842 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



detail in the p<U'«* of the Society's Journal for the be too light: every one of these causes may be seen instances where skilful cultivation hari„ * 

 - * • ■ * ' ' • ' ' *" — '-" *«'»""* arranged the fitting circumstances, the Jewf* ^ 



benefit of its readers. A short report is given in 

 another page. 



The exp ence of dairymen is sufficiently various 

 to make the discuwion of their differences by a 

 scientific man interesting and important. The weight 

 of butter yielded by a given quantity of cream 

 point on which very little agreement exists in pub- 

 lished statements. In ordinary experience we do not 

 hesitate to say 1 lb. of butter to a quart of cream is 

 not throughout a herd of cows attainable, and Mr. 

 Hobs falls yield of 25 ozs. to each quart is unpre- 

 cedented — so much so, that few dairy farmers will 

 believe it, except as a merely exceptional case. 



They v 11 not believe that : ozs. of well made 

 butter, i.e., with the milk, well squeezed out, have 

 been generally made from a quart of cream as ordi- 

 narily skimmed. Perhaps the best way of stating the 

 result of any particular mode of feeding cows is to 

 name the quantity of butter yielded by the milk\ of natural fertility, 

 produced. Mr. Horsfall states his ordinary 



at 25 ozs. from 1G Quarts or 40 



in operation over large tracts of country. And we 



have fertility, as well, extensively exhibited, both as 

 the result of natural conditions of soil and climate, 

 and as the consequence of the energy and skill of 

 the cultivator. Our rich alluvial lands, the meadows 

 and the " marshes" of Somerset and Lincolnshire, 

 and elsewhere, are among the best instances of the 

 former ; and there is not a county in the island but 

 will illustrate the latter ; and so we see how culti- 

 vation is creeping up the sides of the Mendips, and 

 the Lammermuirs, and every other highland in the 

 country \ we see the boundary lines of all our moors 

 and bogs and sandy wastes contracting ; we see 

 districts, such as Lincoln Heath and much of North 

 and Western Norfolk, formerly rabbit warrens and 

 poor infertile sands, now as productive probably 

 as any others in the kingdom ; we see fens, once the 

 home of waterfowl, rivalling the richest specimens 



ozs. 

 to 



less than 



quarts or 

 24 lbs. of 



lbs., 

 milk. 



produce 

 i. e.y 1G ozs. 

 Mr. Te kr tells us that his produce at Cunning 

 Park is 1 lb. from 22 or 23 lbs. when the yield is 

 greatest, to 1 lb. from 30 to 32 lbs. when the yield 

 is least. Mr. Ho rsf all's ordinary yield, provided 

 there be no mistake, is just Mr. Telfer's extra- 

 ordinary yield. Whether the experience of the 

 former is attributable to the food he uses, or 

 whether he has with sufficient care and over a 



of time determined his 



The 



Ion enough period 



results before their publication we cannot say. 

 subject is no recent investigation* of his, and we 

 can therefore hardly suppose that any error fallen 

 into would not have been found out before this; 

 but the facts as stated by him are certainly re- 

 markable, and deserve his closest scrutiny. 



But Mr. Telfer's experience as to yield of butter 

 differs from Mr. Horsfall's in other respects than 

 this. His yield of pure butter from a given quan- 

 tity of milk is larger in winter without artificial 

 heat than it is in summer. The warmer milk 

 yields a butter containing more cheesy matter, and 

 heavier on that account ; but a gain of 10 per cent, 

 in quantity would be accompanied, he says, by a loss 

 of more than 20 per cent, in quality. 



The different statements and opinions given render 

 the subject especially worthy of investigation, and 

 we hope our correspondents will relate their ex- 

 perience on the subject. 



The Agricultural Society of England does good 

 service by the useful selection of subjects to which 

 the attention of writers is directed by their prize 

 list. And among them none more full of instruc- 

 tive matter has been named than that on the causes 



OF FERTILITY AND OF BARRENNESS IN SOILS, the prize for 



which has, we see, just been carried off by Mr. 

 Coikman. Such a subject is, perhaps, too large for 

 a single paper, as it necessarily occupies the greater 

 portion of the whole agricultural field : but an 

 enumeration of some of the topics which it embraces, 

 with descriptive notices of such instances and illus- 

 trations as observation and experience may have 



furnished cannot fail to be instructive. Such an enu- 

 meration 



and catalogue of 

 attempt to give. 



cases we shall now 

 And in the first place let us name 

 the limits within which the subject as enunciated 

 confines us. 



It is in the agricultural history of those years 

 which divide the present from the past states of 

 these tracts of land, that observation has recorded 

 its best lessons on the causes of barrenness and fer- 

 tility in soils; and it is along the boundary lines 

 which separate these two conditions now, in dis- 

 tricts where the process still remains unfinished, 

 that these lemons can be read with greatest ease 

 and force at present. If the student wish to learn 

 how difficulties of climate may be met, let him visit 

 Devonshire, or East Lothian, or almost any of the 

 border counties of Scotland. Among the last- 

 named he will see how Nature teaches on this 

 subject ; how, in the midst of a district suffering 

 from this cause, there occur sometimes localities 

 where she has provided an open subsoil and a freer 

 soil, in which all the difficulties owing to inclemency 

 of climate seem to disappear. And he will find 

 that art has not only applied this lesson with success, 

 but that by the aid of shelter furnished by the 

 planter, as well as by the help of drainage and the 

 selection of appropriate crops, cultivation is gra- 

 dually extending upwards, successfully contending 



with climatic hindrances. If it be the treatment of 

 a faulty soil that is the subject of inquiry, instances 

 on every kind of scale may be found in every 

 county of the kingdom. As for injury by stagnant 

 water, we have lying before us a correspondence on 

 that one subject relating to many thousands of 



cres in the whole, and distributed over nearly 

 every county in England, besides many in Scotland 

 and Wales ; and the effects of land drainage are so 

 striking, the injuries which it heals so great, that 

 though all sorts of practices as to depth of drains 

 and interval between the drains are given, while 

 all sorts of soil as to cohesiveness and porousness 

 are named, the answer to the question as to the 

 nature of the result in almost every instance is 



most satisfactory." 



Then, as regards the improvement of the soil 

 other than by draining, the student will find the 

 practice of burning clays carried on in Gloucester- 

 shire and in Essex, and elsewhere ; that of claying 

 sands and peaty soils carried on, perhaps most 

 largely, in Norfolk and in Lincolnshire ; the ad- 

 dition of chalk to soils common in the practice 

 of many of the eastern and southern counties of 

 England ; and the application of lime common 

 everywhere. He will find many an instance every- 



We have supposed the student to examine n» 

 counties for these illustrations, but in truth hoi! 

 rarely need to exceed the limits of the one inwH 

 he lives. In the county we are best acquainted*? 

 and, doubtless in most others, observation |5 

 discover illustrations of nearly even- cause of U 

 tility and barrenness in soils. It has deep aUniS 

 lands, and sandy loams, in which we have traced 

 fibres of the Turnip 4 feet downwards; ithaiiA 

 so shallow too, upon the mountain limestone and iW 

 millstone grit, that the pastures wither under 

 month of summer drought ; it has among thestifc* 

 clays and the lightest sands we know ; it has hiAknd 

 and lowland sufficiently marked in their character!? 

 indicate the influence of climate ; it has large track 

 of pasture lands yielding dairy produce, and there 

 are within it 100,000 acres in one district almo* 

 wholly arable ; and as to the influence of manor* 

 upon fertility not only does it exhibit instances enouA 

 of ability and of indolence among its cultiv; 

 but^ over its extensive dairy districts observatiot 

 notices the significant fact that whatever be 

 the geological formation— 



and 



-whatever the chante 

 of the soil 



original quality or tne sou — everywhw 

 the home-grounds are the greenest in the wufo 

 months, and the most productive during samnier. 



So much for observation of the present merely 

 but we have known it many years ; and the chant 

 thus observed are even more instructive 



on 



the 



causes of fertility and barrenness. We have seen the 

 drainage of the land and the removal of exce«Ye 

 hedgerow timber from it, the construction of 



roads, and the erection of good buildings on it, pre- 

 pare the way for better cultivation ; so that from i 

 poor Grass yielding from 15 to 18 cwts. of bad hay 

 per acre, 30 tons of Mangold Wurzel, and even 

 more of Drumhead Cabbages, along with alternate 

 grain crops, have been substituted. All this is in one 



and we believe that 



few agricultural 

 need to look much 



a 



county ; ana we 

 students, now-a-days, will 

 farther, or even much beyond the limits of their 

 own horizon for instances as striking of the illustra- 

 tions which " observation " gives of this important 

 subject. 



a 



rp. , t ..... , , where of that greatest of all causes of increased fer- 



nJ . i!2!rt7!i£^ and barre 1 Rness ? as applied to tility— the liberal application and economical manage- 

 ment of manures ; and to some of them we shall re- 

 vert. 



soils, bear in this country almost universally a 

 merely relative meaning. Absolute barrenness exists 

 only on the uncovered rock, 

 land there is soil it is more or 1 



Wherever in our 



productive ; for 

 that we thank our climate. Its " fertility," however, 

 is u barrenness " if it be so low as not to bear the 

 expense of cultivation or of management. Between 

 the Heath-bearing bog or moor, and the richest fields 

 of Norfolk, Lincolnshire, or Lothians, there is a 

 contrast certainly ; and yet these cases are but 

 different degrees upon a common scale; and the 

 lowest of them are not at its zero, nor will any 

 witness of our agricultural progress hitherto, believe 

 that the highest instances as yet have reached its 

 maximum extreme. 



We propose to specify some of the causes of this 

 varying fertility ; some of the influences to which 

 the thousand differing degrees of productiveness are 

 owing that form the scale alluded to, which in this 

 country extends between the barest vegetable 

 covering, and the growth of food enough for 50 

 sheep per acre through the summer. ' 



wfc »k 5*< P rrf' thei ?> what ^es "observation" 

 teach about fertility and barrenness in soils? On 



the great scale it discovers and illustrates every 

 grade of each W* have barrenness owing to in 

 clement climate, and we have barrenness owing to 

 a faulty soil-it may be too shallow, or it may be 

 full of stagnant water— it may contain vegetable 



may be too adhe&ive— it 



matter in excess — it 



may 



He will find the opinion becoming pretty 

 general that it is advantageous to deepen soils ; and, 

 while the use of the subsoil plough has probably 

 diminished, he will observe in many districts (what 

 the ameliorating influence of drainage has permitted) 

 that ploughing and cultivation generally are be- 

 coming deeper — that portions of the subsoil are 

 being mingled with the staple ; and even that the 

 digging-fork is being used as an implement of the 

 farm. But fertility is not a condition merely of the 

 soil ; that is but its enabling cause : and the skill of 

 the cultivator in producing it is shown, not merely 

 in working the land, but in selecting those crops for 

 growth upon it which, under his circumstances of 

 soil and climate— of labour and of markets— shall 

 yield ^ him largest profit. And observation will 

 perceive how, on the great scale, these circumstances 

 have distributed the vegetable covering of Great 

 Britain ; how Grass affects the moister districts of 

 the island, and arable farming is more prevalent on 

 its eastern side; and how particular crops have 

 located themselves on fitting soils, near fitting 

 markets, Teazels being grown in the clothing districts 

 of Gloucestershire and Somerset, Hops on rich 

 lands near the capital. The student will indeed 

 observe how this question of demand 

 bourhood of markets— 



this neurh- 



-more and more becomes the 

 sole determining cause of the character of the prevail- 

 ing agriculture; how in every county there are 



IRRIGATION BY SUBMERSION, OR BY HOSE 



AND JET. 



There have been animated discussious at the Society 

 of Arts on a paper by Colonel Cotton * On the Publi 

 WorkB for India ;" the points of controversy being oc 

 the sufficiency of the Company's projected works. The 

 chief point of controversy between the colonel and the 

 Company's engineers, was as to an alleged undue and 

 exclusive preference given to railway over canal and 

 river communication, which it was contended would be 

 cheaper and more extensively available for India wwer 

 its peculiar circumstances. At a second discussion held 

 on Monday week, Edwin Chadwick Esq., C.B., m t» 

 chair, the irrigation works laid out by the 9°Wf^ 8 

 engineers were adverted to, when Mr. \fr. I* 1 j^ 

 Adams, the engineer, observed that leaving the proble- 

 matical question of navigable canals, we come to tne 

 question of irrigable canals. Of their value and per- 

 manent utility, if India is to make progress, there c» 

 be no doubt. Colonel Cotton cannot well <*?**" 

 them in this particular. In proportion as ^^S 

 extends, population will thicken, and ultimately it to 

 be found that the whole of the water can be aatan- 

 tageously absorbed to render the dry land fruitful, 

 hot countries the roots of the plants appear to w 

 best absorbents. Rain is not favourable to npaj 

 vegetation. But the process of irrigating land by P» 

 channels is a costly one. Along the channels there 

 thick and tangled growth of weeds, requiring a ^Vj 

 expenditure of labour to keep down. In the w* ^ 

 plain of Valencia, in Spain, the whole water ot w* 

 talis short of the necessities of the cultivators,^'^, 

 much good land useless, and generates a P^ 1 *^^ 

 among the peasantry, which rises into an °**7*^ 

 tumult, with loss of life, and has to be put; aovrn^ ; 

 soldiery. There is a proverb about the water . 



" Una mitad al cielo, . 

 Oira mitad ai suelo. 



* One half to heaven, 

 The other hsrff to earth. ^ ^ 



Probably of all the water that S P^P tJJi* 

 mountain, one-third is absorbed by the sun,»» . .,_ ^ 

 third by the porous channel, to grow 

 one-third reaches the cultivated land. •♦ frd* 



In hot Spanish countries, with irrigaUon^ ^ 

 tomary to plant the acequias or irrigation e i ^^ 

 trees, to prevent evaporation. But there j^ ^ 

 a cheap and efficient mode of conducting ,rr ^ ^ 0* 

 under ground, and when that takes P ,ace \0&* + 

 most valuable gift that modern *c*oce t ^ ^# 

 India, saving human labour, and P***"^* it en* 



The water must be filtered befc^ - 



If C<*** 



weeds, wb 



I 



of water. 



the channels, to prevent depof 



be easily accessible to clear out ol «"\- 

 Cotton will set himself to work to solve nw> t 



roM*'' 



* 



