1844.] 









tion in reference to the labourers. I do not agree with ! th^ ;«." r~ " 



those who consider emigration as the J ? ™F„?° ?il 5?" * was co,rered *ith bar 



ISJ^AGBJCU L T U R A L GAZETTE 



those who consider emigration as the great panacea for 

 the evils of the country, nor do I think, under present 

 circumstances, that it is necessary to resort to this plan 

 for the purpose of relieving u. from what some term our 

 redundant population. On the contrary, I am satisfied 

 that, at present, in agricultural districts, we are far from 

 having a surplus population, and that, instead of send- 

 ing our labourers to a foreign land, away from their 

 country and kindred— where there may be no dwellings 

 for them, and where they would be without spiritual 

 care, far from all churches, schools, and ministers of 

 religion— we could profitably employ them in our own 

 country. Why, my lord, I think, if the farms were 

 cultivated as they ought to be, and if the necessary im- 

 provements were made, instead of sending our labourers 

 out to Canada or other distant colonies, we should want 

 to go abroad for labourers. And whilst this is true of our 

 rural districts generally, it is emphatically true of Dor- 

 setshire, where, in the Vale of Blackmoor, thousands of 

 acres require draining, and where, on the hills, thou- 

 sands of acres of down land might be profitablv brought 

 into cultivation. Let us consider the extent of labour 

 that would be created in breaking up waste lands. Each 

 iresh acre taken into cultivation would call, at least for 

 an outlay of 28*. a-year in labour; and although gentle- 

 men may love to gallop over those beautiful downs with- 

 out control, yet they should remember that there is in 

 the valleys a loud cry for labour, and for bread! I do 

 not object to the harmless and healthful recreations and 

 sports of the country, but if we cannot employ our 

 people in the valley, then I say, let us mount the hills. 

 Is not, 1 ask, the demand for labour enough to move the 

 sternest heart ? What is it the destitute labourers ask 

 from us ? They do not come knocking at our doors, as idle 

 mendicants, asking alms, but they ask for work. I have 

 seen such men at the cross of my parish ; and who can ob- 

 serve, in almost every parish, strong and yet peaceful men, 

 standing at the cross-road, soliciting, not charity, but 

 employment, saying, < Here we are, sir, able in body and 

 strong in nerve and arm; won't you give us work?' 

 Who can see this, and not on his pillow revolve in his 

 mind by what expedients this great power of our country, 

 this noble race of fellows, more free from the taints of 

 crime more patient and enduring than perhaps any other 

 class of their countrymen, may be turned to beneficial and 

 practical uses ? My own firm conviction is, that if we 

 avail ourselves of improved arts of cultivation, remuuer- 



87 



/ / 





ing I opened one of the pUs 'cent Su™.™, {£" £ 



««■ the Z WeekS ' fe ™"««*». ^ what 8 ute fhingt 

 were , the appearance was at first certainly most unnm 



to himself and h„ master than anything else did. * 



thif cT,T~i- thC N ,° Tember Mo «V MeetJof of 

 this Club, the subject under discussion wai, The proper 



ST. ^ anf : PrepariD? ' and M *" ur «■« ^. P nd for 



disu, a-yed, I carriedsome to"^ S-«.T3 Si ££ Z tTe^d iM f ** «-? «K.S^JS *£ 

 . S a 7 C S °, ' haVe C0,ered U P m " Pi' again feeW i lh.tlr°. f „ , P lou K b,n S « *" »utumn previous w thi 

 assured that when, in perhaps a month. ?he ferll^f oZlulT' ,1" W ^ A ""t ' Md 6l,0uld be > >lou S>>«» 



once at least in the spring; the manure applied is best 



ating labour may be found for all F HfZ; Zr P f T',i ln our f arm houses and cottages 



stanas draining, 'i haye ^M^J^'^T.^Y^J*!™™™^'™ «» to 12 hands, 



stands draining. I have executed many miles of drains 

 ^ feet deep, a perch apart, up and down the furrows 

 and I can truly state that, after the first season, the effect 

 has been almost magical in the altered appearance of both 

 soil and crops. No outlay, I am convinced, can pro- 

 duce so great a return. Why, then, do not gentlemen 

 ot capital employ their resources in this way ? How con- 

 temptible, in comparison, those miserable 3 per cents 

 above par. The Kohl Rabi and some of the Wurzel shown 

 this day m the yard, was grown on land which, before 

 draining, was valued at 8s. an acre. Another means of 

 employing our surplus population, as they are called, may 

 be found in transplanting Mangold Wurzel, Swedes, and 

 Kohl Rabi. The right practice is that the seed should 

 be sown in a seed-bed, at the end of March or the be- 

 ginning of April. As soon as the Vetches, Rape, Rye, or 

 other winter crop is consumed, the land should be 

 ploughed into ridges, and good dung laid in them, to be 

 then covered over by splitting the ridges ; after which 

 the Wurzel, Swedes, or Rabi should be transplanted on 

 them. This, I can tell you, is a certain means of obtain- 

 ing a good crop, care being taken that the Wurzel be 

 nearly as thick as one's middle finger. It is only the 

 sickly plants which fail. The expense of this transplant- 

 ation can never exceed 15s. an acre, even when, in 

 drought like that of this year, it becomes necessarv to 

 make a puddle with liquid manure to receive each plant. 

 On my hill farm, upon land which, when in down, was 

 supposed not to be worth more than 2s. Gd. an acre, in 

 the burning month of June, this year, whilst the chalk 

 stones were quite hot, I succeeded in raising 12 acres of 

 good Turnips, in utter defiance of the fly. The plan pur- 

 sued was to mix the Turnip-seed with pig's manure, and 

 then to dibble both together into holes made with a bean- 

 setting stick. This, of course, employed many hands, but 

 the cost was not more than 7s. per acre in labour ; 

 and I invite any one to inspect the crop, and then 

 decide whether the employment of surplus labour be 



t Q h° t / einimerating * General| y» the P lan of increasing 

 the demand for labour is to grow more green crops, and 



more abundant, ones. Last winter.I subsoiled, 18 inches 

 deep, a field previouslv well drained, and before horses 

 ? ouId i Jtand on it this spring, I sowed with artificial guano 

 in drills made by hand, Belgian Carrot seed previously 

 eeped in liquid manure ; and in consequence of using 

 tnis manual labour I have gathered a harvest of 29 tons 



?. roo { 8 » and 11 tons of tops. Let me now, my lord, men- 

 tion the success and particulars of a method, which I 

 learned from the American translation of Burger's German 



«*h L- d l ^ S wil1 serve to illustrate the advantage of 

 nook farming,' when corrected by practice), of pre- 



f r V^ t ^ it ' Wr plni leaves of our green crops as winter 



u for cattle. The plan I pursued was to dig a long 



and deep pit, say i2 feet long, 6 feet wide, and 7 feet 



e ^P» J° * 0| ne dry spot, or made dry by draining ; then to 



Put a bed of straw or Vetch haulm at "the bottom ; upon 



jnu ; a layer of leaves, Carrot or Mangold, was strewed a 



<j°t thick, and trampled firmly down by two o; three 



e * ; then a layer of salt, at the rate of 4 lbs. of salt to 



ery cwt. of leaves, distributed evenly; then another 

 laver nf Too — _ __j «.i_ _ /• ■. .»'.' . .,, , 



assured that when, in perils a nfon^, ffi nZ Ion" 

 is over I have a large bulk of valuable winter fodder for 



n L h C T' u rraCtical men wiU see *e value of this 

 ™S:£ V hCy be ? r - in mindthat on tak ing up the 



per ere'' BuT ST ^ ^ ^ 10 * U toas of ™* 

 ™r»? ™ i ♦ ".another mode of employing our 



rural population, more important perhaps than any other 

 yet suggested That is in the cultivation and a r 



X/ g 7^ 0f , the J lax cr °P> equally valuable for he 

 fibre and the seed. Here, however, we are met with the 



general objection, that Flax is an exhausting crot and 



its growth forbidden in gentlemen's leases f But' this 



prejudice I believe to have no other foundation fhan t e 



classical authority o a line in Virgil's first Georgic. I 



have the experienced authority of a gentleman at Gilling- 



Clares that his best Wheat crop is after Flax ! If we with 



follow^? '? Vf a,M ,° f i Fiai Cr ° P ' WC mUSt recol,ect * 

 following facts (for which, as well as for all the informa- 

 tion which I possess on this subject, I am indebted to that 

 able gentleman, Mr. Warnes. jun., of Trimingham.) 



to more than 5 millions a year-viz., a sum very nearly 

 equal to the amount of poor-rate. of all England, and 

 the value of this fibre consists chiefly in the labour ex- 

 pended on it Now, besides these 5 millions paid by 

 England for foreign labour, 2 or 3 millions more 

 are sent, annually, out of this country for linseed cake • 

 and what stuff it is ! I appeal to any gentleman who has 

 examined it with a microscope, to bear witness of what 

 incongruous and worthless materials it is, in a large 

 measure composed-of Mustard and refuse seeds, &£, 

 cScc. (And 'old rope/ by Mr. Farquharson, which 

 elicited a loud laugh.) Whilst we are sending away all 

 this money for fibre and seed, we might ourselves most 

 advantageously be growing and manufacturing this ad- 

 mirable crop ourselves. In our farm houses and cottars 



trill I" MPres t\r FL* _~...U i * « ~ 



,i _ , , m c / -•««* AW tw A- nanus. 



the whole winter months, in shelter and amidst their 

 families. And as to the value of the seed, I have learned, 

 by the use of 2 lbs. a day, grown on my own farm, pro- 

 perly ground, and diluted with boiling water poured over ' 

 cut straw or chaff (consisting of straw and Turnip-tops), 

 to feed my cows at 2\d. a day, and to obtain unusually 

 rich cream for the breakfast table, and this without 

 giving any hay. Indeed, so great a discovery do I con- 

 sider this, that I mean utterly to discard in future the 

 use of that fodder (hay), hitherto considered so indis 

 pensable for milch cows and a breeding flock. I have 

 two cows which I call my experimental cows. I assure 

 you that when I first had them they were miserable- 

 looking animals ; but now they have sleek coats and are 

 m good condition, giving excellent milk. I shall be glad 

 to show them to any gentleman who will be kind enough 

 to pay me a visit." After other observations, the rev. 

 gentleman said— "This, my lord, is but a most imperfect 

 and rudimentary sketch of some of the methods whereby 

 we can, by improved husbandry, employ our rural popu- 

 lation to their great happiness and our own advantage. 

 On another occasion, if we are allowed to meet another 

 year together, I shall, I believe, be able to set forth 

 other approved plans of engaging all our people ; but I 

 have already trespassed too long on your indulgence 

 (* No, no'), and therefore, in conclusion, I can only lift 

 my humble warning voice against any system which'shall 

 impress our labourers with the notion that we regard 

 them as an incumbrance and a nuisance, instead of their 

 being, as indeed they are, God's gift to us, and in the 

 words of the Society's motto, which your lordship has 

 so effectively set forth, ' Our country's dependence.' "— 

 (The rev. gentleman then sat down amidst loud and 

 long-continued applause.) 



n P ' *"°««Wy pipped, i.e. the water furrows well 

 opened through the winter, so that no stagnant waier 

 may remain in the land. Drilling and dialing Beans 



b7oULT men K ded i iQ * «-" "P^rence ihoZ\ 



kent £L\ M T tU *i m 1 a ? S thC lu,d "* bc hoeda nd 

 kept free from weeds whilst under crop ; the Suffolk 



M Tr l0n m05t 8Dils » a » d °««ko ribbing and 



to he g .r c i arrow dril1 in man ' «-«* but °*4 



to the seed spreading more m the rows by this process! 



wither ^m? 1 d ^ cuit to h ° e than * he « druSi 



with the Suffolk drill. From 18 to 20 inches was con- 

 sidered a good width betwixt the rows. 



/) rc/,^/rr.-At the annual meeting of this Society 

 Mr Sheridan said .—One of the object, of tail and 

 limllur societies is to increase the produce of the .oil; 

 I have, Wlt h that v U:w , madc one or two cx iments thig 



year. I nnxed MO lbs. of bone-dust and 40 lbs. of «ul- 

 phunc acid together, and added 400 gallon, of water ; 

 the cost of this was about 10,. M.-4 tta bone-dust 



and 6#. Sd. for the sulphuric acid. The liquid was con' 

 veyed to the held in a barrel, and applied in small quan- 

 .ties over an acre of ground after the seed was .own; 

 it was drilled fourteen inche. apart, on ridge., with 

 Skimng. Swede. The result has been, that I have a 

 lore abundant crop of Turnip, than I have seen else- 

 where in the neighbourhood, and thi. at an expense only 

 of 10*. Sd .per acre; whilst the general practice amongst 

 my neighbours, I believe, i. to apply two quarters of 

 bone-dust per acre, at a cost of 21. 2s. I think it right 

 oadd that there is a great deal of trouble attending 

 the application of this manure, and much caution is 

 necessary in conveying the liquid to the field where it is 

 to be used, as the sulphuric acid, unless sufficiently 

 diluted, i very destructive both to wood and metal. 

 Ihen again, I tried thin sowing on an acre of ground 

 upon our hills, exposed to the S.W. wind : I sowed one 

 bushel and a half of Marigold Wheat ; the drills were ten 

 inches apart The result has been, where the tenant 

 before only obtained 8£ bushels (!) from 3 bushels sown 

 I have reaped 11 sacks, the bushel weighing 01 lbs. 



I/olt.—Tht Exhibition (for a sweepstake. > of Swedish 

 Turnips grown by gentlemen in the neighbourhood of 

 Holt, in Norfolk, took p!ace at the Feathers Inn, on Sa- 

 turday last, when the Prize was awarded to Mr. Walter 

 Thurtell,jun., of Wighton. the six Turnip, .hown br 

 him weighing upwards of 5 lbs. In growing these Tur- 

 nips, various manures were used, and the highest garden 

 culture applied, the particulars of which were detailed in 

 a very clear and satisfactory manner bv Mr. Thurtell 

 The other Turnips exhibited were from field culture, and 

 weighed as follows : 



Mr. Shering-ham, Thorn- 

 a«e . 



F. L. Astley, Esq., Uurrh 

 Hall . 



Mr. Thos. Norton, Holt . 



lbs. 

 S3f 



SJ 



*7i 



2 Kohl Rabi 

 2 Cabbages 



l 14 lbs. 

 86£ 



FARMERS' CLUBS. 

 Maidstone.— Sir E. Fiimer spoke as follows on the 

 allotment system here, at a late meeting of this Society : 

 —It had been said that the worst master a poor man 

 could have was himself, but he thought that had been 

 fully disproved. He had 60 allotments, which had been 

 worked for ten years, and for the last four years there 

 had been only one defaulter; and that was the case of a 

 poor widow, who had not her money ready at the time, 

 but paid it within a week. To prove that the poor man 

 was not a bad master to himself, he could give them a 

 statement with which he had been furnished by one of 

 his own labourers : — 



Rent, l Quarter of an acre 

 Manure, 17*. 6d. ; Garden Seeus, 1*. 6d. ; 

 Potatoes, lls.sd l 



The produce of this was as follows : — 

 Potatoes, 4/. Is. sd. ; Fruit. 10*. 

 Vegetables for own consumption 



From which deduct 



£0 7 



6 



I 10 



8 



1 || 



2 



4 11 



8 



10 







5 I 



8 



1 18 



2 



- 







There would be a clear profit of . £i 3 6 



He went over the whole allotments afterwards, and found 



laver rfiZ *" lca¥CS ' UU5Lriuaiea eveniy ; men anotner them much better farmed than they had been, and 



J ro: leaves, and another of salt, mril the pit was filled^ although he did not think the allotment system was a 



Br Mr. Bolding, Wa- lbs. 

 borne . . . 42 $ 



Mr. Page, Barningham . 4l| 

 Mr. Sayers, Field Dalling 4iJ 

 Mr. Burrell, The rnagc-hall 36j 



Mr. Sayers also produced 



5 Carrots, weighing . l6jj lbs. 

 4 roots Mangold Wurzel hi „ 



After the Show, the party, consisting of upwards of 20 

 spent a very pleasant evening together, when it was 

 agreed to renew the sweepstak.-s fur the ensuing year 

 and also to have another sweepstakes of 5*. each to be 

 laid out in plate, and presented to the member who 

 should grow the greatest weight of Swedish Turnip. 

 upon a field, or part of a field, containing not less than 

 three acres.— Mr. Sayers also offered a Prize of a Silver 

 Pencil-case, value one. sovereign, to the member who 

 should grow in the ensuing year six plant, of the Kohl 

 Rabi oi the greatest weight. Lord Hustings ia a sub- 

 scriber to both the above sweepstakes. 



Slaithwaile, II adder sfield.—kt the Annual Meeting of 

 the Earl of Dartmouth's Spade Husbandry Tenants, the 

 prizes for Wheat were awarded to—John Sykes, who al- 

 though the land on which it was grown was an old stone 

 quarry, had by his industry raised from a quarter of an 

 acre, 7451bs., which wa. equal to 6 quarters and 2 

 bushels to the acre, at 60 lb. to the bushel ; John Balm- 

 forth, whose produce had been 46 bushels to the acre, 

 aud C. Varley, whose produce averaged 40 bushels to 

 the acre. On one plot of ground two crops had been 

 raised this year ; in the months of March and April 

 Peas and Beans had been sown, which were cut in July, 

 and produced about 30 tons to the acre of green food! 

 Turnips were then sown, which were gathered in this 

 day, and on calculation, will yield about 10 tons of bulb 

 and 12 tons of top, and better Turnips need never be 

 seen. John Balmforth read a statement of his proceed- 

 ings in the various processes required by the land he 



had made re. His conclusions were as follow : 



Expenditure, includinglabour, calculated at 2*. jc* * d 



per day 23 13 3* 



Total returns S5 16 



Leaving a net pro fit (off about j of an acre of land !) 7 3 6 



Miscellaneous. 



Rowlandsnn on the Influence of Lime As the 



farmers of Britain and Ireland (he says in the Journal 



