756 



THE AGRICULTURAL G A ZETTE. 



[Nov. 9, 



I assure the farmers of England that 1 never yet knew 

 an Irishman rendered so independent of his employer as 

 to become a saucy and bad servant from his possessing 

 his bit of land ; it is attended with a contrary effect, for 

 his dread of losing it is such that he is made much more 

 subservient, and more to be depended on, than the casual 

 day labourer. He becomes, indeeJ, an interested person, 

 and I have known him even submit to a blow from his 

 employer, rather than leave his service and lose his land. 

 I have resided in Ireland nearly 27 years, and may, 

 therefore, speak with some confidence on this subject. — 

 J. M. Goodiffe, Granard. 



Mr. Woods planted the ensuing year, ] its remote consequences will be a return of the privations 

 ttention, in a Wheat field : the crop and poverty consequent on insufficient wages, and 



Home Correspondence. 



Mildew on Barley.— -It may, perhaps, interest some 

 of your readers to learn that the little black specks, 

 which are so common on the straw of the late Barley 

 crops, are a form of the true mildew which is so destruc- 

 tive to Wheat. I have never observed Puccinia graminis 

 on Barley before, and the heaps of spores are so small, 

 and completely concealed beneath the cuticle, that their 

 real feature would scarcely be suspected. The parasite is 

 too imperfectly developed to be at all injurious. The 

 grains, especially in shady parts of the field, are much 

 infested with Cladosporium herbarum, which makes them 

 nearly black, and there is scattered over the leaves and 

 sheaths a minute club-shaped, jointed, parasite, which 

 gives them a speckled appearance. The crops themselves 

 are very heavy, and have been for the most part secured, 

 notwithstanding the unpropitious weather, in tolerable 

 order, and it is thought will yield a fair sample : the 

 heaviest crop was not sown till the 17th of June. Those 

 portions only which were reaped have suffered from the 

 wet, in consequence of the sheaves being more tightly 

 bound, and therefore not admitting so free a current of 

 The mould which your Buckinghamshire corres- 



air. 



pondent found on Wheat, and which proved to be a form 

 of Erysiphe communis, has been, I believe, almost uni- 

 versal, but it does not appear, in any case that I hive 

 witnessed, to have been injurious to the produce, though 

 80 very abundant. With us, those portions of the leaves 

 and sheaths were most affected that were covered with the 

 red rust, a parasite which, though so much dreaded on 

 the Continent, even more than mildew, as it should se?m 

 from Philippar's account, does not appear in Great 

 Britain to do much harm, at least to the red Wheats. 



— M.J.B. 



Gypsum and Guano. — In the Agricultural Gazette 

 for Oct. 19, a correspondent is informed, that it is ques- 

 tionable if gypsum would tend to fix the ammonia in 

 guano unless both were dissolved in water. From some 

 experiments which I have recently made, it appears that 

 gypsum acts upon the insoluble part of guano, and pro- 

 duces a soluble sulphate ; nothing more than perfect 

 contact of the two compounds being effected by the 

 water in which they are placed. After washing a portion 

 of guano very frequently for several days, until every 

 trace of its soluble salts was removed, I added 50 grains 

 of gypsum to 100 grains of the insoluble residuum of the 

 guano. In the course of two or three ho^rs a decided 

 action had commenced. The evaporation of a few drops 

 of the water in which the gypsum and guano were placed, 

 gave a large supply of microscopic crystals, and about 

 10 grains of soluble sulphates, the sulphate of ammonia 

 being one, were ultimately obtained. My former short 

 notice on this subject showed that the sulphuric acid of 

 the gypsum fixes ammonia, if its salts be dissolved in 

 water ; and by the present experiment it appears that, 

 under the action of gypsum, even insoluble portions of 

 guano may be made immediately available for the food of 

 plants. This effeot, resulting from the perfect contact 

 of two insoluble bodies, will seem to be the less sur- 

 prising, if we bear in mind that even two elements, two 

 of the metals, when placed in contact, not in water, but 

 in atmospheric air, immediately liquefy each other — 

 J. B. Reade, Stone, Aylesbury. 



Railroads. — Has it occurred to you what may be the 

 effect of these railroad works that are everywhere inter- 

 fering our properties, and absorbing our land ? It is 

 worthy of the consideration of those who are engaged in 

 agriculture, what the results of this all-absorbing mania 

 may be in regard to rents and rent-charge, and as affecting 

 the aggregate produce ! Farmers should be looking out ; 

 and the sooner they get leases of their landlords the 

 better, I am inclined to think, for them and their families. 

 The venerable Laureat, a r in your newspaper of last week, 

 may well protest, though, alas, in vain! And another in 

 vain supplicates for the favourite and cherished Elm or 

 Oak of his early care. Should the Colossus of Roads 

 penetrate the park of Blair Athol and others, where the 

 Queen and Prince Albert planted their pairs of Oaks, 

 would they be spared ? But the pocket, of course, before 

 the refined pretensions of sentiment, and the M.P. will 

 be the arbiter after all ; and if he be a proprietor, we can 

 see (without the aid of Lord Rome's telescope), which 

 •way his vote will go. But consider what thousands of 

 acres of land the rail has already taken out of all possi- 

 bility of cultivation, and draw jour own conclusions. — 

 An Early Contributor, and an Original Subscriber. 



Chidham Wheat. — I transcribe for you, from lt Young's 

 Survey of Sussex," published by the Agricultural Board 

 in 1813, the account of the origin of this variety of 

 Wheat .:— " The farming world is certainly indebted to 

 r * ^y°°^ s (of Chidham), for a valuable acquisition, in 

 bringing into cultivation, what with justice has been 

 called, and is a new sort of Wheat, the Chidham White, 

 or Hedge-wheat. The origin of it was this : — As Mr. 



Woods was occasionally walking over his fields, he met 

 with 



1 100 corns. These 

 with the greatest a 



from these 1400 corns produced 8J lbs. of seed, which 

 he planted the same year, and the produce amounted 

 to 48 gallons ; this he drilled, and it yielded 15J quart- 

 ers, 9-gallon measure. Having now raised a large 

 quantity of seed, he partly drilled, and in part sowed, 

 the last produce broadcast, over rather more than 

 .">0 acres of land, and he gained 38£ loads— 20 loads of 

 this quantity was sold for seed at 15/. 15s. per load. 

 The Wheat, upon trial, was found to be so fine, that 

 Mr. Woods had an immediate demand for a far greater 

 quantity than he could spare for sale ; 1792 turned out 

 a bad yielding' year, otherwise the last produce would 

 have fully equalled 45 loads. With respect to the 

 sample of Chidham Wheat, it is white, of a very fine 

 berry, and remarkably long in the straw, so as to stand 

 in a wet summer full 6 feet in height. The seed is now 

 (1813), dispersed over Hampshire, Surrey, and other 

 counties, and much cultivated about Guildford. — J. S. 



The Cotswolds.— In your Gazette for Oct. 5, I find 

 among your *' Notices to Correspondents," in reply to 

 " G.", you describe the soil of the Cotswold hills to be 

 M poor, thin, and brashy." I have resided the greatest 

 part of my life upon the Cotswolds, at Salperton, which 

 is situated between Northleach and Andoversford, and 

 though much of our soil is as you describe, I do not 

 believe it varies more in any part of England. I can 

 answer for it that in my parish we have not one ground 

 without a variety of soils. Some of our stone brash is 

 quite deep in soil (I am not speaking of the valleys), as 

 you will suppose when I mention that I have grown 

 many of the large Belgian Carrots, five pounds weight, 

 without manure, upon a farm which was so wretchedly 

 cultivated that I was obliged to take it in hand four years 

 ago. We have, also, a good deal of very stiff clay, and 

 ill more of a very deep soil, called in the country a 

 dead earthy soil, on which, as elsewhere, great benefit is 

 derived from paring and burning, though I am sorry to 

 say, some few landlords are, to the injury of their land 

 and the ruin of their tenants, discontinuing it. Youthen 

 say, '* No cheese is made there." Of course not in the 

 same quantities as in the vale ; but I will answer for it 

 that, upon at least one-third of our farms, cheese is 

 made. Cheese has been made from time immemorial in 

 my parish, and it is very highly spoken of by those who 

 taste it. You then say, " Turnips are sown broadcast ; 

 but the farmers rarely use artificial manure." Now I 

 should much like to know where you obtained your 

 information, for it would almost puzzle you to find one 

 farm where the Turnips are all sown broadcast, certainly 

 in our neighbourhood ; and I understand at the Ciren- 

 cester Cattle Show, nearly all the competitors for the 

 best field of Turnips, raised them with artificial manure, 

 and if not upon the ridge system, by drilling upon the 

 plain surface. I cannot call to my recollection one far- 

 mer who does not use some sort of artificial manure. 

 There was one of my father's tenants who never had, and 

 last year I persuaded him to let me have a few loads of 

 straw, and pay him with bones, which bones I stipulated 

 to put on with my drop-drill. I did this in a great 

 measure to remove prejudice, and though we only put 

 4 bushels per acre with, I believe, about 16 of turf ashes, 

 he has got better Turnips there than any part of the 

 field with farm-yard manure : indeed, had it not been 

 for the large grub, which has destroyed thousands of acres 

 of Turnips upon the Cotswolds this year, he would have 

 bad a very fine crop. I was in great hopes somebody 

 else would have taken notice of your paragraph, but this 

 not being the case, I could not refrain from answering it 

 myself. I will, if you wish it, give you some slight 

 account of the Cotswold system of farming from time to 

 time. [Thank you]. — T. B. Browne. [You needed to 

 have read"G.'s" communication, to have become qualified 

 as judge of the accuracy of our answer to it. The state- 

 ments as to cheese- making, and the use of artificial 

 manures are, comparatively speaking, correct, i. e. but 

 very little cheese is made, and but very little artificial 

 manure — in the sense in which " G." employed the 

 term — is used. We know that the drill cultivation 

 of Turnips is rapidly acquiring general adoption on the 

 Cotswolds, but that does not hinder us from admitting 

 the truth of "G.'s" supposition, that broadcast culture 

 still to a great extent exists.] 



Allotments,—! have read with interest all that your 

 columns have contained on this subject, and am myself 

 endeavouring to pursue some such system in the village 

 where I reside, convinced that it presents a very im- 

 portant means by which to improve the condition of an 

 invaluable class of the community. The suggestion I 

 have to offer, is therefore, made in no unfriendly spirit; 

 yet I confess I am not ^without very strong misgivings 

 that sooner or later, according as the system of providing 

 the labourer with a patch of ground for his own cultiva- 

 tion may become established, advantage will be taken of 

 his dependent state to turn this present well-intentioned 

 scheme of good against him, and convert it into a 

 medium by which still further to lower his condition. I 

 fear that it will be made a handle to lower still further 

 the wages of the agricultural labourer ; that the farmer, 

 taking into calculation the advantages which a labourer 

 and his family may derive from the cultivation of his 

 little allotment, will convert them into an element by 

 which to measure the minimum daily or weekly stipend 

 on which a labouring man may subsist. The allotment 

 system, by this perversion of its humane intent, may thus, 

 in its ultimate effects, promote the very evil it is meant 

 to correct, its first tendency being to increase population 



operating upon a wider spread surface of society. The 

 probability of the evil is more obvious than the preven- 

 tive. It becomes, however, the duty of every friend to 

 humanity to be alive to the possible consequences of 

 a measure which now has the support of the most phi- 

 lanthropic spirits of the age. — Rusticus 



Professor Johnstone's Lectures in Perth. — The fol- 

 lowing is an explanation of the great variety of opinion 

 regarding the use of common salt as a manure. Here 

 Farmer A. had, on the side of the hill facing the sea, 

 applied salt to a considerable extent in various ways, but 

 never found that it did any good. B. and C, in the 

 inland valley, had also used it, and with very beneficial 

 results. Farmers A. and B. meet in the market-room, 

 and among other subjects a discussion arises upon the 

 use of common salt as a manure. Farmer A. says, " I have 

 tried it often, and in different ways, and I never could 

 discover any difference in favour of the crops that had 

 been salted beyond those that had not. I am, therefore, 

 satisfied it is of no manner of use whatever, so that I have 

 made up my mind to use no more of it; it is only so 

 much time and money thrown away; and, more than that, 

 it has prevented me using such manures as might have 

 been of some benefit ; so what with purchase-money and 

 carriage, labourage in putting it on, and a partial failure 

 of my crops, that might have been so much better had I 

 used something else, and not depended upon it, I am a 

 considerable loser, and have, therefore, learned a lesson 

 I am likely to remember." Upon which farmer B. says, 

 " I am rather surprised at your statements regarding 

 common salt, as I have been using it for some time, and 

 have always observed a very decided difference in favour 

 of the crops where I applied it, and on that account I am 

 likely to continue to use it while I am satisfied of its 

 beneficial results." Another farmer from the sea aspect 

 says, a I have used salt a good deal, and can confirm the 

 Ftatement of my friend from the same district, that it is 

 useless as a manure, and have also made up my mind to 

 give it up ; experience, and the evidence of my own senses, 

 telling me it is good for nothing." In this way the dis- 

 cussion goes on, those from the A. side of the hill being 

 against it, and those from B. to C, &c, in the valley 

 beyond, as invariably for it, until the question whether 

 salt is of any use as a manure is finally put to the vote. 

 The Professor dwelt upon the evil tendency of such an 

 argument upon effects, withoutsomelittleknowledge of the 

 causes. He called attention to a Table showing the quan- 

 tity of common salt contained in different crops, and 

 explained the maximum amount that any land was likely 

 to require of it ; and that on the sea becoming agitated 

 by the winds the salt which rose in the spray and was 

 carried on to the land was of considerable quantity, when 

 it was found that houses as much as 20 miles inland had 

 their windows incrusted with it, so that tracts lying within 

 the influence of the sea-breeze could not be in want of 

 it. The management of dunghills then came to be 

 considered, and the generally bad system pursued. He 

 said they were generally placed upon the driest part 

 of the steading, and if that was not dry enough, drains 

 or gutters were carefully cut from them to some 

 lower place, and from that to the nearest brook, 

 where the best and richest part of the manure found 

 its way to the nearest river, and washed onwards to 

 the sea. The Professor here said, - What would you 

 think if, on your going home at night to tea, you found 

 that the water had all been drawn, and that nothing was 

 left but the leaves ? You would be likely to complain , 

 but under such circumstances you would have no more 

 reason to do so than your farms have to complain ; you 

 waste your farmyard tea, and you carry to your land the 

 leaves " — A Subscriber. , 



Two Crops per Annum.-lu the counties of Berks and 

 Oxford TuTnips or Rape is very often sown with Beans or 

 Peas -the" eed is sown sometimes between the rows with 



.'n Mh»nd drill and sometimes broadcast just before 

 a .mail hand-dnlUnd so^^ ^ ^ ^^ ^ fi 



*. season, now readyto be fed off with s -p, some^of 



the roots weighing from 5lo. to 4io. *•«*»< l 



a small 



the last hoeing 



\ 



with a single plant of Wheat growing in a hedge. This by improving the condition of the present generation, 

 plant contained 30 fair ears, in which were found | while, if my anticipations 



aboutr O^celmo^tb Is said to be sufficient 



say if it is effectual or will some *«*£.!• '™ * 

 his opinion on the subject?—*/. A. s. L ' v 

 wiil very frequently succeed b > prever , mg the .£*£ 

 the fly, but a more s.mple and ettectuai m 



h^tKu't IOTMJ. ^tt*l 

 riM ^ E «&^co°Lfu a sWe k 'a s SftJ 

 oUhe et^ang quality of the Garnkirk fire-clay, fo 

 lugh this 'clay migh/make the soil more retent-ve or 

 attractive of moisture, and so far of service to these two 

 Potatoes yet from their close proximity to the lunged 

 ,i* f hit nrobably received as much benefit from the 

 fffluvia' bat' proceeded from it as the dunged Potatoes 

 fd while" this P proximity would, if the cla, » attra 

 of moisture, which it probably . «, bawteoded to dep^ 



re ior 



sTead oHhestable, and the distance M&£*£J* ** 

 S-J. «n„M h«™ heen different.— J. i^- Goodtfe. 



oi muiMu«cf n... r - — -# . „.i«K thp stable 



the dunged Potatoes of moisture, to which the sta 

 dung also assisted. Had the dung been of the by 



I 



should unhappily be realised, regu n w ould have been different 



