S18 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



plough which may be constant. We shall find that of 

 all M« pans of the plough the mouM board alone will 

 require to vary with the work to be done. There should, 

 however, be a means of altering the position of the 

 coulter ; ami this is one of the reasons of the failure of 



that which, as 1 have said, has been tried instead of it. 

 Besides the common excellent method of effecting this 

 by means of wedges, the subjoined are figures of three 

 methods of doing this, adopted by various agricultural 

 implement-makers in England :— 





•i 



which is essential for the prooer nerf.,,-™ 

 restive functions, and more P articu Ur l v rT"- °^ thc * 

 firmness to the morsel, in order to fit it iK*- to *■ 

 Such a diet, we hesitate not to assert i L??^ 

 dftrancrft th« Ai<,*.H„- «»ert, is calculated to 



derange the digestive organs and inte 



A.VSOME. HkNSMANT. 



There are other means of regulating the position of 

 the plough, according to the nature of its work, which 

 should, perhaps, have been mentioned when the frame- 

 work of the plough was described. It is evident that 

 the line drawn from the horses' shoulders, through the 

 point of attachment of the draught-chains to the plough, 

 must, if lengthened, pass through the centre of the re- 

 sistance met with by the plough at work. Should it be 

 Otherwise — should the line so lengthened strike the 

 mould-board at a point higher, for instance, than the 

 centre of resistance, then the eftect of the draught 



Sandkrs & Co. 



will be to pull the plough over, and sink the point of 

 the share, till the implement, by increasing the depth of 

 the land ploughed, has raised the centre of resistance 

 higher up the mould-board. Should it strike the mould- 

 board to the right or left of this centre, then the plough 

 in the same manner, in order that this centre may be 

 brought into the line of draught, will be forced to take a 

 greater or less width of land. This is the way in which 

 the means act which are adopted for altering the dimen- 

 sions of the furrow-slice. 





1 





■ . 



ani- 



a 



The bridle of the plough admits of the attachment of the 

 draught chain to the plough being shifted to the right or 

 left ; and so it enables the ploughman to increase or dimi- 

 nish the width of his furrow ; and the bridle, by means of a 

 screw or otherwise (see annexed figures), may be ele- 

 vated or depressed, and so the depth of the furrow may 

 be increa i or diminished. There is another and very 

 Simple way of altering the depth to which the plough 

 runs; and this is by changing the position of the back- 

 band. It has been before seen that by the action of this 

 part of the harness a portion of the draught is thrown on 

 the back of the horse, and only a portion of it remains on 

 its shoulders. By shifting the back-band nearer to the 

 plough, we increase the ascent of the line of draught, 

 and of course rend to raise the point of the plough, make 

 it work shallower ; and by placing it nearer the shoul- 

 ders of the animal, the plough is allowed to go deeper. 



From what has been said it is evident that the object 

 of the beam of the plough is merely to furnish a rigid 



attachment of the draught chain to the implement. The 

 centre of resistance on the surface of the mould-board is 

 a given point— so also is the attachment of the draught 

 chain to the hames at the horse's shoulder— the straight 

 line between these is the line of draught, and the beam 

 of the plough must be extended in front at such a height 

 and to such a length as may be necessary to afford an 

 attachment of the draught chains, in this line, to a rigid 

 part of the implement above ground and out of the way of 

 the coulter. This beam may be made, if such be the 

 will of the farmer, as high and complicated an affair as 

 he pleases, provided only some rigid part of it be found 

 in the line of draught before alluded to as a place of 

 attachment for the draught chains. Of course the sim- 

 plest form of beam, which will answer this purpose, is 

 the best. All this is well illustrated in the subjoined 

 figure, for which we have again to acknowledge the kind- 

 ness of Mr. Allen Kansome. 



4 v ' 



_< 



ri 



fr'*' 



> 



Any remarks on wheel or swing ploughs should be 

 made here ; but the subject is, as I believe, comparatively 

 or little importance. " m ' " - 



The wheel was, doubtless, added 



bablt°onn Wh ° l !? ? g , ht *] aU im P™vementrand~if pro- is alreadv in use and whe, 



instead of men. And this is a fair and influential con- 



s derauon ,„ favour of the wheel, but it is not likely t 



nduce it. adoption in districts where the swing plough 



is already ,n use, and where the skill necessary for Us 



■ EXPERIMENTS ON NUTRITION. 



th«,H?. n< V en,Ure t0 eT P resa an °P inion 0I > the rival 

 instance uTT' ^ emi ^' ™ the question, for 

 Moti.eT^ ,? of -nimala derived from the non- 



azoti.ed constituents of thrir food, or from fat i>re- 

 Tious.y eustrng in «ch food » I o'nl/hope tha ££ 



«JeZ? T" '•' their ^ t0 « ether »" d *» us, from 



whether fat already formed does actually exist in the 

 food m the large proportion which the French chemist, 

 assert. The experiments of Boussingault, given in this 

 Journal. Nov. 23, are certainly of the kind calculated to 

 bear strongly on the point; and it is, indeed, such as 

 these that we should rejoice to see performed and re- 

 peated in every possible way, by the chemist of the 

 Koyal Agricultural Society of England, with the assist, 

 ance of one or more practical feeders, and under the 

 sanction, and by the assistance of our National Society. 

 "Hat intelligent member would begrndge one or two 



hundred pound, so expended ? We could readily su , 

 gest a mode by which this amount could be saved or ob 



be slmc en' TUT T™ "^ the ^"l sh °^ ° ' 

 oe sumcient. But, with regard to the experiments in 



question, though we hail them as important^™ o 

 our magazme of acts, and agree with one of the infer 

 ences drawn by the experimenter, that Mangold WW 

 and Potatoes alone are an insufficient die! or * "ch 

 cows --which, by the bye, we should have anticipaTed- 

 and also that a diet may be insufficient from the absent 

 or -deficiency f either of the three constituents men 

 turned by Boussmgault (provided hi, facts are correct 

 ye we are constrained to observe, that his experiment 

 la.l to establish what they are intended to prove W 

 nnd that two cows are taken from a hay diet and nu' 

 entirely on Mangold Wurzel, a diet not only en ire , „,7 

 ferent from that to which the digestive organ of he 

 cows had prev.ously been accustomed, but one co„, t 

 «»g of 80 per cent of water, and deficient in wood, 7b re 



s 



e 



performance of their functions : and l\[T,\ P ' ^ 

 case, we may look in vain for the resnlrV \ , '* tfc » 

 otherwise occur. That this wa, the s ! T W ° uld 

 proved, for the cows, we are told, were r^M,**'* 

 mated— a result, putting chemistry out of ti T "° u 

 which no one can feel surprised ar »„j „ ,, queit, °n, 

 tated state was gradually induced, the di*7,,i. bUi - 

 must have been gradually weakened, and mwV 

 failed in extracting the same amount of no ,.Jri ,Te 

 before The experimenter appears to h. "ZZZ 

 animals as mere machines, and to have looked ! g " dc(1 

 mistry alone, forgetting altogether that there ... ?' 

 science as physiology in existence. Suppose w*' 

 order to test the nutritious qualities of Ji, . ' ' m 

 keep a horse entirely on Beans, wKouM T^ 

 result ? Why, the animal would soon became L- ^ 

 and diseased ; or if Oatmeal alone constituted. TTf 

 purging and debility would quickly su™ te lie p ^i 

 Oats alone were given whoTe, i./whicTc "e the^LVk 

 would, to a certain extent, counteract th P i a , \ sk 



ties of the meal, the horse would "till los 1% 5» 

 an unlimited quantity of grain were afforde \ T»7* h 

 facts the chemist will, perhaps, reply • unii'i fi ? e 



show that these different articles of food are d.fi'? °?- J 

 some constituent necessary for the support of th e /° 

 mal. Ihis may be true to a certain extent but to . 

 certain extent alone ; for it is by no means sulie hat 

 the food should contain the elements required for nou 

 rish.ng the bedy, but they must also be arranged in that 

 peculiar manner and proportion which the structure and 

 economy of the animal requires. If this were not the 

 case the excrements of the body would be proper fo 

 food seeing that they contain the necessary elements of 

 nutrition. Ihe natural pasturage of the field eitherfc 

 its crude or prepared state, appears to be almost the only 

 food that can be taken by animals with advantage un- 

 mixed with any other diet. But then we must bear in 

 mind that it consists of a variety of plants ; and it is not 

 only chemically sufficient for nutrition, but it contains 

 that amount of woody fibre essential for the function of 

 digestion, though not entering into the system itself. Thus 

 herbivorous animals, having very capacious digestive or- 

 gans, require their food to be of a bulky form, and of such 

 a consistence that it will stay long enough in the body for 

 the elements of nutrition to be properly extracted from it. 

 Now it appears to us that M. Boussingault would hare 

 accomplished the purpose he sought to obtain by his ex- 

 periment— i. e. the discovery of truth— far better if he 

 had, instead of confining his cows entirely to roots, 

 given a certain amount, or as much as they pleased to 

 eat, of hay or good sweet straw at the same time. The 

 health of the cows would thus have been preserved, and 

 as the quantity of dry food could have been readily 

 ascertained, its analysis being known, not only would the 

 facts sought for by M. Boussingault have been dis- 

 covered, but the relative value of Mangold Wurzel as 

 food for milch cows would have been ascertained, which 

 assuredly has not been done by the experiments referred 

 to. We must, as we have before observed, leave the 

 conflicting theories, as to whether the fat of animals is 

 derived i Oiii any other elements than the fatty matters 

 already formed in vegetables, to Messrs, Boussingault, 

 Dumas, Liebig, and Playfair, simply observing that we 

 shall not at all be surprised to find that the truth will be 

 found to lie somewhere between the two conflicting 

 opinions. One fact, however, we must mention, and it 

 is somewhat opposed to the theories of the two former 

 chemists. We are all acquainted with the fattening 

 qualities of Barleymeal, particularly for pigs ; we know 

 that it is greatly superior to Oatmeal, and, indeed, any 

 other food. Now if we turn to the analytical tables of 

 Mr. Johnston we find that Oats contain 5*6 per cent, of 

 fatty matter, whilst Barley only possesses 2*5 per cent. 

 Now this certainly militates strongly against the opinions 

 of the French chemists ; and although we are at 

 once ready to concede that the fatty matter i Q ^ e 

 vegetable becomes fatty matter in the animal, yet we are 

 disposed to ask, Whence can the superior fattening 

 properties of Barley be derived, unless it be the 

 starch, gum, and sugar, of which there are 10 per cent, 

 more in Barley than in Oats ; the former having 60 per 

 cent, and the latter only 50 per cent. ? With these ob- 

 servations we leave the subject for the present, observing 

 in conclusion, that we do hope that under the sanction 

 and by the assistance of the Royal Agricultural Society 

 of England, a number of experiments will be instituted 

 in order to decide the many difficult questions relating 

 to the feeding and fattening of animals, and the nutri- 

 tive qualities of various articles of food. Private experi- 

 ments entail more trouble and expense than P rl ' at ° 

 individuals are able to devote to the subject, and when 

 they are published they do not appear with the sanction 

 of authority.— W. C. Spooner, Southampton. 



TREATMENT OF FARM HORSES AND LJtE 



STOCK. 



Ask a farmer if he prefers for his own use a < 

 dry bed to a wet atid rotten dung-heap? Ask .. n |? on 

 cleanliness in place and person, with proper vent ila i t 

 is not conducive to his health? Ask him if his" ^ 

 nicely cooked and prepared, is not more agreea 

 him than if raw and dirty ? Ask him if he likes a ^ 

 residence in summer and a warm one in w,nler ._ gn d 



clean 

 if 



wi 

 yet 



'OlUCUtC IU !UUIUii.i uuu a. naiui v»mw 



ill say certainly, and laugh at you in the bargain, 

 it he will not consider that what is good and pron 



