1844.] 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



753 







AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE.- 

 the Committee of Management, held the lstinstant, it was 

 resolved : — w That the Head Master not being yet fixed on, ap- 

 plications to fill that office shall be received until the 30th Inst. 

 He must have a knowledge of Agriculture and of the sciences 

 connected therewith. The salary to be 200/. per annum; and 

 1/. per annum additional, for every pupil above the number of 

 50. The master to be allowed the board of the College for him- 

 self and wife, and a furnished dwelling in or attached thereto. 

 A married man will be preferred; and if, with the approval of 

 the Committee, his wife take charge of the housekeeping, 50/. 

 per annum will be added to the salary. The master to have the 

 superintendence andcontroKof the whole establishment, subject 

 to the Committee alone: to give his whole time and to take 

 part in the Farming, Teaching, or otherwise, as circumstances 

 may require." Applications aud testimonials to be sent to 

 Robt. J. Browv, Hon. Sec. Cirencester, Nov. 2, 1S44. 



NOW READY FOR DELIVERY, 



TOHNSON AND SHAW'S FARMERS' ALMA- 



O NAC AND CALENDAR,for 1S45, 220 pages, and 100 Engrav- 

 ings of the best Agricultural [mplemenU, with their prices and 

 Makers* names, &c, &g. Price only I*. ; also, 



1. JOHNSON'S TRACTS for Agricultural Schools, Cottage 

 Farmers' Assistant, Farmers' Calendar, and Agricultural 

 Chemistry, \s. each. 



2. A New and enlarged edition of JOHNSON ON MA- 

 NURES, price 16*. 



3. VON THAN'S PRINCIPLES OF AGRICULTURE. Trans- 

 lated by C. W. Johnson-, Esq., F.R.S., and W. Siiaw, Esq., in 

 2 vols., price 255., cloth. 



4. MORTON ON SOILS. A New edition, enlarged, price 10s. 



5. SQUAREY'S AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY for the 

 practical Farmer, 5s. 



6. SINCLAIR ON GRASSES AND WEEDS OF AGRICUL- 

 TURE, 45 coloured plates, 30s. 



James Ridgway, Piccadilly, and every Country Bookseller. 



t£De ^gncultutwl €Ta?ette 



SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1844. 



MEETINGS FOR THE TWO FOLLOWING WEEKS. 



Wednesday, Nov. 13— Agricultural Society of England. 

 Thursday, Nov. 14— Agricultural Imp. Soc oi Ireland. 



Wbdmisday, Nov. CO— Agricultural Society of England. 

 Thursday, Nov. 21— Agricultural Imp. Soc- or Ireland. 



FARMERS' CLUBS. 



Nov. 15— Fairford. 



W. Firle. 



Wenlock. 

 Nov. 20— Harleston. 

 Nov. 21 — Richmondshire. 



Grove Ferry. 



At a Meeting of of that formation, with which Mr. Trimmer will 



: '~" supply us. The results of these analyses will appear 

 in our columns. 



AV r e shall conclude the present Article with a few 

 practical details of the Hertfordshire mode of chalk- 

 ing, obtained from some workmen whom we found 

 engaged in the process. The field on which they 

 were employed was a Wheat stubble, in course for a 

 Turnip fallow ; the adjoining field, a Clover ley, 

 had just been chalked for Wheat. Thev were 

 situated in the parish of Ridge, at the foot of the hill 

 of the same name ; the soil was a gravel, with a 

 light loamy base, belonging to the drift formation. 

 Its depth, as exhibited in one of the two pits which 

 were open, was about three feet; in the other 

 nearly ten. 



The chalk was raised by means of a common 

 windlass, in a bucket holding a bushel. Twenty- two 

 of these are called a " yard" or a " load." How 

 many loads they were spreading to an acre the 

 workmen did not know; some farmers, they said, 

 laid on 100 loads, some less. From the thickness of 

 the covering, we should consider full 100 loads to 

 have been used in this case. After the work is 

 finished, the excavation is filled up by throwing in 

 the soil and chalk from round the mouth of the pit, 

 thus producing a slight hollow in the field. There 

 was in this case a contractor for the whole job, be- 

 tween the farmer and the workmen. The men 

 stated the price received by them from the con- 

 tractor to be 6d. per load of 22 bushels for raising 

 the chalk, carrying it over the land, and spreading it. 

 The cost of the operation, at this rate, supposing the 

 largest quantity above-named to be used, would not 

 exceed 505. per acre, and the benefit of it would be 

 felt more than 1 4, years. It was stated by one of the 

 workmen that his grandfather had been accustomed 

 to receive! s. per load where they had 6d. At the 

 latter price they said they could earn, by a hard day's 

 work 10*. or 1 1 s. a week. It is usual to sink pits at 

 such distances that the chalk can be wheeled from 

 them over the field ; but in this case, the covering 

 being deep on one side of the field, and the farmer 

 being unwilling to disfigure the surface by more of 

 the hollows which remain after filling in the pits 

 than were absolutely necessary, allowed the use of a 

 horse to draw the chalk to those parts which were 

 beyond wheeling distance. 



We have no doubt this account will draw forth 

 further particulars from some of our readers resident 

 in the district. The amount of alumina and phos- 

 phate of lime applied to this field in a dressing oi 

 '2200 bushels of chalk we hope to be able to announce 

 1 " " -E. W. 



Nov. 22— Debenham. 



Hadleigh. 



Stoke Ferry. 



Wu-ntham. 

 Ncv. 23— Glo'ster. 



before long. 



We continueour remarks on thepracticeof Chalk- 

 ing Land. In parts of Hertfordshire a heavy dressing 

 of chalk raised upon the spot by means of shafts sunk 

 through the soil, is spread at intervals of 14 or 20 

 years over the argillaceous portions of the London 

 clay, and over the sandy and gravelly soils, occa- 

 sionally covering the lower beds of that formation. 

 The drift constitutes the surface soil over a consider- 

 able tract, which skirts the base of the chalk hills, 

 and is laid down in some of our geological maps as 

 chalk, in others, as a member of the London clay. 

 Its depth varies greatly and rapidly, being even in 

 the same field less than 3 feet and more than 10. 

 In brickfields near St. Alban's its depth varies be- 

 tween 6 feet and more than 20, and a rill less than 

 a quarter of a mile from these pits has cut through 

 the drift to the depth of 30 or 40 feet, without 

 exposing either chalk or any beds of the London clay. 

 Analyses of the chalk of different localities, 

 and of the same locality at different depths, are 

 among the data wanted to place the improvement 

 of land by means of chalk upon a rational and 

 scientific basis. The geologist recognises in the 

 white chalk upper, middle, and lower beds, differing 

 m the abundance in which flints and organic remains 

 are present, differing in their mineralogical aspect, 

 and, of course, in their chemical composition. The 

 chalk of one locality Mr. Lonsdale found to be com- 

 posed almost entirely of organic bodies — microscopic 

 shells and fragments of corals. Tn that of Brighton 

 nearly 1 per cent, phosphoric acid has been detected. 

 Do any portions of the chalk of other districts con- 

 tain more of that valuable substance? J)o all con- 

 tain as much? Differents beds of chalk contain 

 different proportions of alumina, mixed with the 

 calcareous matter which constitutes the greater part 

 of their bulk. For the improvement of sand or 



gravel we should expect that chalk to be the most rjnmanared . 1Q | 



of aS' Whidl £**& the greatest proportion When the field had beea cleare j of " thfl ' cro " it was im _ 



pl^If m U 1 6 » th ; >vhll . C ' fl V he im PF oveme " t of mediately ploughed up ; and, as the season was favour- 

 ^a>ey soils, chalk possessing the opposite qualities able, the land was well cleaned, and sowed with Wheat 

 would appear to be preferable. The farmers of Suf- in October, 1842, without any manure, except 1 cwt. of 



bushels of 60 lbs. to the acre. Those patches in Not. 

 1 and 2, which had guano put on them, suffered so much 

 from the depredations of the birds, that no account was 

 taken of them separately. 



The crop was cleared off the Ian.!, which was cleaned, 

 and again sowed with Wheat on the 3d October. 1S43. 

 It was drilled in rows, seven inches apart, and at the 

 rate of 2J bushels to the acre. It is to the results of this 

 crop that" I now wish to call yonr attention. 



Before sowing, the land was sub-soiled to the depth of 

 from 14 to 16 inches, except a strip of about 10 feet in 

 width down the middle of the field, which was left un- 

 touched for the purpose of determining what were the 

 advantages derived from subsoiling. If the advantage 

 was merely that of thorough-drainiug (for the field had 

 not been thoroughly drained previous to the subsoiling), 

 it was thought probable that this strip of 10 feet wide 

 would be drained by the subsoiling on each side of it; 

 but if, in addition to this, the Wheat plant derived more 

 nourishment by striking its roots deeper into the soil, 

 where that was loosened by the subsoil plough, the crop 

 ought to be better in the subsoiled than in the unsub- 

 soiled part. The field runs over the ridge of a hill ; and 

 upon that ridge the soil is so poor and thin, that it was 

 deemed expedient to give it a slight dressing of coal 

 ashes and night-soil, from an idea that the plant would 

 scarcely survive the winter unless some stimulus were 

 applied there; but the ashes contained little manure, 

 and were only applied to the worst part of the field, 

 covering about one -third of its surface. The Wheat was 

 Spalding's Prolific : it came up evenly and well all over 

 the field. It was hand-sowed with lim? early in 

 February, to the extent of about 24 cwt. of dry lime on 

 the acre. 



In order to ascertain the value of lime, and the proper 

 quantity, I had the field uniformly covered with it, except 

 one land, which was left entirely without it, and the head- 

 lands, which had, one three, the other six times as much 

 lime put upon them as any other part. The field was 

 also dressed with a chemical manure, of the following 

 ingredients, on the lGth March, costing — 



14 cwt. nitrate of sot!a \~s.6d. 



1 cwt. impure sulphate of magnesia . .60 

 j cwt. silicate of soda . . . . Ji 3 

 '£ cwt. common salt 2 



1* cwt. gypsum 20 



Mixing and applying it, say . 2 3 



CULTIVATION OF WHEAT ON THE SAME 

 LAND IN SUCCESSIVE YEARS. 

 In Oct., 1843, you published an account of an attempt 

 of mine to grow Wheat on the same land year after year. 

 As the subject appears to me to be an important one, 

 and as many persons who may read this letter may either 

 not have seen the former, or may have forgotten it, a 

 short summary of the former experiments may not be 

 out of place. 



These experiments were commenced in the autumn of 

 1841 , after the field had been cleared of a crop of Oats, 

 which was a very bad one ; the land being not only natu- 

 rally poor, but foul, and exhausted by long cropping. 

 As the season was very wet, it was indifferently cleaned, 

 and one-fourth of it manured with a compost of night- 

 soil and ashes, and then the field was sowed with Whea 

 Two of the remaining three-fourths were manured on the 

 6th of May, 1842 (the spring being a very dry one, no 

 rain came until that day), one with guano, the other with 

 nitrate of soda, each at the rate of 2 cwt. to the statute 

 acre ; and the remaining fourth was left unmanured. 

 The following were the results at harvest :— 



Bushels (of 60 lbs) 

 per acre. 

 That manured with night soil and ashes produced . 32 



guano 27 



nitrate of soda .... 27 



it 



»» 



w i? refer t,le cilalk brought from Kent to that 

 jvhich lies under their own fields. Does this arise 

 "om difference of composition, or from the cheaper 

 ra te at which the. Kentish chalk can be supplied, by 



r-** vi kJuuuiK wnere 11 is uscu . x uese are 



important questions, which can only be solved by a 

 ngorous chemical analysis of the chalk of different 

 ocalities. But who is to undertake this important 

 ™°ugh expensive work ? It is a work in which, in 

 A °P ln ion, a portion of the funds of Agricultural 

 associations might be profitably spent. 



VYe have made arrangements for laying before our 

 j-eauers details of the practice of chalking land in 



Gvf J tr i cts where ic is ! m <>st prevalent; and Mr. 

 a «1 • Painswick, has>ndertaken the analysis of 



guano, which was scattered over it when the Wheat was 

 coming up. The field was divided into three portions ; 

 and in April, 1843, was manured as follows : — No. 1, 



- .vu m C acuusu uinuR. can uc suppucu, uy witn 90 1ds - of sulphate of magnesia, and 2 cwt. nitrate 



reason of the large scale on which the pits are worked of soda to the statute acre J No - 2 > witu a compound 

 there, and the depth of covering over the chalk in f™!? a manufacturer of chemical manures ; No. 3, with 

 ? hat Part of Suffolk where it is used ? These are *>">»• °* ««cate of soda, and 2 cwt. of nitrate of soda 

 lmnnrfo„* .■ • • 1 it 1 t , to the acre ; and, with the view of still further varying 



the experiment, a part of each portion was sowed with 

 guano a fortnight after the application of the chemical 

 manures. The crop promised to be a very good one, but 

 it was much plundered by the birds; and, as the summer 

 was wet, it suffered also much from rust. Allowing for 

 the destruction occasioned by the birds, the crop per 

 acre was estimated at — 



41 £ bushels in patch No. 1 ; 

 3S bushels in patch No. 2; 

 4 li bushels in patch No. 3 ; 



sed^nf 1 ' 81 "^ 10 ^ ^undertaken the analysis of and( itl that part of No. 3 whioh was also covered with 

 « 01 specimens of chalk from different portions J guan0 , it reached by actual weight (not by estimate) 53 



Total per statute acre . .40 



Speculating on the probability of a dry summer, I gave 

 it an extra quantity of manure; and think that where 

 guano is used afterwards, as it was by me, the nitrate of 

 soda might be dispensed with, which would bring the 

 cost to 22s. 6<7. per acre. I should prefer guano to ni- 

 trate of soda, because of the phosphates contained in the 

 former. At the distance we are from the sea (about 30 

 miles), it would seldom be necessary to apply common 

 salt, as the gales of winter generally bring as much as is 

 needed ; but last winter we had no high winds, and I 

 thought that, where salt was applied along with the 

 other chemical manures, the Wheat was more luxuriant 

 than where there was none ; but owing to a misunder- 

 standing of the instructions to that effect, the produce 

 was not kept separate. 



When the chemical manure was applied, one land was 

 left without it, for the purpose of comparison. Guano 

 was sowed on the land on the 29th March, at the rate of 

 something less than 2 cwt. to the statute acre ; one side 

 of the field being covered with Peruvian, the other with 

 African ; and the land on which no chemical manure 

 had been sowed was, half of it covered with guano, and 

 the other half left without anything except lime ; but as 

 it was thought desirable to ascertain the value of the 

 chemical manure, without guano, half of this patch was 

 sowed with the chemical manure in April, after the long 

 drought of the last spring had thoroughly set in. A 

 small pitch was left without manure, to show the natural 

 condition of the field, and to serve as a comparison both 

 with the manured part alongside of it, and also with the 

 condition of the field when the experiment commenced, 

 in 1841-2, when the unmanured portion yielded only 19£ 

 bushels per acre. This part of the experiment, however, 

 was frustrated by the carelessness of the men who 

 threshed out the Wheat. 



The crop was a very good one throughout the field, 

 but was evidently shorter and thinner where there was 

 no lime, and also where guano was applied alone. It 

 was best on the headlands, where more lime had been 

 applied. 



The weather was exceedingly favourable until the 

 Wheat was going out of bloom ; but it then changed, and 

 the crop was beaten down by the rain, in some places so 

 thoroughly that it never rose again ; and from that time 

 to the day it was reaped (the 21st August) there were 

 not more than six fine warm days. This cold and unge- 

 nial weather would, no doubt, materially affect both the 

 quantity aud the quality of the crop, the sample being 

 only just fair. 



On threshing out the crop, I find the result to be as 

 follows :— Where the guano and chemical manure were 

 applied, but no lime, the yield was 49£ bushels (of 

 60 lbs.) per statute acre ; where the land was left un- 

 subsoiled, it was 52.} bushels ; where guano alone was 

 applied, it was 42^ bushels ; where the chemical manure 

 alone was applied, it was 43$ bushels ; where the Afri- 

 can guano was applied, it was 43 bushels ; where the Pe- 

 ruvian was applied, it was 52§ bushels ; on the head- 

 lands, where three times the quantity of lime (or 3§ tong 

 per acre) was applied, it was nearly 62 bushels ; and 

 where six times the quantity of lime (or 7 tons to the 

 acre) it was 49§ bushels. I give this last result as it was 

 ascertained, but do not consider it conclusive, for the 



