840 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



the duty is raised, so the consumption, and therefore the 

 revenue is decreased. Of course it is easy to nee that 

 any decrease in the consumption of an article would be 

 the means of throwing out of employment those whose 

 occupation is connected with it ; and we now find our 



Union houses overflowing with persons seeking employ- 

 ment, who, by a total and immediate repeal of the Malt- 

 tax, would be provided with work, and with one of the 

 chief necessaries of life to those who are engaged in 

 arduous and manual labour. — A Tenant Farmer. 



Drainage and Irrigation. — In the last Number of 

 your Paper, *• A Leicestershire Farmer" observes— 

 *' It appears possible to double the value of some dis- 

 tricts by draining alone." In the village in which I 

 reside I see a specimen of improvement by draining. 

 There are 18 acres of meadow and 26 of pasture. 

 Before alterations were commenced, the meadow-land 

 was considered of average quality— some parts very 

 rough, and full of hassocks — [What are they 9] — while 

 the produce of the other parts was good, but never very 

 large. In the winter, during wet weather, it was always 

 flooded ; the brook was small and circuitous in its 

 course, and this, which caused it to overflow, hindered 

 the water from rapidly subsiding. It was not drained 

 deep, and consequently, during the winter, was always 

 wet, and considered an admirable place to rot sheep. 

 So much for it in its primitive state. In the autumn of 

 1841, the owner commenced his operations. The chan- 

 nel of the brook was altered, the whole of it was deep- 

 drained — in some parts 5 or 6 feet deep ; the surface 

 made perfectly level, and carriers formed for irrigation. 

 One brook takes its course down the middle, and another 

 on its higher side ; and it can be irrigated during the 

 winter, and after heavy rains in the summer. The subsoil 

 is a stiff, tenacious clay, and the neighbours thought the 

 owner a great fool for expecting to find water in such a 

 bottom ; the owner's anticipations, however, proved cor- 

 rect. At the depth of from 4 to G feet, he found beds 

 of sand and gravel, whence issued a spring, in many 

 cases not very strong, but which rose to the surface when 

 the intervening beds of clay prevented them from drain- 

 ing. 15 out of the 19 acres are inclosed in one meadow ; 

 the remaining three, which were a bog, bein? a paddock. 

 The improvement of the meadow cost 17/. per acre. 

 The owner was regardless of expense, and some things 

 might have been done in a more economical way, but he 

 thought the most substantial way would, in the end, be 

 the cheapest. In 18 12 much good was not expected, as 

 a great portion of the turf had been moved, and a large 

 part was not finished till late in the spring. During the 

 winter of 1842 it was irrigated, and in March 1843 it was 

 stocked with sheep ; for the months of March, April, 

 and May, it kept more than 100 sheep, a few beasts, and 

 the ewes with couples. It was again irrigated and 

 mown in the middle of July ; again irrigated and mown 

 in September, bearing larger crops than ever had been 

 known in it before. It went through the same process 

 in the winter of 1843, and, I think, this year was stocked 

 in February, arid kept a larger quantity of stock for three 

 months. By the time the Grass was eaten off, the dry 

 season had commenced, and it was not possible to irri- 

 gate it ; nnd, therefore, there was no more in it than in 

 other meadows ; though, after it was mown, there was a 

 good after-math. After the first heavy rains, it was 

 irrigated and mown in October; a very good crop, 

 though, unfortunately for the owner, it was very wet 

 weather, and he sent ail his stork, and had most of it 

 consumed by them ; and they were very willing to eat it 

 after the dry summer. The pasture-land of which I 

 spoke, was, before draining, of good avarage quality ; but 

 I think I speak within bounds when I say one-third was 

 Rushes, and in winter it was so wet as to be impassable 

 after rain by a pedestrian. It was drained in a manner 

 similar to the meadow, and was found to be in a similar 

 state. In this case the expense amounted to between 

 71. and 8/. per acre. The whole had years ago been 

 drained with tiles about 15 inches deep, and therefore 

 the cry that it was impossible to get rid of the Rushes 

 without ploughing. The Rushes gradually diminished, 

 and last year, 1813, there was an immense crop of Grass; 

 this spring it was stocked till after the dry season com- 

 menced, and it never grew till the rains in the autumn. 

 There is, however, scarcely a Rush to be seen. I should 

 conceive the whole expense has been about GOO/., and 

 the owner has let his farm at 30/. a year more rent than 

 he had before. The farm is only 100 acres in extent, 

 and no other material alterations have been made, as the 

 owner has only bad it in his own occupation five years. 

 The arable land has been improved by cleaning, and by 

 having more manure applied, which manure was ob- 

 tained by stall-feeding, and by cutting and steaming the 

 food during winter ; but I have allowed 5/. for that im- 

 provement. \ ou will observe 1 do not speak positively— 

 I am merely a looker-on ; but any information asked for 

 was always given me.— A Leicestershire Yeoman. 



Mr. Smith of Deanston.— \ have a letter now be- 

 fore me, dated December, 1824, from my early friend and 

 benefactor, James Smith, Esq., of Deanston, now of 

 13, Queen-square, Westminster. It tells me that he is 

 draining the whole of the Deanston farm, which I knew 

 to be nothing but a morass, where the greyhounds sunk 

 to the second joint every step they took ; and that in a 

 very short period, by good management, with proper 

 draining and subsoil-ploughing, it could be brought from 

 a condemned farm, not worth more" than 5s. per acre to 

 be now let at from 21. 10s. to 3/. per acre is most 'as- 

 tonishing. Mr. S.was at that time everybody's friend, rich 

 and poor ; his advice was courted by all ; all differe'nce> 

 that were likely to lead to anything serious were settled 

 by Mr. Smith; and I believe the greatest loss that Dean- 



a better distance ; but that is mere opinion. At the 

 distances I have named, I planted Lucerne on the 1st 

 of last May, and although, from the extreme drought, it 

 was for some weeks so entirely at the mercy of the fly, 

 that I was near ploughing it in, yet when once it got good 

 hold of the ground it grew so rapidly that we have cut it 

 three times — the two last, heavy crops, some of the 

 roots having by that time 70 distinct stems, and none 

 less than 40. I find constantly many valuable hints in 

 the Chronicle, and generally adopt them. Doubtless 

 there are many who pursue the same course, and I have 

 therefore thought it right to trouble you with this. Lu- 

 cerne, properly grown on land to which it is adapted, is 

 perhaps the most valuable of all crops for cattle-feeding, 

 and everything should be done to promote its greater 

 cultivation. — Frederic Kelly, 49, Hunter-street. 



jfeoriettes. 



ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY of ENGLAND. 



DR. PLAYFAIR'S FIRST LECTURE. 



The first of the Annual Lectures of this Society 

 was delivered in the Theatre of the Royal Institution, on 

 Wednesday evening, the Duke of Richmond, President, 

 in the chair. There was a large attendance of Members, 

 and we observed present the Marquis of Northampton, 

 Lord Spencer, the Marquis of Downshire, Lord Essex, 

 Dr. Buckland, Dr. Daubeny, Dr. Falconer, Prof. E. 

 Forbes, Dr. Day, P. Pusey, Esq., M.P., Sir O. Mosley, 

 E. Chadwick, Esq., aud other distinguished Members of 

 the Society and men of science. The Lecturer com- 

 menced by pointing out the value of the principles of 

 science, as a guide to the practical details of art. In the 

 present lecture he should give an outline of those scien- 

 tific principles which could alone safely guide the prac- 

 tical man in the new features of his art. In the second 

 he should apply those principles. Experience was by 

 some regarded as the only guide in practice ; but there 

 were many cases in which experience could suggest no 

 alternative in practice, and here science stepped in to the 

 aid of the practical man. The farmer in Virginia had 

 found, by the experience of a hundred years, that his 

 land would grow Wheat every year ; but, when his land 

 failed to do this, his experience suggested no alternative. 

 In other parts of America the soil had afforded nutriment 

 to alternate crops of Wheat and Tobacco ; but at last 

 the soil failed to grow either, and individual experience 

 was of no value. The question for the Americans to 

 consider in these cases was, Can we again make our land 

 grow Wheat and Tobacco as it has done ? and this could 

 only be answered by science. The answer was, that 

 these crops had exhausted the soil of ingredients ne- 

 cessary to their existence, and these ingredients must be 

 again supplied. It was the same in certain counties or 

 districts in England ; the land failed to produce certain 

 crops in a given time, and the season couid only be as- 

 certained by scientific inquiries. It would be vain for 

 the farmer of light lands to suggest to the cultivator of a 

 heavy land the expedients he had found of avail in re- 

 storing the fertility of his soil, and vice versa. Such 

 differences existed in every district, and the cause of 

 these differences could only be ascertained by scientific 

 inquiry. It was only by a combination of experience 

 and science that the object of the pursuit of the farmer 

 could be obtained, and for that object this Society had 

 been instituted. Before proceeding to theory, he would 

 make a statement of the constituents of the soil required 

 by plants; these were :— Silica, alumina, lime, magne- 

 sia, iron, potassa, manganese, soda. These bases were 

 combined with sulphuric acid, phosphoric acid, chlo- 

 rine, fluorine, iodine, bromine, carbonic acid. These 

 were the ingredients with which the soil was stored and 

 out of which the whole vegetable kingdom had been 

 formed. These constituents existed at the creation 

 of the world, and it was from these that the primitive 

 forests and plants of the world had been created. 

 What took place on a large scale in the field of the world 

 must also take place on the field of the farmer. It was 

 from Nature we must learn the principles of farming 

 The constituents out of winch plants were formed ex- 

 isted in the primitive rocks, from which everv other 

 strata was formed. These rocks consisted of g'ranite • 

 and granite was a compound of substances, known under 

 the names of felspar, mica, quartz, and hornblende 

 (specimens of granite, and these constituents of it were 

 exhibited). Now, in these rocks all the substances that 

 entered into the composition of plants existed. Che- 



Iton and the neighbourhood ever felt, was the leaving of 

 this much esteemed gentleman. He was manager of all 

 those extensive works at the early age of 17 ; at that 

 period he showed great powers as an engineer, and he is 

 now carrying out to the fullest extent, and in the most 

 skilful way, his draining and subsoil-ploughing all over 

 Great Britain and Ireland; and through his great know- 

 ledge no man can be better qualified, for his heart and 

 soul is In improving the land; and my earnest prayer is, 

 that long before he closes his eyes, he will have the plea- 

 sure of seeing every acre in Great Britain and Ireland, 

 producing double to what it did when he first began upon 

 the Deanston bog — misnamed a farm. — James Cuthill, 

 Florist, Denmark-hill, Camberwell, London. 



Lucerne. — Your advice to " Delta," as to the mode 

 of cultivating Lucerne, page 80G, is not good. Lucerne 

 should be planted in well-trenched ground, in drills, 

 2 feet at least apart, and the plants should be 12 inches, 

 at least, apart in the rows. If " Delta" pursues this 

 plan, putting in the seed not earlier than the last week in 

 April, thinning them to the distance I have stated as soon 

 as they get well out of their first leaves, he may cut the 

 Lucerne at least twice in the first year. I think 30 

 inches between the rows, and 15 between the plants, 



mists had not examined these rocks accurate!? Phr* 

 phate of lime had not been supposed to be a constituent 

 of granite, yet late researches, especially those of Dr 

 Daubeny on the rocks of Estremadura in Spain prov/rJ 

 that there was considerable quantities of phosphate of 

 lime in these primitive rocks. Common salt, chloridp 

 of sodium, had not been found in these rocks, but it 

 existed abundantly in the waters of the ocean! 



1 



The 



carbonic acid needed by plants existed in the atmosphere 

 and also in the waters of the sea. The inquiries of Bron* 

 gniart rendered it exceedingly probable that carbonic 

 acid existed in much greater quantities in the air and in 

 the water of primitive states of our globe than at the 

 present moment. The carbonic acid of the water must 

 have played a most important part in the original eco- 

 nomy of creation. It was only by its means that the 

 alkalies and earths could have been dissolved out of the 

 primitive rocks. When these constituents were dis- 

 solved, the great mass of the rocks over which the waters 

 rolled would be easily disintegrated, and the particles of 

 silica and alumina would then be deposited in another 

 form. It was thus that the three principal constituents 

 of our present soils were deposited. The silica being 

 deposited formed the sandstone rocks, and gave the cha- 

 racter to arenaceous soils ; the alumina formed the clay 

 bedsandargillaceous soils; the carbonate of lime the lime- 

 stone strata and calcareous soils. There had been a ques- 

 tion as to how these latter rocks had been formed. The 

 carbonate of lime (chalk) was an insoluble substance, and 

 did not exist to any extent in the primitive rocks 

 but it was easily formed by the union of carbonic acid* 

 and lime. It was a property of carbonic acid that, when 

 diffused in water, it would dissolve carbonate of lime* it 

 was thus held in solution in the first water. If the car- 

 bonic acid was in any way separated from the water, then 

 the carbonate of lime was deposited. Mr. Lyell had 

 supposed that all the limestone beds were deposited from 

 springs from under the surface of the earth, which, com- 

 ing up charged with carbonic acid and carbonate of 

 lime, the former escaped on coming in contact with 

 the atmosphere, and the latter was deposited. But the 

 limestone beds gave evidence of being deposited at the 

 bottom of tranquil seas. They contained remains of 

 animals, and before animals could live, there must be 

 plants. Now, one of the principal constituents of the 

 food of plants was carbonic acid, and he (Dr. Playfair) 

 would suggest that it was the marine vegetation of 

 those periods which, taking up the carbonic acid 

 of the waters, caused the deposition of carbonate of 

 lime. It was no argument against this view, that 

 remains of plants were not found in limestone beds, as 

 Dr. Lindley had proved that decaying vegetable tissue 

 was quickly reduced to its elements before any deposit 

 could be formed to seal its existence. The animals 

 which existed at the time, afforded to the chalk its 

 phosphates, and the analysis of chalk soils proved that 

 they contained this ingredient. It was not, however, the 

 fact, as some geologists had supposed, that the limestone 

 beds were formed entirely by animals. Some had asserted 

 that chalk was composed entirely of infusoria, and it was 

 from these and other animals that the chalk obtained its 

 silica ; but the chalk could not be composed entirely of 

 infusoria, as their function indicated. One function of 

 infusoria, hitherto unexplained, was the undoubted fact 

 that they gave out oxygen. This was exactly the con- 

 trary of what other animals did. They only existed where 

 the higher forms of animals or plants were decaying, and 

 where they existed they indicated this fact. They were 

 the scavengers of nature, and acted as purifiers, just the 

 same as the fungi did on land. The fungi existed by 

 means of decaying vegetable and animal matter, but they 

 differed from infusoria in giving out carbonic acid. This 

 was a curious fact, that the lowest animals performed the 

 function of the highest plants, and that the lowest plants 

 performed a function in common with the highest/ 

 animals. But other means were taken to prepare the 

 soil from primitive rocks, so that the secondary ones 

 should become a fit theatre for terrestrial animals ana 

 plants to live upon. The rocks were thrown, by vol- 

 canic action, above the surface of the water, and then, 

 by the action of the oxygen of the atmosphere, the car- 

 bonic acid, rain, and frost, they were decomposed, ana 

 their elements entered into combinations fitted toDecom ? 

 the food of plants. The iron of these rocks uuderwe ° c f 

 changes. Iron existed in nature in two forms, tnac o 

 the protoxide, or one proportion of oxygen and one 

 iron ; and that of the peroxide, with two proportions ot 

 iron and three of oxygen. The former was injurious , t 

 vegetation, and to animal life ; the latter was DeneI T 

 and necessary. The protoxide could be converted id 

 the peroxide by the absorption of oxygen from tne > 

 whilst the peroxide was reduced to the P rotoXI im . 

 action of decomposing organic matter. This was ^ 

 portant practical fact. It went on, on a great * ca 



po 

 nature. 



It WCIlt uu, w" « 6 U ot \a 



The blue clays of the lias and coal-beds 



nature. lne Diue ciays oi tue no* -«- - ntained 

 where there was much organic matter, always cont 

 the protoxide. The red sandstone contained tnj b 

 oxide. A curious instance of the formation ot twp 

 oxide had been observed by Mr. Binney, /*. w * n hood# 

 ter, in the coal-measures about that neighbou w 

 Wherever shells were found open, where there 

 casion to suppose the animal escaped, the rock in 

 it was embedded was red, indicating the presence or 



red or peroxide of iron ; but where the shens ^ 

 closed, and the animal had gradually decomposea, 

 blue, indicating the protoxide ; which had been ^ r J sand , 

 the decomposing matter of the animals. In tue r tre- 

 stones there was the peroxide ; and one iroportan ^ 



garding this substance was that it had a great an / ^ 

 ammonia, which it absorbed, and could be detecw 



