

















1844.] 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



755 



The band of this rock is generally so narrow, that those i 

 portions of the farmer's experience which would induce 

 him to alter in his case the general practice of the neigh- 

 bourhood, are overruled by the influence of the example 

 of all who farm around him. 



The general rotation is the four-field course, which I 

 have already quoted so often : — 1st year "Wheat ; 2d, 

 Barley; 3d, Seeds; ith, Potatoes. The crop of seeds 

 is here sometimes substituted by Turnips, but oftener 

 omitted altogether. It is a universal practice on this 

 soil to lime once in three or four years. This is gene- 

 rally done before the Wheat crop. It is spread over the 

 land at the rate of 80 or 100 bushels per acre. The 

 average of the crops per acre are — Wheat, 20 bushels ; 

 Barley, 30 bushels j and Potatoes, less than 7 tons. This 

 soil is perfectly fitted for the growth of Turnips, but few 

 Turnips are grown. The soil on the old red conglome- 

 rate is generally shallow— a keen sand, full either of frag- 

 ments of the rock or of pebbles, owing to its disin- 

 tegration. 



The land on the lowest member of the old red is much 

 overrun with hedgerow-timber, chiefly Oak. It is gene- 

 rally a reddish clay soil, partaking more of the nature of 

 the clayey than of the sandstone strata, of which its sub- 

 soil is composed : at least 7-8 ths of it are in pasture. 

 The Grass, when wet, is of a very poor description — full 

 of the yellow Cow-wheat and the white Moon-flower. 

 Over the whole district the crop of hay will not average 

 18 cwt. per acre ; about two-thirds of it are mown each 

 year, and on many farms this portion is not shifted 

 about among the several fields, but certain fields are 

 mown, and the rest of the farm depastured during a suc- 

 cession of years. 



Between Berkeley and Purton, the land is much over- 

 run by Elm and Oak in the hedgerows. A three-field 

 course is here followed — Wheat, Beans, and Potatoes 

 being the crops cultivated. The soil here is sometimes 

 a stiff clay, and at others it is brashy and sandy. If it 

 were drained, the greatest improvement would be 

 effected. Nowhere else in the county would such marked 

 effects follow the use of this invaluable means of agricul- 

 tural improvement. Drainage not only improves the 

 capabilities of the soil, but it greatly diminishes the ex- 

 pense of cultivation ; and this is not an insignificant 



while the observer will comprehend at a glance its ole until he fixes the cross hairs upon the paper 



portability and the facility with which it may be used I in the stick. 



either on the surface or in the trench. The bar B turn- 



stand in the narrowest trench ; while the false feet F 

 afford the means of stationing the instrument on the 

 surface. 



Now, as the oj • angles of lines crossing each 



other are equal, the angle A II C is tqual to the angle 

 rp, , • . - , . C B A ; and we have shown that the Angle C B A is 



ihe eject of the instrument is to assist foremen and ' equal to the angle D E F ; therefore A B C is equal to 

 workmen in testing and pr, rving a uniform fall La all D E F, and consequently you are enabled to read from 

 works requiring such regularity. A spirit-level, if un- 



item in the sum-tutai of the advantages attendant upon 

 it. The answer to the question — %< Would you, if you 

 were allowed, break up a larger portion of your pasture- 

 land?" which I frequently put, was uniformly answered 

 in the negative on the undrained clay soils of the district, 

 and in the affirmative on all the sandy and comparatively 

 dry soils — and this wholly on account of the great ex- 

 pense of cultivation wherever the soil is wet. 



The average per acre, near Berkeley, of the Wheat 

 crop is above 20 bushels. The Potato crop generally 

 does not belong to the farmer. The land for the pur- 

 pose is let to the labourers and others, the farmer first 

 cultivating and manuring it. It is in this way let as high 

 as 8/. per acre. The kiud of Wheat sown is the old Red 

 Lammas.* On some of the pasture-land, clay-draining 

 has been followed to a considerable extent, and the mole- 

 plough has also been used. The soil is stiff enough to admit 

 of these plans, and at the same time sufficiently free to 

 drain easily, so that great success has followed them. 

 They are, however, entirely unfitted for the arable land, 

 such drains being easily stopped by the treading of horses 

 in soft weather. 



Over the whole of the silurian formation the land is 

 pasture, which is similar in quality to that on the old 

 red sandstone. It is superior, however, to that on the 

 poor wet sands of that formation, but with it requires 

 drainage, which it has not. The trap rock, being of very 

 small extent, is not of much agricultural importance. It 

 is covered by a red, apparently ferruginous soil, gene- 

 rally close upon the rock. It is chiefly in pasture, and 

 affords a Grass superior in quality to that on the forma- 

 tion surrounding it, and, in a wet season, superior in 

 quantity also. It is a dry soil, and would pay better to 

 be cultivated as arable land than as pasture. Being fer- 

 tile, dry, and easy of cultivation, it possesses the three 

 great requisites of good arable land M. S. 



derstood by workmen, is a thing easily put out of order, 

 and is at all times liable to be broken ; its use, therefore, 

 is dreaded by workmen, as a process involving too much 

 time, care, and precision, for their fingers to perform. 



In draining and sewering, if the first object of the 

 operator is to direct his drains according to the best fall 

 of the ground, the next point of importance is that the 

 floor of the trench, and the course of the tiles, soles, or 

 bricks, should be even and regular from the top to the 

 bottom of the drain. Any hollow in the drain inter- 

 cepts the sedimentary matter which the flow of the drain- 

 water would otherwise carry out with it ; the sectional 

 area of the water-way is thereby lessened, and the sedi- 

 ment, gradually accumulating, after a time causes a 

 stoppage, the drain bursts, and the work has to be 

 re-done. 



The level placed in the trench, as it is dug preparatory 



to laying in the tiles, indicates by the plumb-line any 



irregularity bad workmanship may occasion. Such use 



of the instrument is merely analogous to the mode by 



which the carpenter applies his square and plummet. It 



is my wish to prove that the extended principle upon 



which the A Level is based is so sound, that if accurately 



constructed, the instrument cannot work otherwise than 



with perfect efficiency, in determining the overage fall 



of surface between any two spots within sight of each 

 other. 



It should be observed, that the legs of the instrument 

 being equal in length, form, with the base upon which 

 they are placed, an isosceles triangle, and that, when that 

 base is perfectly level the plumb-bob pendent from the 

 apex must necessarily divide the triangle directly in half. 

 This admitted, it is equally clear that by means of a bar 

 connecting the two legs at any given distance, and ex- 



the index at C, the angle converted into inches and guar- 

 ters, which is common to the whole distance from E to 

 D. The height thus read off is transferred to the bar B, 

 and retained by the shifting limb G (see the woodcut), 

 to the edge of which the plummet is afterwards worked. 

 This limb is used only to save memory, and assist the 

 man who cannot read. 



From the explanation given, I hope I have shown 

 that, without any measi oent of distance whatever, the 

 average fall of surface is arrived at without any chance i 

 error, if the span of the instrument is always the A me, 

 and the indices are accurately made (agreeing with that 

 space) in the first instance. — J. Bailey Denton. 





THE ALLOTM1 T SYSTEM IN IRELAND. 



1 am well pleo 1 to find this system making its way 

 in England, and am not surprised it should « ounter 

 some opposition. But that the objections of the farmers, 

 as mentioned in the Agricultural G< ttr, of the 1 2th 

 October, are ill-founded, I think no better proof can be 

 offered than the beneficial effects produced by the allot- 

 ment system in Ireland, where with its modifications it 

 has long been in operation. That it is highly advan- 

 tageous to the labourer cannot admit of question ; with- 

 out it he could not exist in the dearth of employment, 

 and with the low price oflabour, in few places exceeding 

 Qd. a day : that it is of much, indeed of essential service 

 to the farmer is evident, for without it he could not pay 

 his labourers ; in his want of capital it is, in more than 



cases in ten, his only means of working hit ground; 

 nstitutcs for him a species of credit, while it gives 



with the other : the plumb line will then hit the centre. 

 Now, as the plummet will always hang vertically, by 

 reason of its weight, any rise or depression of either leg 

 is immediately indicated on the connecting bar by the 

 equivalent deviation of the plumb-line from the centre. 



B 



MR. DEMON'S A LEVEL. 

 Being daily in receipt of communications on the 

 matter of my « A Level," you will, if I may judge from 

 the number of these communications, interest many of 

 your readers by affording me the opportunity of explain- 

 ing the geometrical problem upon which this simple in- 

 strument is based, and the best method of using it in the 

 field . 





The angle A B C is equal to the angle D E F, i. e., 

 the angle made by the hypothenuse or surface with the 

 horizontal line, is equal to the angle of the line dividing 

 the triangle in half, with the vertical line. 



Thus, the difference of height between D and E may 

 be calculated by multiplying the natural sine of the angle 

 D E F (read off on the bar as A B C, if the index repre- 

 sents degrees), by the length of the ground spanned be- 

 tween E and D. In the A Level, this is already done ; 

 and instead of degrees and minutes, inches and quarters 

 are divided on the bar, so that the operator may at once 

 read from it the difference of height between the two 

 spots upon which the instrument stands, and vice versd. 

 If it is required to sink one leg an inch below the other, 

 the ground is lowered until the plumb-line strikes the 

 1-inch division of the index on the bar. 



It will be seen, that at a certain distance from the 

 apex, on each leg a line of sight is shown. On the one 

 leg there is a sliding sight-hole answering to a fixed in- 

 dex, agreeing with that on the bar B ; on the other leg, 

 there are cross hairs fixed, the centre of which are ex- 

 actly the same distance from the apex as the nonius of 

 the index on the opposite leg. The line of sight there- 

 fore from these two points is ever parallel with the base 

 of the instrument. 



To arrive at the average fall of surface from the top to 

 the bottom of a field, the instrument must be placed on a 

 level by means of the plumb-line. The operator must 

 then send forward his assistant-workman to the spot D, 

 at which he intends to end his drain, with a stick marked 

 by a paper fixed in it at a height C above the ground, 



-,c 



agreeing 



nine 



it conamuivB iur mm a species ui creau, wnue it g 



the labourer a security for his wages. The Iri labourer, 

 whose day clothes are often his only night covering, whose 

 bed is straw, and whose dwelling a hovel, i.*, by this 

 allotment system, independent of the workhouse and of 



a capitalist, for he very 

 year's provision in advance, 

 the pure allotment system 

 obtains, the labourer having more or less land which he 

 holds with his hovel, and when, from his employer, the 

 rent is paid by his labour, at a stipulated price — an ar- 

 rangement of which he is very glad to avail himself, and 

 in consideration of which he will give a higher rent for 

 his allotment than he otherwise would. I knew a gentle- 

 man furraer in the neighbourhood of Portumna, where 

 labourers' wages were only bd. a day, without meal; ; but 

 they each held from him a hovel, with an acre of land, at 

 30*. a year, the grazing of a cow at 30^-., some hay for 

 the winter feeding of the cow, at from 20*. to 30s. a ton; 

 so that these labourers lived as comfortably as most 

 people of their class, and at the end of the year their 

 accounts were pretty equally balanced. In Tipperary, I 

 found some holding a hovel and an acre of land for two 

 guineas a year, the summer grazing of the cow at two 

 guineas, and the wages at '/. a day. 



What I would call a modification of the allotment sys- 

 tem, is the notorious con-acre plan which appears to 

 prevail in Connaught and the central districts of 

 Ireland. Old Grass-land is let in small lots to the poor 

 people for two or three crops of Potatoes in succession, 

 followed by a couple of crops of Oats, at an annual rent 

 of from 5/. to 8/. the Irish acre — that is, from 3/. 2s. C<i. 

 to 5/. the statute acre, according to the goodness of the 

 ground, and its capability of giving crops with or without 

 manure, for the two or three years it is under Potatoes ; 

 and from 3/. to 4/. annual rent of the statute acre for the 

 two years it is under Oats. Another plan more general 

 in the south, is the occupation of a hovel and a perch 

 or two of land, at from 30s. to AOs. a year, and a portion 

 of land ploughed and the manure placed on the ridges 

 ready for trenching in of Potatoes, at from 5/. to 8/. the 

 itute acre, according to the goodness of the land and 

 manure, the labourer seeding the land and doing all the 

 labour of it, and working out the tent at from 0d. to Sd. 

 a day : in these cases the land is only let to them for the 



crop. 



Now, as a good statute acre of Potatoes will be from 

 8 to 12 tons, and as they arc worth from 1/. to 21. a ton, 

 and sometimes more, and very seldom so low as 1/., we 

 may take the average — and it is rather a low one — at 

 1/. 10^. a ton, and taking the average of produce at 10 

 tons to the acre, we have 15/. for the value of an acre of 

 Potatoes : and as the average rent may be taken at 6'. an 

 acre, we find that the allotment system virtually doubles 

 ;e wages of the labourer, without laying any additional 

 charge on the farmer. 



But the allotments of the. poorer classes of Ireland are 

 under the worst possible treatment; and as we may expect 

 more and superior management in the allotments in Eng- 

 land, so we may expect far more beneficial results. I 

 have no hesitation in saying tint an acre of ground, 

 under proper treatment (and 1 will, at some future period, 

 submit courses for an acre and smaller lots), will give an 

 English peasant as much Potatoes and vegetables as he 

 chooses to eat, a fat pig at Christmas, and the support 

 of a small cow, such as our Kerry, with the exception of 

 with the height of the cross hairs B, above the I her hay, for the year. Half an acre may give him his 



Itie woodcut above shows the instrument—its figure 

 5i!i*Pi*jn niejgasonof i ts being called the " A Level ; " 



the Th!^ nclies ' which fecd almost exclusively on the seed of 

 toferencl t ^^ I? 7 abundant in this neighbourhood. The 



the aKricnH,,rai <lraw ." f, °' n , this fact is Bot vcr >" creditable to base of "the instrument He then slides up or down the I Potatoes, vegetables, and pig or pigs. 

 &'iiuuurai practice of the district. L 



