410 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



i m 



not wish to pn ml othe: »ying the benefit of 



this information, I have this spring commuuicated 

 to the different proprietors the facts which I have 

 ascertained on this subject as they referred to their 

 several estates. 



* As to the localities in which the rocks contain- 

 ing phospate of lime occur, you will remember that 

 veins of primitive limestone run through the dis- 

 trict of Connemara in a direction nearly east and 

 west ; that most of these veins con it of vertical 

 beds alternating with micaceous limestone or some- 

 times mica slate, the latter rock constituting the 

 prevailing rock of the district, excepting the moun- 

 tain top?, which are generally formed of granular 

 quartz rock. There is one range of mountains 

 separating the baronies of Ross and Ballinahinch in 



which the prin ive limestone is found in horizontal swamp 



back and front of i vehicle ; and each pair 01 

 wheels being taken up behind and set down in front 

 in its turn, the carriage could be drawn smoothly 

 along upon the friction-rollers, while the wheels in 

 contact with the ground stepped (as it were) instead 

 of rolling over stones or other obstacles. In 1825 

 Sir George Cayley patented a locomotive apparatus 

 on the same principle, but differing m practical 

 details Mr. Gordon, in 1822, patented an endless 

 railway, consisting of a large hollow cylinder with 

 belted racks or rails upon its internal circum- 

 ference ; and a locomotive engine being placed 

 inside the cylinder and climbing up its internal 

 railway, caused it to roll forward. A large drum 

 of this kind was once employed with great advan- 

 tage to transport heavy goods over an American 



One of the first steam- ploughs (Heath- 



ground where the perfecTburying^rihe 

 a matter of necessity. The cutters consist tf 





strata, and capped by mica slate and quartz rock. 



" I was led by the hints given in the article of 

 the Agricultural 'Gazette, on Mineral Phosphate of 

 Lime, to examine carefully the different veins of 

 primitive limes tie which can be traced for several 

 miles by following the direction of the strike of the 

 beds. After considerable research I discovered 

 No. 7, which is situated in the valley of Glen- 

 caghan, about two miles to the north of the Gal way 

 and Clifden road, and about 11 miles from Clifden, 

 near what is called the Canal stage. The beds in 

 which it occurs may be traced from near the half- 

 way-house between Gal way and Clifden to the pro- 

 montory which separates Kingston andStreamstown 



bays. 



"It is in 



this 



of 



vein oi rocks that the Connemara 

 marbles are found, several of which were analysed. 



"The fn>t specimen that was analysed was part of 

 one of the beautiful ornaments made of the Lessonter 



marble (near to Kecess) ; it gave 7.16 of phosphate 

 of lime. 



"The next specimen, No. 2, was from the same 

 quarrv, and you have the result above. 



" The results were encouraging, but the large 



proportions of silica and magnesia led me to look for 



purer combinations of lime, and I examined the 



rocks at the western extremity of these beds, and 



;ot No. 3 from Knockbaun, between Kingstown and 



treamstown Bays ; the analysis was discouraging, 



but Nos. 5 and 6, from the marble quarries of 



Letternoosh, at the head of Streams town Bay, were 



promising, especially No. 5, from its containing 4.6 



per cent, of potash, in addition to 8.5 per cent, of 



phosphate of lime. The next analysis was of a 



piece of marble from the Barnanoraun Quarries, and 



it had too great a proportion of silica and magnesia 

 to be useful. 



" I then made Recess once more my head quarters, 

 and having given up the hope of finding the large 

 proportion of phosphate of lime I was looking for in 

 the Connemara marbles, I carefully examined all 

 the beds of lim< one in the neighbourhood, and the 

 accompany in i trata as well as the igneous dykes 

 which crossed them. 



" Having travelled round several of the lakes, in- 

 cluding most of Derryclare, I visited the gloomy 

 and roadless valley of Glencoaghan, where I dis- 

 covered extensive beds of No. 7, apparently under- 

 lying the Connemara marbles, which are here found 

 almost horizontal, cropping out beneath the mica 

 slate and quartz rock. 



^ " No. 7 is, 1 think, also to be seen near to Ballina- 

 hinch Lake, and at the Barnanoraun marble 

 quarries. I have also discovered it since near to 

 Clifden, and also in small quantities near to the 

 half-way house ; but all the specimens were got 

 from the same beds, which run nearly parallel with 

 and to the north of the Clifden road. No. 8 \#ts 

 also obtained from the same beds, but afforded only 

 two per cent, of phosphate of lime. Another 

 specimen was submitted to analysis, but the report 

 given by the chemist v >, that it had only a trace 

 of phosphate of lime." 



The above letter will be an encouragement to 

 landowners in situations geologically the same as the 

 district here referred to, to examine the limestones 

 to which they may have access. A limestone is so 

 easily reduced to the condition in which it becomes 

 availa as a manure, that the comparatively small 

 per ceptage of phosphoric acid here indicated will 

 be agriculturally of great value, which it would not 

 have been had it occurred in a siliceous or claystone 



cote's) had the same principle differently applied. 

 Instead of a drum, an endless platform passing 

 round two great wheels at each end, carried a steam- 

 engine within it : and while by means of gear-work 

 and traction-tackle the ploughs were drawn up and 

 down the field, the engine shifted itself and its 

 moveable hard roadway from time to time along 

 the headland. Mr. Boydell has endeavoured to 

 supersede all such ponderous and unwieldy expe- 

 dients by shoeing a carriage-wheel with short 

 straight pieces of rail. It is unnecessary to describe 

 this ingenious invention, as full details appeared in 

 the papers, and public trials w T ere repeatedly made 

 during the past winter. As far as the surmounting 

 of obstructing stones, crossing holes and travelling 

 over rough uneven ground are concerned, the per- 

 formances were satisfactory; the principal doubt 

 remaining with us relates to the action of the rails 

 in a deep, muddy, " founderously " bad clay road. 

 However, in cultivating land, the apparatus would 

 seldom have to venture upon very wet and sticky 

 ground ; the surface of any soil in a cultivable state 

 will always be tolerably dry, and either firm and 

 smooth, in large clods, or soft, deep and spongy. 

 The rails cannot work well with a very rapid speed, 

 and for tillage purposes this would never be 

 required. 



The steam cultivator, already constructed, consists 

 (as we understand) of a common seven -horse portable 

 engine, with reversing gear ; to one of the hind 

 wheels (each of which is 6 feet in diameter, and fitted 

 with the endless railway) a spur-wheel of 5 feet 

 diameter is attached : and this is driven by a pinion 

 on the crank shaft. The fore wheels are steered by 

 means of a pole, with wheel, chain and pulleys, like 

 those of a steamboat; and one man at this wheel 

 has entire control over the engine, which can be 

 turned in a circle of 40 feet diameter. It is 

 intended that this engine shall traverse a field, 

 dragging ploughs or other implements behind: the 

 endless railway preventing it from sinking in soft 

 earth, and laying hold of the ground so as to give a 

 strong purchase for pulling, If the engine be only 

 a common portable one, we suppose that it must 

 prove useless upon sloping ground, but the merits 

 and defects will quickly appear in the field. Mr. 

 Boydell has been connected with agriculture and 

 the management of landed property, and should 

 therefore be a competent judge of the husbandman's 

 requirements ; but we think that when it has once 

 become practicable and admissible for a locomotive 

 engine to travel over the land, something more per- 

 fect than an old-fashioned horse implement ought 

 to be actuated by it. 



We will add a few words upon Mr. Usher's in- 

 vention. Every one knows that it consists of a 

 locomotive engine having a revolving tiller mounted 

 behind. ^ This tiller, driven by the engine, and 

 rotating in the same direction as the paddle-wheel 

 of a steamboat, not only digs up the soil, but in so 

 doing urges forward the whole machine upon its 

 carriage wheels; and so far from any extra power 

 being needed for this propulsion, the propelling 

 action of the tiller owing to the resistance of the 

 earth is greater than is required. By this arrange- 

 ment a great economy of power, and therefore of 

 weight in the engine is obtained. The trials in 

 1852 were made with a machine of 10-horse power, 

 and weighing 6£ tons; but Mr. Usher has lately 

 completed an improved one of 14-horse power at 

 50 lbs. pressure, and weighing only 5£ tons. The 

 breadth of work taken at once is 4 feet 2 inches ; 

 the rate of advance 1900 yards per hour, which 

 accomplishes 2635 superficial yards per hour, or 6 A 

 acres in a day of 12 hours. There need be little 

 lost time in turning on the headlands, for the work 

 may proceed round and round instead of up and 

 down the field. The engine will ascend acclivities 

 of one in ten, and turn 



loughs, with coulters, shares, and mould 22? 

 only the latter do not twist over so much ImS 

 of a common plough. Each of these cuts off 

 of curved flake or slice of soil, turning it oven? 

 ways, and of course considerably Crumbli "J 

 dividing it; but as the piece is thrown immedLS! 

 before another cutter, it is again broken uH2 

 further comminuted. The tiller makes 30 re SUf 

 tions per minute, and each plough takes a^ifot 

 (or advance) of 9£ inches, the depth varying 

 ing to the pleasure of the operator, from 6 or - \* 

 9 inches : from these dimensions and this speeitW 

 farmer may form some idea of the natwi 2 

 appearance of any particular soil when due by thk 

 engine; and he may also consider what wonJd bt 

 the effect of pressing down every 4 feet breadth of 

 his land with a roller more than 5 tons in weirfjf 



We shall soon have three real steam-cnltivaton 

 in the field, constructed upon as many d inc 

 principles : there is Mr. Williams', ploughing by 

 traction with a stationary engine ; Mr. Boydeli 

 ploughing by traction with a travelling engine • and 

 Mr. Usher's, tilling by a revolving apparatm 

 attached to a travelling engine. Surely the trot 

 principle and the best practical embodiment of it 

 may be educed from such a competition. I. A. 



SHORTHORNS, THEIR PEDIGREES, AND 



MILKING POWERS. 



In my last letter to you on the subject of short-ham, 

 I mentioned that I had a cow in calf to the Dai« of 

 Glo'ster (11382). On Saturday last, the 9th of Joae, 

 she produced a fine roan calf, which to my grett suit- 

 faction proved to be a bull. As the births of tkoroagb. 

 bred foals are recorded as they occur, so it woi 

 be uninteresting if the births of the highest bred calrai 

 of the short- horn race were chronicled in like minnc, 



In modern times, the latter have fetched prices 

 high as the former, and they certainly are as well wortfc 

 them, since they conduce in an equal degree to the is- 

 provenient of their race. In order to sustain tb 

 claim of my calf to the honour of his name appearing* 

 your columns, I add the pedigree of his dam: -Fern 

 Roan, of 1849 (bred by Mr. G. Bell), by 4th Dake d 

 York (10167); dam, Fancy by Duke of Northumbe 

 land (1940); grandam, Fanny by SUorttail (. 

 gr.-g.-dam, Fletcher the 2d by Belvidere (1706); p.-g 



g.-dam, by a son- of Young Winyard (2859) 



? 



from Mr.' J. Brown's old Red Bull. p 



It will be evident to any one conversant with m 

 pedigrees of Mr. Bates' herd, that there is much r*y 

 close breeding in that of my calf, and yet he fcr 

 exceeds any calf I have bred this year in size ia4 

 stoutness ; in fact, his size is considerably ^ 

 the average. This is another confirmation of» 

 truth of Mr. Bates' view, that although to bre* 

 in and in from bad stock was, to use w 

 own expression, " ruin and devastation,'' yet y™ 

 practice may be safely followed within certain w 

 where the animals so related are descended from nw- 

 rate parents, and are themselves of ^^J*^ 

 lence. In this, as in every other point, fjoam i 

 failure depend upon the judgment of the breeder. -» 

 however, so much more common for men to ° ^ 

 mate the merits of their own stock than torate ^T ^ 

 low, that it cannot but be useful to breeders ^^ 

 guard against this tendency in themselves. * ^^ 

 that he who keeps his eyes open to excellence,™ 

 it exists, and avails himself of it whenever u» fe 

 his reach, will in the end have a better neru^^ 

 who, taking it for granted that his stock ib P*£^ 

 never troubles himself to look beyond it. i {4| 

 of short-horn breeding affords abundant eviae - c 

 truth of this maxim, from the time *™ B Y^ 

 Colling purchased Hubback, which .tboug n * hm 

 pedigree, is an ancestor of many of our be f , Mr Bstes 

 down to the introduction of Cleveland Laa dj 



into his herd. , , ^^ree*-^ 



I think that Mr. Horsfall, in his inter* tin, ,„ 

 his dairy practice, does not state whetnei f^jis 

 any one breed of cows, or whether he P" rcn tire of«- 

 he conceives best adapted for milking, irr«P ^ 

 other consideration. It would be both «* ^ 

 teresting, however, if he and other agncu ^^ 

 state the results of their experience . « j' 1 ^** 

 ducing powers of the principal , bree , ° is ,IbeE*«' 

 kingdom. As regards the short-horns, tner*-, ^ 



ent notion that they are 



, ... „m in lend « 



is neverthele* 



a prevalent notion that they are inaiW ^ 

 Although facts may seem to lend a . t. . ^0* 



B ■ it is neverthe less _ ^ 



Ration must^ ^^ 



♦i. ., wviwHi to enable a carnage to 



carry its own railway. Thus, i n 1 821 *Mr STrr? 



one m 

 diameter. 



m a circle of 16 feet 



The quality of the work performed by it 

 point of most interest to the farmer • 



_ A 1 *V% • * n 



is the 

 and this 



P 



purposes, 

 leas or any 



support to this opinion 



which an impartial investigauuu —-- 



first place, the principal ancestor J 



short-horns-the old i Holderne- o^ 



still, the deepest milkers m the km j* p- 



then, that these descendants rt^/™'^ ** ? 



valuable property I It may, ^eed,^ J^ 



celebrated cross with the b*Uow*y in j ur ioas - m 





asmuch as tne -" , ^ 

 is descended, had o^ 



Galloway blood in her veins, as were d*> 

 n »u* nnL nM .t>d with the « alloy, ■» nrt . bot at, 



9 



famih 



i* 







