THE AGRICULTIRAL GAZETTE. 



211 



= . ous qwu tity of 10,000 tuns V rim 



J—* ^ ^jjiei, gives 2000 for each of five applications. 

 C'^rfSat we tl ~ ink !he ,atter (if n0fc a mistake ) is 



above tin* rate that can be profitably employed, 

 FT^irtTiy applied by Mr. Mechi mi-ht be increased 

 *fc much advantage, it was very evident to those 

 **f Jr. m yseK, had the pleasure of inspecting Mr. 



, operations in July last that whilst the Italian 



--ttai m the neighbourhood of the furrows was green 



xurisnt that on the top of the ridge was very in- 



md 

 fcrior 



Phe former from their lower level must have 

 WIU ' w( j it jeact double the amount of liquid to that im- 

 kSfaZri bv the ridge ; whilst the furrow might have had at 

 JkTrate of W t<>ns per acre, the ridge could only have 

 d 15 which, supposing the land to be in a dry state, 

 'not have penetrated one inch in depth. 



gins*? of improvement of animals, 1 think it but due t- 

 he public and to myself to reiterate my firm but earnest 

 protest against the opinions he has endeavoured to 

 promulgate, and which, if generally adopted, would 

 infallibly lead to very serious and mischievous r ts. 

 I endeavoured to prove this, and to my own satisfaction, 

 and that of many of far greater experience than I can 

 boast, did prove it, from the written testimony of one of 

 our ablest and most scientific authorities in such matters, 

 the late Henry Cline ; and, yet more important, the 

 living evidence of Messrs. Brown's flock at Denver. To 



It 



^^Hrt. therefore, that as 1 inch, or 100 tons of liquid, 



in 



all this, what counter evidence has Mr. Ayres to offer ? 

 A successful blunder of his Welsh friend to enlarge 

 the form of his native mountain sheep, by means 

 repugnant alike to the principles of science and 

 nature. I speak advisedly. It is a blunder, and 

 not the less so, because in this instance it happened 

 iret tfe land 4 inches in depth, that this quantity ' to succeed. It is beginning at ihe wrong end ; and 



TZ weather would be by no means too much. We . most uredly, if generally adopted, would lead to 

 therefore, come to the conclusion that the quantity a vast amount of mischief and disappointment — I mean, 



miied at each dressing should approach 100 tons if of course, the introduction of males whose chief re com - 



It is very evident that if the mendation is their size and weight By these so-called 



improvers, the old maxim of u small in size and great in 

 value " seems either disregarded or in some danger of 

 being altogether reversed. Shade of Bakewell ! forgive 

 this outrage on the principles so wisely and assiduously 

 inculcated by thee ; and in all kindness compassionate 

 straw supplies, the errors both of omission and commission of many 



who in their own imagination are theoretically treading in 

 thy footsteps, when, literally and truly, they are but 

 following an ignis fulicus of their own invention ! As 

 to the in-and-in system, so long and so successfully 

 adopted by the Messrs. Brown— "a great fact," as I 

 may call it, of more than half a century — what has Mr. 

 Ayr^s to oppose? Not a syllable as to 6heep breedin 



land is in a dry state 

 Gins crops are heavily dressed the intervening grain 

 crops will require no further assistance, but will be 

 Bufficitntly fed l»y the overj his supplied for the Grass. 

 It bsi been urged by some parties that if no solid 

 uaoure is used the land will become too close, and 

 will miss the carbon which the 

 Ulil objection, however, may easily be met by leaving 

 tlwfftubble of the grain crop longer than usual and put- 

 ting it in, or a portion of the last cutting of Italian 

 Brs-grass m'mht easily be buried, thereby supplying 

 plenty of carbon if it is reallv required. There is one 

 point of much interest which the production of monster 

 Grass crops appears to elicit, which is the enormous 



■nntity of silica readily extracted from the land by at all, but a most touching and doleful tale of a certain 



of the Rye-grass ; and although, no doubt, a 

 good portion of silica is supplied in the liquid manure, 

 yet it is oniy partially in a soluble state, and we can 

 rapidly i §e a monster crop with equal facility by 

 applying sulphate of ammonia, or guano (containing 

 very little ilica), with a large quantity of water. If 

 therefore the free application of amnion a to the soil 

 will enable it to give up so large an amount of silica to 

 plants, we need not be under any apprehension that 

 nfficient silica will not be supplied to ordinary crops 

 under ordinary treatment, and there is very little encou- 

 ragement afforded for supplying silica, either soluble or 

 insoluble, in artificial manures. W. C. Spooner. 



Home Correspondence. 



Mimurement of Haystacks of a cylindrical form with 

 timed roof— In Strachan's agricultural tables (Simpkin 

 •nd Marshall, 1843), the following rule is laid down, viz. : 

 •To the perpendicular height from the ground to the 

 etfss, add one-third of that from the eaves to the 

 top for the mean height ; then multiply the square of 

 the girth by the mean height, their product multiplied 

 by 100 and divided by 4847 will give the number of 

 •tones nearly, reckoning 7 stones to the cubic yard." 

 Example. A rick of hay 18 feet from the ground to 

 •ves, 9 feet from that to the top, aud 60 feet girth gives 

 Mo0£ stones. Now, what I want to know is— firstly, 

 **jy does he multiply by 100 and divide by 4847 I 

 wondly : Is 7 s t. per cubic yard a pretty fair allow- 

 ance for ordinary sized haystacks (say one of the above 

 jumensiona) ? Lastly, is it true that there are 1559 st. 

 "i the above-mentioned stack ? By the aid of mathe- 

 ^ica I make out that the cone 

 CT finder= 209 



™t in the second question much would depend on the 

 £**% and state of the hay, yet I think that there must 



rit a PP roximate ^ight fixed by valuers for a cubic 

 W of good meadow hay well got. Mathematics. 



35 cubic yards, 

 cubic yards ; total, 244. I am aware 



[The 



*M contents of a cylindrical rick, assuming the conical 

 *P of it to till a cylinder one-third its height from the 



*stes 



Z ^ n P Wards > are obtained by multiplying the area on 

 ■jttut stands into the height thus obtained, i.e., into 



1 height 



dairy of cow3 being so bred that they had no milk ; and 

 so fat, you could not keep it down, even in a strawyard ! 

 And this Jeremiad is put forth, 1 suppose, as a caution 

 to my unhappy friends (Joseph and Thomas Brown) to 

 avoid the rock on which this unfortunate cowman (laid 

 down in Mr. Ayres's chart as "the in-and-in shoals") 

 appears to have splto. With all deference, I suspect that 

 my excellent friends, however much they may appreciate 

 Mr. Ayres's kindness in this his friendly warning, will 

 be very apt, with me, to assign a far different reason for 

 the cowman's failure, viz., ignorance and mismanagement. 

 These are strong words, 1 admit; but obstinate diseases 

 require strong remedies, and this is of them. I have 

 mentioned Messrs. Brown as skilful and success 1 ul 

 breeders on the in-and-in system ; but I am able to 

 point to a similar instance in the immediate neighbour- 

 hood of Mr. Ayres, in the person of Mr. Valentine 

 Barford, of Foscote, near Towcester, and but a short 

 distance from Whittlebury. This gentleman will, I am 

 quite sure, not only confirm all I have said as to the 

 Denver sheep, but is able to exhibit in his own flock a 

 further instance of what may be done by a long course 

 of judicious management in the breeding and selection 

 of individuals on the in-and-in principle. I have no 

 authority from Mr. Barford thus to bring forward his 

 name ; but knowing, as I do, the pleasure it always 

 gives him to aid the cause of real improvement, I h 

 the less scruple in taking the liberty with him. If I am 

 wrong in so doing, my motive must be my excuse. 

 jP, Gloucester, March 23. 



The Lambing Season. — Having lost several ewes 

 during the lambing season, I shall feel obliged by your 

 inserting these few lines in the Agricultural Gazette, 

 trusting that some of its numerous readers may be 

 enabled to render me a little assistance. My flock con- 

 sists of 500 ewes of the Dorset breed ; they commenced 

 lambing about the middle of December, and with the 

 exception of a few which were very late, had dropped 

 their lambs by the end of the first week in January ; 

 consequently my ill-luck cannot be ascribed to the 

 severe weather, as about that time it was both dry and 

 mild. About two days after lambing the disease first 

 appears ; the ewe does not feed, inflammation of the 

 uterus is, I suppose, going on ; within a few hours she 

 commences heaving, after which I have not known a 

 single instance of recovery. I must add that this dis- 

 ease attacks the " two- teeth " sheep only. I have tried 

 laudanum, Epsom salts, and ginger, but always unsuc- 

 cessfully. Can any remedy be given I and what is the 

 reason that the older sheep do not suffer ? Whilst men- 

 tioning Dorset sheep, I will draw your attention to what 

 appear to me to be errors in " Blackie's Cyclopaedia." 

 I think the fleeces will be found to average 5 lbs. per 

 fleece, and three-year-old fat wethers will average a 

 great deal more than 18 lbs. per qr. C. P. — W. P. 

 [Heaving and Inflammation. — This somewhat mys- 

 terious and peculiarly fatal disease has been very pre- 

 valent this year, and appears to bid defiance to remedial 



thtaf eqUal t0 the hei S ht U P to the eaves, plus one- 

 ™Jl of the height above the eaves. But the area is the 



™jas multiplied into one-half the girth, and as the 

 J™ * the girth divided by 3.14159, it follows 

 ™uhe area is represented by the square of the girth 

 Jjmed by about 12.566. If, therefore, the solid eon- 

 « w cubic feet be obtained by multiplying the height 



bt lo J qUare of the g ir,h ( both in *€«*)> »"« dividing 

 J7 J- .566, it follows that by multiplying this by the 



^TT r f 8t <>ne8 of hay in a cubic foot you obtain the 

 W of the rick. According to Mr. Strachan there 

 'stones in a cubic yard, or £ in a cubic foot ; and 



bvtlT f that t0 divide b y 1 "566, and then multiply 



ltoa^* 1011 ^ is just the same as multiplying by 



fc™* dividing by 4847, which is Mr. Strachan's rule, valent thi 



tothe ^^ m . ^ to ^ cubic yards per ton, according \ measures. A friend of the writer, who has suffered 



fnU i/^ e and s * ze °f the rick, and therefore no rigid much from it this, as well as in former seasons, has 



*"** applicable.! ** " * ....,..-.' 



flfcutio a ^ jfl ^ Pigeons.. — In answer to inquiries, I 

 *t Mr \J a * rien, l purchased these birds for me 

 **nh k e, u S ' 5n Kin & Street M y friend uaaenrtood, 



H4 Bomb th m ' that they had come from Persia > 



*2l ^ ^ ?- v * ^ I can obtain any further particulars 1 



> Cr m Breeding' 



I 



n Old Subscriber. 

 v. Breeding in~and*hi. 



I had fully 



to leave Mr. W. P. Ayres to the quiet enjoy- 



t0&*^„ ?!* tne °ry, however erroneous I may and do 



-^ mSht\ lhe . 8ubject of breediD g; but > M my 



t yttcm-.if ^construed into an approval of a 



u™^^:^_ , thelead- 



*8 featurl 8y8 f tX V % m& ^ b y courtesvbe called ™ 



^ ot which is alteration of form under the 



found that of two Hocks, one that had had Swedes were 

 affected, and another that had received common Turnips 

 escaped. He ascribes it to the stimulating properties of 

 the Swedes, and intends for the future to give no Swedes 

 before lambing. High keep, and a want of sufficient 

 exercise before lambing, are no doubt predisposing 

 causes. It usually attacks ewes with the second and 

 third lamb, but your case appears to be an exception. 

 Perhaps your young ewes may be in better condition. 



w. a s.] 



Agricultural Statistics of Scotland. — I have no doubt 

 a great many in England look with great interest at the 

 statistical returns of Scotland collected by the Highland 

 Society, and we shall no doubt see them taken for what 



they are not — a true return of the produce of Scotland. 

 it must be remembered that farms rented under 20J. in 

 the Highlands, and 10Z. in the Lowlands, are excluded 



altogether. (I do not see why 20/. should be fixed upon 

 in ous division of the country and 10Z. in another.) Thk, 

 it is obvious, confuses the whole affair ; and, as we have 

 no means of ascertaining the proportion the excluded 

 portion bears to the whole, the deficiency cannot in any 

 way be calculated ; indeed it varies immensely in my 

 own neighbourhood. In the Highlands I am inclined to 

 think one- third of the arable land is not returned ; these 

 small farmers, although nominally going by the fire- 

 course rotation, grow a much larger proportion of Oats, 

 sowing it both in the place of Barley and as a Eecond 

 crop, but scarcely any Wheat, so by excluding them the 

 proportion of the various crops returned vaiies from 

 the truth. If the returns are continued year after year 

 on exactly the same plan they will prove useful, as 

 showing to some extent the progress of agriculture ; 

 but they can in no way show the produce of the country 

 either in amount or the proportion of the different 

 crops. A. C. 



Italian Ryegrass. — The favourable account of the 

 growth of Italian Rye-grass that has lately appeared in 

 the Gazette will be the means of doing much good. The 

 incontrovertible and well-defined facts therein stated 

 should be a sufficient inducement to many to enter on 

 its culture, "at least in an experimental point of view." 

 Though I do not happen personally to liave an experience 

 in its separate culture, yet I have always advocated the 

 introduction of a certain portion of Italian Rye-grass in 

 addition to the other Clover seeds in the ordinary course 

 of cropping, and have derived great benefit from the 

 practice in " early spring n by having good pasture to 

 turn ewes and lambs on to at least a week or 10 days in 

 advance of some of the neighbouring farmers — a circum- 

 stance of some importance in a sheep-breeding district 

 such as this happens to be ; nor was the appearance of 

 a good bite of green food at this season of the year lost 

 sight of. As I have the pleasure of knowing many intel- 

 ligent farmers who, within the last few yeare, have had 

 recourse to the same alternative, and with the like good 

 result, I have seen some enormous crops of Italian Rye- 

 grass grown " north of the Tweed,** and have often 

 wondered why its culture had not become more 

 extended ; but from the able advocacy its merits are now 

 receiving, I have no doubt that ere long patches of 

 Italian Rye-grass may be seen flourishing on every 

 farm with as much luxuriance as it has hitherto shown 

 on the Ayrshire farms. P. Deane. 



Hardiness of Mangold Wttrzel. — Last year about the 

 beginning of May I drilled a few acres of yellow Globe 

 Mangold Wurzel, 27 inches apart, with seed from 

 Me si s. Sutton, Reading ; they were hoed and set out in 

 the usual way, not moulded up to keep them from the 

 frost. About the latter end of October I began to stack 

 them. Having had some conversation with a first-rate 

 agriculturist on the hardiness of the root, by way of 

 experiment I determined on leaving a few. I therefore 

 selected two rows, about 200 plants, in the middle of a 

 40 acre field, where they have been during this severe 

 winter. On examining them this day there is scarcely 

 a rotten one ; I fancy they are as good as they were 

 last autumn. If any of your readers would like to 

 inspect them they are at liberty to do so by applying to 



me. W. Davis Briginshaw, Amerdcn, Farm, Taplow f 

 Maidenhead^ March 23. 



£orittitg* 



ROYAL AGRICULTURAL OF ENGLAND. 



Weekly Council, March 28. 



president, in the chair. 



French Agricultural 

 Consul-General of France 



Mr. Miles, M.P. 



Show. — M. Herbet, the 

 in London, transmitted to 

 the Council, on the part of the Minister of Agriculture 

 and Commerce in Paris, an announcement of the 

 Agricultural Show to be held in that city at the begin- 

 ing of June next, and a schedule of the prizes and the 

 conditions of competition in reference to foreign exhi- 

 bitors. The following is a summary of the prizes 

 offered in the first section, which includes cattle of 

 foreign (that is, not French) breeds, imported into 

 France for the purpose of the show, and having either 

 French or foreign owners : 



Improved short-horned eattle 



Other English breeds 



• •• 



t • • 



t • • 



• - • 



• • 



• • • 



• * • 



*•• 



■ • f 



• •• 



• * • 



£187 



233 

 233 



116 



Dutch, Swiss, and other breeds 



Merino, pare and crossed 



IMshley, New Leicester, and other long-woolled sheep 11$ 



South-Down, and other short- woolled sheep 116 



Pigs, of large breed 47 



Pigs, of small breed .*. ... 68 



The birth of all male animals in the classes of cattle and 

 sheep must have occurred before the 1st of May, 1854; and that 

 of females in those classes before the 1st of November, 1853. 

 That of boars and sows must have occurred before the 1st of 

 October, 1854. AH animals condemned by the jury as being too 

 fat will be excluded. The first prizes for cattle, sheep, and pigs 

 will be accompanied in each case by a gold medal; the second 

 prizes by a silver medal; and the other prizes by a bronze 

 medal. The show will last from the 1st to the 9th of June, 

 during which period the French authorities will take charge of 

 the animals and supply them with food. The French Govern- 

 ment will pay the expenses from the frontiers to Paris, attending 

 the conveyance of all stock sent from foreign countries. The 

 reception of animals for the show will close at 2 vm. on June 1st. 

 The public exhibition will take place on the 5th and 6th of June. 

 The entry of animals for the show will close on May 24. 



The appointment of a deputation from the Society to 

 the Agricultural Meeting of France was then suggested, 

 and referred to the ensuing Monthly Council. 



Labourers' Cottages, — -Miss Banister, of Steynisgi 



