

1844.]' 





THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



RaMS FOR RAISING WATER WITHOUT LA- 

 BOUR, where a fall can be obtained. FOUNTAIN 



70, STRAND, LONDON. 



BASKS IN IRON, &c. 

 « F. FOE having: purchased all 

 the Patterns of Basins, Jets, 

 &c. fo;merly belonging to W. 

 Rowlej. Fountain Maker to the 



Royal Family, is enabled to offer 



the above article in iron, which 



will stand the Frost and last for 



ages. A Ram and Fountain 



Jets fixed on the premises for 



nspection. Every kind of Garden and other Pumps, Well 



Engines, Baths, &e. Houses, &c. Heated by Hot Water. 



CO years ago, to have expected as great advantages | plement ; and it may safely be predicted, that by its 

 irom the dibbling of Wheat as is now justly aid the dibbling system will make much more rapid 



^fje &grf cultural €&a5Ctte* 



SATURDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1844. 



MEETINGS FOR THE TWO FOLLOWING WEEKS. 

 Wednesday, Jan. 1— Highland and Agricultural Society. 

 Thursday, Jan. 2— Agricultural Imp. - of Ireland. 

 Thursday, Jan. 9— Agricultural Imp. Soc- of Ireland. 



In 



closing our first Volume, we take the op- 

 portunity of heartily thanking those who have con- 

 tributed to its pages. It is on its practical Corres- 

 pondents that an Agricultural Periodical must depend 

 for its real value. Its Editor may certainly speak 

 authoritatively when he treats of the principles of the 

 art ; but when he descends to any department of its 

 practice, he can only state his personal experience, 

 and the circumstances under which it was acquired, 

 and then he only occupies the situation of one of 

 his own correspondents. We say again— it is on the 

 number and qualifications of these that the value of 

 an Agricultural Journal must depend. That peri- 

 odical is necessarily the most useful whose pages are 

 filled with communications of the experience of its 

 readers in all the various circumstances of soil, cli- 

 mate, &c., to be met with in the district where it 

 circulates. We can say, without boast, that we have 

 readers on all the varying soils, and in all the differ- 

 ent climates to be met with in the three kingdoms, 

 and if we could induce a greater number of them to 

 state the agricultural experience of their respective 

 neighbourhoods, the usefulness of the Agricultural 

 Gazette would be much increased. For, as we said 

 at the beginning of the year — then only shall we 

 consider ourselves to have made much progress in 

 the course of usefulness on which we have endeavoured 

 to enter when our readers shall have been brought 

 to consider themselves as the members of one large 

 Farmers' Club for mutual instruction, ourselves occu- 

 pying the place of the mouth and the ear through 

 which they may communicate with each other. 



The value we attach to reports of local agricul- 

 ture when qualified by a full statement of ttie cir- 

 cumstances which justify it, makes us regard, with 

 particular satisfaction, the sketches of East Lothian 

 husbandry by Mr. Sullivan, the last of which series 

 is this day published in our columns. If the Agri- 

 cultural Gazette had done nothing more in its first 

 year's existence than clear up the misconceptions 

 which have existed as to the state of farmer and 

 farming in that celebrated county, no one need have 

 blushed for it. We venture to assert, that for quan- 

 tity of valuable agricultural information, in so small 

 a space, these " Sketches " are unequalled by any dis- 

 trict report "of farming hitherto published ; and any 

 one may see if we are wrong, by examining the 

 volumes on the several counties, called forth by 

 the premiums of the Board of Agriculture. We 

 may also point, under this class to the " Geo-Agri- 

 cultural Notes of South Gloucestershire," by 

 " M. S.,"as clearly bringing out the influence of Geo- 

 logy upon • Agriculture — a point which of late 

 years has been deemed of considerable importance. 

 Among the other series of papers which we have this 

 year published, we may refer to the articles on the 

 "Application of Chemistry to Agriculture," on rational 

 principles, by C. R. Bree, Esq., of Stowmarket; the 

 papers on the " Flax Plant," by Mr. Sproule ; and 

 those on " Black Horseponds and Liquid Manure," by 

 Mr. GYDii, of Painswick, to show that our columns have 



been by no means deficient in useful matter. Much 

 attention, too, has been excited amongst our readers 

 during the past year, to the waste of home manure in 

 the ditches and horse-ponds of farm-yards, and to 

 the loss in foreign manure by adulteration. This 

 latter, in particular, was shown to be carried on to 

 an extent before unconceived of. 



We have already made arrangements for the appear- 

 ance, during the ensuing year, of many important 

 papers, amongst the subjects of which we may 

 mention Drainage, the Economy of Cottages, the 

 Economy of Farm-buildings, the Weeds of Agri- 

 culture, &c, and these will guarantee a continuance of 

 the usefulness which the Paper has hitherto pos- 

 sessed. Nevertheless, we must continue to solicit our 

 readers themselves to enter upon the great task of 

 mutual instruction. Our columns are always open 

 to details of facts bearing upon Agricultural practice. 



cast and three pecks dibbled is 225 bushels. The saving 

 in monev, at 6s. the bushel, is 52/. 10s. in the one case, 

 and 67/.' 10*. in the other, or 2s. Id. and 3s. 4d. an 

 acre over the whole farm, 13 or 16 per cent, on a 

 rental of 20$. This saving is independent of the in- 

 creased produce to be obtained by dibbling, which, 

 to put it in the least favourable point of view, more 

 than compensates for the increased expense of the 

 process over drilling and broadcast sowing. 



The dibbling-machine invented by Mr. Newberry, 

 of Hook Norton, Oxfordshire, appears to fulfil the 

 conditionsof thin and regular dropping,insisted upon as 

 necessary to secure the superiority of this mode of 

 sowing. The price of the implement is high, but on 

 a farm of 400 acres the saving of seed pays for it in 



of 



Many benevolent persons who make the welfare one season on the Wheat crop alone **«£*> 

 the agricultural labourer their care, appear, some 1 the great demand which we know to exist for the mi- 



justly 

 expected from the allotment system. 



The origin of the practice, in Norfolk, is well 

 known. A poor labourer, in order to economise seed 

 in sowing a small patch of Wheat on the plot of 



*rku nd attached t0 his cottage, planted it with the 

 dibble. The produce was so great as to attract the 

 attention of the neighbouring farmers, by whom the 

 experiment was repeated on a larger scale with such 

 success as to lead to the extensive adoption of dibbling 

 in the practice of that county. Great efforts were 

 made to extend it to others, by philanthropists, in 

 order to increase the amount of agricultural employ- 

 ment and human food— by the political economists, 

 to render the labour of women and children a source 

 of national wealth, in imitation of the system adopted 

 in our factories at too dear a rate. These efforts, 

 however, met with little success ; they were opposed 

 by the usual vis inert in, and the usual objection of, u It 

 may do there but it will not do here:' The strong soils 

 were considered too wet for dibbling ; the dry soils 

 as not possessing sufficient strength to enable the 

 plant to tiller. Even in Norfolk the dibbling of 

 Wheat appears soon to have reached its culminating 

 point, for when Arthur Young made his report to the 

 Board of Agriculture, early in this century, he de- 

 scribed it as on the decline. 



An objection to the practice, which we have re- 

 cently heard urged against it, has probably some 

 weight, namely, that it can only be well performed 

 in the early part of the season ; for as the weather 

 becomes cold the droppers cannot feel the grains, and 

 deposit too many in a hole. We know not whether 

 a desire to increase the means of giving employment 

 in agriculture, combined with the fine autumn we 

 have enjoyed, to cause a more extensive adoption of 

 dibbling this year than usual ; but from our own ob- 

 servations in East Norfolk, we should estimate that 

 full one-third of the Wheat crop in that district is 

 put into the ground in that manner. The prepara- 

 tion of the ground is the same as for drilling. The 

 dibbling is paid for by the acre, at the rate of 7s. to 

 85. for dibbling and dropping. The lower price is, 

 for broken ground, the higher for that put in on the 

 whole "flag:" Is. 6d. a-day for men, and 6d. a-day 

 for women, is the current rate of wages in the dis- 

 trict. The dibbler usually employs his own family 

 for the dropping. Two droppers to each dibbler is 

 the general proportion. The dibbles are of iron, 

 about 4 feet long ; the workman bending his back 

 uses a dibble with each hand ; he makes the holes 

 about one inch deep, the distance between the holes 

 being sometimes 4 inches each way, sometimes 4 

 inches in the rows, and the rows in pairs 3 to 4 inches 

 asunder, with an interval of 6 inches between each 

 pair. 



On counting, in numerous fields, the spears issuing 

 from the ground, we found that rarely less than four 

 or five grains had been deposited in a hole, and not 

 unfrequently more than 10. Even under the disad- 

 vantages of crowded plants which thus arise, 

 the superior strength of the stubbles of dibbled 

 over drilled crops is very obvious. There are 

 in this district no broadcast stubbles with which 

 to compare them. The saving of seed by the pro- 

 cess thus conducted is not very great, 10 pecks an 

 acre being the quantity usually drilled, and a little 

 less, or when more precise information can b^ ob- 

 tained, 8 pecks an acre, when dibbled. A large 

 farmer, who dibbles none himself, from the difficulty 

 of having the dropping well performed, declared to 

 us, that if any method could be devised to insure the 

 deposit of one or two grains in each hole, he had no 

 doubt that this way of sowing Wheat would be su- 

 perior to all others. Now, two grains to a hole, at 

 the above distances, amount to no more than two 

 pecks of seed to the acre ; so that it is easy to calcu- 

 late the saving which might be effected were even 

 three pecks used, in order to provide for casualties. 

 The difference between three pecks an acre dibbled 

 and ten drilled amounts, on a farm of 400 acres, culti- 

 vated on the four course rotation, to 175 bushels. The 

 difference between three bushels an acre sown broad- 



progress in every part of England than in that in 

 which it commenced, more than half a century ago. 

 i )n dry soils, there can be no doubt that this is the 

 best way of sowing Wheat. The inventor of the 

 dibbling-machine uses it on clay. To Barley, Oats, 

 and Tares, dibbling is as applicable as to Wheat ; and 

 for spring crops, there is less to be feared from it on 

 stiff soils. Nothing contributed so much to promote 

 the extension of drilling as the system of travelling 

 drills ownetl by professional drillers, performing the 

 work by the acre for those farmers who, by reason of 

 the small size of their holdings, or their want of con- 

 fidence in a new practice, were unwilling to purchase 

 so expensive an implement. We would therefore 

 suggest to landlords, Agricultural Societies, and others 

 anxious to promote the diffusion of improvement, 

 Hid to encourage the agricultural labourer, the pro- 

 priety of purchasing, against the approaching spring, 

 a few of these machines, to be placed in the hands of 

 meritorious labourers, who shall dibble by the acre 

 for the farmers, and pay for the machine by instal- 

 ments. Care, however, must be taken, for obvious 

 reasons, not to introduce too many into a district, 

 while the practice is in its infancy.— JB. W. 



AGRICULTURAL EXPBRII 



(Continued from ] e 858.) 



The only other experiments which 1 hive to record at 

 present, are some which were designed to test the advan- 

 tage of steeping seed, both alone, and combined with the 

 other advantages of being hoed, and of being watered with 

 different proportions of the same solutions in which it 

 was steeped. Four breadths of ground adjoining those 

 last mentioned were sown with 20 rows of Wheat in each, 

 and each was divided into four parts ; in the first five 

 rows, the seed was previously steeped for 24 hours, and 

 nothing more was done ; in the second, besides the 

 steeping, the intervals were hoed ; in the third, a solution 

 of 8 oz. of the salt in which it was steeped was added 

 on the 13th of April ; and in the fourth, a solution of 

 4 oz. at the same time, in 9 gallons of water, but these 

 two last portions received also additional hoeings; the 

 third was hoed twice, the fourth three times. This per- 

 haps complicates the experiments too much, and intro- 

 duces some uncertainty into the results; however, it it 

 necessary to state the tacts : the dimensions of each por- 

 tion were 3G£ square yards ; the quantity of corn sown 

 in each was a quarter of a pint : — 



Weight of 

 Corn. 



Weight of 

 S'raw. 



| Quantity of 

 Corn. 



Nit. of potash. 



1 not hoed 



2 hoed once 



3 twice, 8oz. sol. 



4 thrice, 4 OS. . 

 Mur. of amnion. 



1 not hoed 



2 hoed once 



3 twice . 



4 thrice 

 Phos. of potash. 



lb. 

 10 

 11 



13 



IS 



14 

 15 



17 

 Id 



oz. 



2 

 6 

 5 

 5 



2 



2 

 12 

 10 



lb. 



20 



21 



M 



25 



24 

 25 



27 



26 



OZ. 



4 



8 

 I 



7 



4 



4 

 14 

 II 



gall.qt.pt. 



o s oj 



1 2 0i 



1 3 0} 



2 0^ 



1 3 U 

 S 0i 



2 Of 

 2 ©J 



1 . 



17 



S 



27 



4 



* i oj 



2 



16 



10 



26 



12 



2 lj 



3 . . . 



16 







26 



S 



2 Oi 



4 



16 



10 



26 



12 



2 1 0i 



Sulph of soda. 











^^ 



l 



16 



4 



27 







2 1J 



2 



17 



S 



27 



4 



S 1 0i 



• • • 



19 



15 



SO 



1 



2 3 



4 ... 



21 



2 



31 



4 



3 3 1 



In order to explain the remarkable inferiority of that 

 part on which the nitrate of potash was employed, it is 

 necessary to observe that one end of that land was en- 

 tirely overshadowed by a large Apple-tree, which deprived 

 the corn of its food from light, and air, and earth; and 

 therefore its produce cannot fairly be compared with the 

 others ; but its own sections, being all under the same 

 circumstances, may be compared with one another ; and 

 the comparison shows that the hoeing was of use pro- 

 bably as often as it was repeated, but how* much, it is im- 

 possible to determine, on account of the solution with 

 which 3 and 4 were watered. One thing, how- 

 ever, is clear, that the increase, which bore some pro- 

 portion to the number of hoeings, was in no proportion 

 to the quantity of solution which it received, but rather 

 in an inverse ratio; and so, too, with respect to the sul- 

 phate of soda, which was much the most efficient of 

 these manures, and in one instance gave a return equiva- 

 lent to more than six quarters per acre : the same pro- 

 gression may be remarked, but not at all in conformity 

 to the quantity of it used. The muriate of ammonia, in- 

 deed, seems to have observed a different law, and the as- 

 cending scale is more governed by the quantities of the 

 manure, but still No 2 affords the same evidence of the 

 beneficial effects of stirring the soil ; the only exception 

 is in the instance of the phosphate of potash, which is a 

 most anomalous and inexplicable case ; for it would seem, 

 not only that hoeing was injurious to it, but that an ad- 

 dition of the same solution was equally injurious, and a 

 further addition more injurious still : and yet, that the 

 saturation of the seed with the salt was so beneficial as to 

 raise the produce higher than any of the others. The 

 only inference that I can draw from this is, that there was 

 some local peculiarity in the composition of the soil, 

 which modified the action of ordinary causes ; and if this 

 be so, the utility of a practice which has lately been much 

 recommended, the practice of sending to a chemist for 

 analysis a handful of soil selected for a sample, must ap- 

 pear to be extremely doubtful ; the elements of vegetation 



