and 

 he did not think the straw had much diminished in qua- 

 lity. --Several members expressed their opinion that cattle 

 fed off the Grass produced by the operation of the straw, 

 in preference to that not so operated on. — The Chairman 

 then called on Mr. W. Bray for his paper on the Eco- 

 nomy of Labour. Mr. Bray, in introducing the subject, 

 spoke of the difficulty of recommending any change 

 without the risk of creating strong feeling and excitement 

 in the mind of the labourer, notwithstanding that their 

 only object was the improvement of his condition. It 

 had ever been his belief, and all his experience had con- 

 firmed it, that good wages get good men. With respect 

 to the subject before the meeting, his opinion was that in 

 order to economy, everything on a farm should be done 

 with regularity as to time ; the hours of labour should 

 be fixed, and every labourer should be expected to com- 

 mence his work at a given hour in the morning; the 

 dinner time should also be settled, and all should cease 

 their labour at a given time, whether at 12 or half-past, 

 and recommence it at the expiration of the period allowed, 

 say an hour through the summer, and half that time in 

 the winter. In fact the labourers' hours should be clearly 

 defined and regularly acted on. Mr. Bray then went on 

 to describe at some length the irregularities now existing 

 in the district, and their injurious results. After strongly 

 urging the propriety of removing these irregularities, on 

 the ground that such a change would tend to a better 

 understanding between master snd man, by removing 

 many causes of needless distrust and suspicion, Mr. Bray 

 proceeded to say that he thought it very desirable that 

 what constitutes a fair day's work in the various kinds 

 of agricultural labour should be determined and generally 

 understood. From inquiries, he found that at present 

 there existed not only various but also contradictory. 



man who informed him that he had recently seen on the 

 farm of Findrassie a plot of land which seemed to bear 

 Barley and Clover as if they were growing on a dunghill, 

 and that that effect was produced by singular means. He 

 wrote to Dr. Forster, who was kind enough to send him 

 an account of the subject, which was the novel and sur- 

 prising one of the influence of electricity on the growth 

 of plants. Mr. Crosse, of Taunton, had long since 

 proved that the free electricity of the air might be easily 

 collected by wire suspended on poles of wood at many 

 feet from the earth's surface. Dr. Forster placed two- 

 poles four feet high in his front lawn, which had been 

 recently laid down with Chevalier Barley and Grass, and 

 over those poles, which were due north and south of 

 each other, he stretched a common piece of iron wire, 

 fixing the two ends of it to stout wooden pins, driven in 

 close to the earth, and on the edge of the plot of eight 

 English poles, and around the edges, which were straight 

 lines, he sunk about two or three inches beneath the 

 earth two wires of equal length, the ends of which were 

 fixed and in contact with the two ends of the suspended 

 wire, which were meant not to be too tight, for its con- 

 traction in cold nights would break it in two, or pull 

 away the fixtures, and thus defeat the object. Dr. 

 Forster formed two of these plots for experiment, mea- 

 suring eight square poles each ; and then, proceeding to 

 criticise his work, he sought the aid of Noad's M Popular 

 Lectures on Electricity and Galvanism," and almost the 

 first half-hour's perusal showed him that there was such 

 an error in one part of his plan as would effectually de- 

 feat his intention. This was, that the point of a blade of 

 grass or young Corn-plant has the most extraordinary 

 faculty or power of attracting or appropriating to itself 

 all the free electricity present, at four times the distance 

 that the finest point of metal could. So that when the 

 points of the Barley-plants should reach one foot high all 

 the electricity that the suspended wire might collect and 

 convey through the buried wire to the roots of the 

 plants, would be abstracted by the leaves of the Barley, 

 and thus the suspended wire, getting nothing from the 

 air, could not, of course, supply anything, so that a 1 

 electrical influence would cease. Dr. Forster, therefore, 

 placed poles 11 feet high above the surface, with wires, 

 &c, exactly the same, except that the space surrounded 

 by the buried wire was 24 poles English measure. All 

 the results are yet imperfectly known, but the following 

 were evident: — The Barley plants on the two smaller 

 plots (of eight poles each) soon became darker in colour, 

 and grew faster until they had attained to about a foot 

 in height ; the darker green colour then gradually dis- 

 appeared, and at the end of a fortnight there was no 

 perceptible difference but in the height of the young 

 Barley plants, and even this ceased to be very apparent 

 as the crop advanced. When the Barley of the larger, 

 or 24 poles plot, was six inches high, it assumed the 

 same lively dark green, and grew faster than the sur- 

 rounding unelectrified Barley plant, and this difference 

 it maintained up to the last, except that the colour, of 

 course, in time became yellow, and it was curious that 

 this change occurred later than in the rest of the crop. 

 The number of stooks or shocks was also greater, and 

 each larger when reaped ; the ears from one grain of 



seed were more numerous and longer, the Corn also was 

 larger and harder. 



Miscellaneous. 



Hop-growing.— As to the tying of Hops, the buds that 

 do not clasp of themselves to the nearest pole when they 

 are grown to three or four feet high, must be guided to 

 it by the hand turning them to the sun, whose course 

 they always follow. They must be bound with withered 

 rushes, but not so close as to hinder them from climbing 

 up the pole. Continue to do this till all the poles are 

 furnished with bines, of which two or three are enough 

 for a pole, and all the sprouts and bines that vou have 

 no occasion for are plucked up ; but if the ground be 

 young, then none of these useless bines should be 

 plucked up, but should be wiapped up together in the 

 middle of the bill. When the bines are grown beyond 

 the reach of your hands, if they forsake the poles, you 

 should make use of a stand-ladder in tying them "up. 

 Towards the end of May, when you have made an end of 

 tying them, the ground must have the summer dressing : 

 this is done by casting up with the spade some fine earth 

 into every hill. A month after this, hoe the alleys with 

 a Dutch hoe, and make the hills up to a convenient big- 

 nes«. About the middle of July Hops begin to blossom, 

 and wiil he ready to gather about the end of August. A 

 judgment may be made of their ripeness by their strong 

 scent, their hardness, and the brownish colour of their 

 seed. When by these tokens they appear to be ripe, 

 they must be picked with all the expedition possible ; for 

 if at this time a storm of wind should come, it would do 



I was afterwards told 

 that that very field had been one of the best Grass-fields 

 in the county. It behoves gentlemen to be very cautiou , 

 and know what they are doing, before they disturb such 

 land. We have been told of the benefits that would 

 arise from ploughing up the Grass-land that is covered 

 with Rushes, and of the employment it would afford to 

 the labourer; but, gentlemen, I should first wish to 

 employ the labourers in thoroughly underdraining that 

 land ; I would then manure it well, 8nd give it a fair 

 trial, and if it did not then rum out well, and it would 

 be more advantageous to plough it up, so let it be." 



Tring. — At the fourth annual meeting of this Associa- 

 tion, lately held, the Chairman, Mr. J. A. Gordon, 



and was asked what it was. It might have been any- them great damage by breaking the branches, and bruis- 

 thing for what I could see. I was told it was seeds, but ing and discolouring the Hops ; and it is verv well 

 there really was nothing on it. I was afterwards told known, that Hops picked green and bright, will sell for 



a third more than those which were discoloured and 

 browr. The most convenient way of picking them is 

 into a long square frame of wood, called a bin, with a 

 cloth hanging on tenter-hooks within it, to receive the 

 Hops as they are picked. The frame is composed of 

 four pieces of wood joined together, supported by four 

 legs, with a prop at each end to bear up another long 

 piece of wood, placed at a convenient height over the 

 middle of the bin ; this serves to lay the poles upon 

 which are to be picked. This bin is commonly eight 

 feet long, and three feet broad ; two poles may be laid 

 on it at a time, and six or eight persons may work at it, 

 three or four on each side. It will be best to begin to 



observed that—In Morayshire he had met with a gentle- pick the Hops on the east or north side of the 



