876 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



terest on the subject, or can exercise much judgment | 

 respecting it. On many estates the timber is almost ex- 

 clusivity confined to the hedgerows, where it is very 

 abundant, I has been suffered to ;tow up without the 

 slightest attention to pruning. On every side trees of 

 considerable magnitude may be seen spreading their 

 limbs widely over the inclosures they surround, so low 

 as, in many instances, scarcely to leave headrcom for 

 the plough teams ; yet it is with difficulty that a tree 

 can be found having a clear bole of sufficient length to 

 be converted into plank for a barn floor, or even into 

 materials for common field-gates. The total neglect of 

 pruning hedgerow trees is a severe injury to the farmer. 

 The massive heads of the trees reach almost ro the sur- 

 face of the soil, destroying that portion of the crop over 

 which they immediately extend, and injuring the remain- 

 der by shutting out the light and air from them. It 

 also leads to the wretched practice, wherever it is not 

 strictly forbidden, of lopping off the lower limbs when 

 of large size. This practice exists to a great extent ; 

 the limbs are commonly cut off at the distance of 2 

 or 3 feet from the bole, under the notion that the 

 stumps will throw out young shoots, and thereby pre- 

 Tent their decay. This may be the case when trees are 

 felled within a few years after having received such treat- 

 ment ; but if they remain standing for a longer period, 

 some of these stumps must inevitably decay, and then 

 they serve as channels to convey the falling rain into 

 the bole, much to its injury. If landowners could be 

 induced to give instructions that all young saplings 

 standing in the hedgerows on their farms, should for the 

 fature be reared with clear stems of reasonable heights, 

 and if these instructions were attended to at the periodi- 

 cal times of making the hedges, it would contribute 

 equally to the advantage of themselves and their tenants; 

 and at the same time put an end to this sad habit of lop- 

 ping. Many timber merchants are altogether adverse 

 to pruning. On my speaking of the subject to one of 

 very extensive experience in the Wealds of Surrey and 

 Sussex, he most emphatically said, that "it is better at 

 once to cut down an Oak sapling, than to attempt to 

 prune it; the Oak," he added, " will not bear pruning.'* 

 Your correspondent, P. P., appears to have received a 

 very similar reply from the Sussex timber merchant ; 

 he, however, ultimately qualified his opinion by admit- 

 ting that you might keep a clear stem while the tree was 

 young, so that you did not interfere with its top, thus 

 assenting to nearly all that most advocates for moderate 

 pruning would desire. It is doubtful whether much 

 deference is due to the opinion of timber merchants on 

 the subject. Their attention is almost exclusively di- 

 rected to timber trees of mature growth ; and they are 

 too apt to attribute the defect discovered, in the conver- 

 sion of timber, to the injurious effects of pruning, when, 

 in truth, they should be referred either to the pernicious 

 practice of lopping, to which allusion has before been 

 made, or to the trees in which these defects appear, hav- 

 ing been permitted to grow up so close together, that, 

 for want of air, the lower limbs in time ceased to vege- 

 tate, and at length became rotten. It may be objected, 

 that it would be folly to attempt to rear trees in hedge- 

 rows, with lofty stems ; that, standing without shelter, 

 they are naturally disposed to throw out a profusion of 

 branches ; and that, to oppose this tendency would be 

 to combat against nature. It is not contended that we 

 should aim at obtaining lofty stems ; but that we should 

 endeavour, by early pruning, to secure boles of such 

 heights as may, according to situation, be reasonably 

 hoped for, and be capable of forming valuable timber. 

 Lxpenence proves we need not despair of this.— 



WW . Am 



}>ftatoes.—l wish to reply to the notices which have 

 recently appeared in the agricultural part of the Chronicle 

 casting doubts on the manuring properties of the Garn- 

 kirk fireclay for growing Potatoes. The experiment I 

 reported was certainly made on a very limited scale, and. 

 consequently, less satisfactory. For the accuracy of the 

 details I communicated, however, I can vouch, on evi- 

 dence that your correspondents will not question. 

 [This was not in the least doubted; we only suggested 

 the unreasonableness of inferring anything in agri- 

 culture from trials of such limited" extent] Mr. 



M'N if F n- e P ° tat0CS in P re8ence of Archibald 

 M Ne 11, Esq., Director of Chancery, and others, who 

 canatte 8tth truth of what I stated as to the relate 

 qualities of dung and clay used respectively. The prc- 



cZ't M \ T 8 JT 8 Z n taken U P in the P^ence of 

 Capt. Marshall, of the Royal Terrace here, Mr. Sprot, 



to M?r ;!V horaa ! Sprot ' and m y §elf - In an ^ 



to Mr. GoodifTe I may observe, that so far from the in- 

 fluence of the dung having extended to the shaws 

 manured with fireclay, it was the shaw farthest off from 

 r,e dung that gave the greatest return, the produce of 

 which alone was more than both the dunged shaws put 



SSSf r ' f ? PP °l C thefi f ures !' 2 > 3, 4, to represent the 



3 and 4 the dunged shaws ; the shaw No. 1 was more 

 productive than both Nos. 3 and 4. Yet I own the ex- 

 periment was too limited. It will be put to the severest 

 test next season ; for not only Mr. Sprot, but his neigh- 

 bour, Mr. Campbell, of Bedlay, and others, are to try it 

 on a large scale, by growing, say three or four drills of 

 Potatoes manured with clay, and three or four drills 

 manured with dung alternately over the field. Let your 

 readers have the kindness to await the issue, and till then 



suspend their judgment. -JVT. Anderson, Mary field, 

 ■tatnourffh, Dec. 7. 



To yet rid of Moss.-- Told your sheep on the parts 

 overrun with it, and give them Turnips or Swedes, &c, 

 to eat iq troughs.-— J. B. 



[Dec. 28, 



Storiettes. 



HIGHLAND AND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 

 The first monthly meeting of this Society for the 

 session was held on Wednesday last, under the pre- 

 sidency of Mr. Graham, of Balgowan. — Mr. Borthwick 

 of Crookston commenced the business of the meeting by 

 reading a report on the plantation made by the Duke of 

 Richmond, on his estates in Aberdeenshire, during the 

 last five years. The ground planted comprises the 

 Binhill and adjoining moors, situated in the parishes of 

 Cairnie and Huntly, and distant one mile from the town 

 of Huntly. It extends 2\ miles from e*st to west, and 

 2\ miles from north to south, comprehending an area of 

 2258 imperial acres. The aspect of the ground is much 

 diversified by irregular rocky hills. The surface is either 

 rocky or occupied with very large earth-fast stones, 

 which rendered it quite unfit for tillage, and had been 

 pastured as a common by sheep and cattle belonging to 

 small tenants and crofters. The soil is various. On the 

 low grounds the soil is in some parts wet gravelly clay, 

 retentive of water ; in others of deep rich loam, damp, 

 and even swampy; and at other parts it is of friable loam, 

 on dry porous subsoil. On the high rocky grounds the 

 soil is friable loam of good quality. On the braes along 

 the base of the rising grounds it is deep and mellow. 

 The vegetation consisted of benty Grass upon the wet 

 retentive clay, green sward with long Heather upon the 

 damp deep soil, and green sward and Bhort open Heather 

 upon the high rocky grounds. The land was surveyed, 

 and a plan made in 1838, by Messrs. Beattie and Walker, 

 land-surveyors in Aberdeen, and they also made out the 

 specifications of the contract for fencing the grounds and 

 planting them. The fence consists of a Galloway dyke 

 of angular stones, built 3£ feet in height, at 6d. per yard, 

 carriage included, at a cost of 464/. 4s. 3d. A number 

 of open drains were made through the wettest parts of 

 the ground, from 1 to 2 feet in depth, 12 inches wide at 

 the bottom, and from 1£ to 3 feet wide at the top, at a 

 cost in all of 225/. lbs. Id. A road of 15 feet in width was 

 made for the purpose of giving access to a moss from 

 which the servants were in the habit of supplying them- 

 selves with peat fuel, and which cost 180/. The roads 

 afterwards required for conveying away the thinnings of 

 the woods, and the timber itself, will be made as occa- 

 sions require. The grubbing of Whins and other plants 

 cost 54/. Os. 9d. The ground was subdivided into seven 

 portions before being planted, and the trees which each 

 division was to receive were specified in the contract. 

 The first lot was planted with Scots Fir and Larch, 



2 years' seedlings ; the second lot with Spruce alone, 



3 years' seedlings ; the third lot with Scots Firs alone, 

 2 years' seedlings ; the fourth lot with Larch alone, 

 2 years' seedlings ; the fifth lot with hardwood, 4 years 

 transplanted, consisting of Oak, Elm, Ash, Birch, and 

 Beech, in equal quantities ; the sixth lot with Larch 

 alone, 2 j; years transplanted ; and the seventh lot with 

 Scots Fir and Spruce, 2 years transplanted. The exact 

 quantity of ground thus planted consisted of 2257 acres, 

 2 roods, 1 pole, with 6,387,017 trees. The contractors 

 for planting the whole ground were Messrs. Lawson and 

 Son, Edinburgh, Seedsmen to the Highland and Agri- 

 cultural Society, and their contract price was 1956/. 

 with obligation to uphold the plants for 4 years. The 

 operation of planting commenced in March, 1836, was 

 resumed in November, and finished entirely by the 20th 

 of December of the same year, and the task was per- 

 formed by from 50 to 80 men and boys. The cost of all 

 the operations stands thus : — 



Estimate for planting ...... ^1056 



Inclosing with a stone dyke . . . . 464 4 3 



Making a road 180 o 



Lraining with open drains 225 15 7 



Grubbing up bushes 54 9 



Expenses of survey, &c . 76 12 11 



^2056 13 6 



Giving an average cost of about 26s. per acre. 



It seems that about 100,000 plants were required to fill 

 up the blanks caused by ordinary failures during the 

 four years in which the contractors were bound to up- 

 hold the plants ; but as many of the plants had been 

 placed in situations unsuited to their nature, though in 

 accordance with the terms of the specifications, the 

 blanks occasioned by their failure were filled up at an 

 additional expense to the proprietor. For this purpose, 

 260.000 Larch, 340,000 Scots Fir, and 50,000 Spruces, 

 were required. "It remains only to be added," concludes 

 the report, " that during the past summer the planta- 

 tions have made rapid progress, excepting in those por- 

 tions of the ground where, from various causes, the 

 plants have failed to some extent ; and that the Binhill 

 and moors adjoining it already begin to assume some- 

 thing of a clothed appearance." Mr. Borthwick re- 

 marked, that one might learn from the Paper which he 

 had the honour to be appointed to read to the meeting, 

 that although much attention had been paid to the drain- 

 age of the land, and to the prevention of the Grasses 

 originally growing on some parts of it from choking the 

 young plants, yet that a greater degree of precaution 

 might have been advantageous. There are many in- 

 stances of plantations being made, which have either 

 failed, or, advancing in a feeble and languid state, have 

 not made more progress at the end of ten or fifteen years 

 than they would have done in four or five, had more time 

 and pains been taken, before the act of planting, 

 thoroughly to drain, cultivate, subdivide, and inclose the 

 land. As appeared in the present case, considerable in- 

 jury had been done to the young plants on the more 

 fertile divisions of the land (where the hardwoods, the 

 most extensive of them, were put), from being overlaid 

 and killed by the Grasses. Mr. B. was of opinion that 

 on such situations where the plough could be used, ad- 1 



I vantage arose from ploughing the land with a shallow 

 furrow, and taking a crop of grain, for a season or two 

 so as to pulverise the surface, and remove the old esta- 

 blished Grasses, the roots and stems of which, on land 

 never before in tillage, or on old lea, formed a thick mat- 

 ting, which, as it were, thatched the ground, and thereby 

 unless in very wet seasons, prevented the rains from fully 

 penetrating the soil. But by this preparatory process 

 the humidity of the showers during the first season after 

 young trees are planted reaches and invigorates their 

 roots, which, soon striking into the subsoil, give them a 

 firm hold of the ground. Where the land is so situated 

 as that it cannot be ploughed, from steepness or other- 

 wise, benefit might be derived from paring the land to 

 some distance round the space where each plant is to be 

 put.— The next Paper, on the Results of Comparative Ex- 

 periments made by Mr. James Melvin, Bonnington, near 

 Ratho, on Potatoes imported from different countries on 

 the Continent, with the common varieties cultivated in 

 this country, was read by Mr. Boyle, gr. of Shewalton. 

 The foreign varieties consisted of two from Hamburg 

 and one from Holland. They all had when planted an 

 unpromising appearance, being small, even smaller than 

 the out-riddlings in this country— green and watery 

 when boiled— having a clear thin skin when washed, and 

 showing a great many eyes. The soil in which they had 

 grown had stained them with a brownish-black colour. 

 Of the two varieties from Hamburg, one was white, the 

 other pink ; and that from Holland was white. They 

 were planted in two fields, occupying in all fully a 

 Scotch acre, in a manner precisely similar to the Pota- 

 toes of this country. The Hamburg Pink almost entirely 

 rotted in the ground. The two white varieties mani- 

 fested at first an unfavourable appearance, sending up 

 puny shoots — every eye, however, sent up a shoot — and 

 as most of the tubers had been planted whole, and the 

 people, fearing to lose the crop, from their sraallness, in- 

 sisted on planting two together, and the number of shoots 

 that came up crowding together, showed at once that the 

 crop had been too closely planted. After the stems had 

 risen about two feet they interlaced in the drills, and 

 presented a surface of uniform levelness, and at length 

 towered far above the common varieties in the same 

 field. The Dutch White exhibited a white blossom, 

 with a few seed-apples ; the Hamburg White a beauti- 

 ful purple and highly odorous blossom, but no seed- 

 apples. The leaves of the Dutch sort had fallen, while 

 those of the Hamburg remained vigorous and green when 

 the crop was taken up. In regard to comparative pro- 

 duce, in one field, the Hamburg White yielded 12 tons 

 per acre, while the common Dons gave only 6 tons, with 

 20 tons of farmyard dung and 3 cwt. of specific manure, 

 of the value together of 71. 7s. per acre. In the other 

 field the Dutch White also yielded 12 tons, and the Dona 

 7 tons per acre, with 24 tons of farmyard dung, and 

 3 cwt. of specific manure, at a cost of 8/. 11 s. per acre. 

 The few Hamburg Whites which had been planted by 

 accident among the Hamburg Pinks that rotted, havirg 

 plenty of room to grow — about 4 yds. to each plant— 

 their stems spread greatly about, and in taking up the 

 crop, scattered as it was, each stem produced from 10 to 

 20 marketable Potatoes ; others had as many large ones, 

 with from 20 to 60 small ; others had 90 ; and one had 

 102 Potatoes, from the size of a boy's marble to those of 

 an ordinary-sized Potato. The Dutch White are the 

 best to eat,' but none of the foreign varieties are good for 

 the table, being watery, though they seem well adapted 

 for cattle, producing at least one-third more than either 

 the Buffs or Dons. On another farm the Hamburg 

 White gave from a sandy meadow 15£ tons per acre; 

 while the Dons only yielded 8£ tons, and the Early-lates 

 9£ tons. On a third farm from strong soil, but drained, 

 the Hamburg White yielded 7 tons an acre more than 

 the common sorts beside it.— Mr. Stephens then shortly 

 described the Stone or Stubble-turnip, and exhibited 

 some 'specimens sent to the Museum by Mr. Richard 

 Makins, Shellacres, near Cornhill, in Northumberland. 

 This Turnip possesses all the characters of the garden 

 Stone-turnip, and may have acquired its larger size from 

 having been cultivated in the fields. This Turnip may 

 be raised with bone-dust or guano, like any other kind, 

 and it may be sown as late as the 11th July, and yet 

 afford a good-sized firm bulb by the beginning of the 

 ensuing September, when they may be laid down on the 

 stubble or lea for the use of the cattle or sheep. Mr. 

 Stephens prefaced the description of the Stubble-turnip, 

 with a few remarks on the utility of Rape for sheep early 

 in autumn. It is raised like Turnips, and in order to 

 avoid the inconvenience of ploughing in its strong stems 

 when the consumption of Rape is delayed till late m 

 autumn, he recommended portions of it to be sown at 

 different times, so that each portion may always be in a 

 young growing state, with slender stems, when the stock: 

 arrives to consume it. With the possession of Rape for 

 sheep, and of Stubble-turnips for cattle, Mr. S. re fj arke . d 

 that farmers themselves would be to blame should their 

 stock want sufficient food early in autumn from the 

 failure of the Grass, till the winter Turnips are led into 

 the straw-yard.— Sir Charles Gordon, the Secretary, then 

 intimated that he had received notice of the melancholy 

 death of the celebrated M. Fellenberg, of Hofwyl, in 

 Switzerland. 



STURMINSTER AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



At the late Annual Meeting of this Society, at which 

 Earl Grosvenob presided, the Rev. Mr. Huxtablb, 

 of Sutton Waldron, delivered an excellent speech, from 

 which the following are extracts :— u Before I proceed to 

 practical farming, I hope you will not object to my 

 making an observation on the great question of emigra- 



