474 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE 



which a ' iccesaful engine should fulfil. We attempt 

 a commentary therefore upon the terms in which 

 the Agricultural Society's prize is offered. 



" Two hundred pounds for the steam-cultivator 

 that shall in the most efficient manner turn the soil. 



economical substitute for the plough or 



an 



Mark this expression ; for the 



of the machine 



the time saved in the performance of the work, in- 

 asmuch as there is a great advantage in having a 

 breadth of land prepared for sowing in less time 

 than usual, though the acreage expense may be 

 same ; and any means which (without incurrin „, 

 neutralising disadvantage), gives the husbandman a 

 greater command over his soil, and more indepen- 

 dence of the weather, is certainly to be valued as a 



the 



gany 



em 



lency 



Break up, loosen, and 

 much as vou please, 



and be 

 the spade. 



"Turn the soil." 

 whole character and 

 depends upon this point, 

 commingle the soil as much as you m 



in preparing a seed-bed for any crop, but if weeds 



and Grasses be left still green upon the surface, if part of the farmers' teams, 

 the seeds of our annual infesting enemies remain in labourers, &c. ; as it has be 

 favourable exposure to the vivifying sunshine and 

 feeding - evvs, your tillage will be utterly abortive. 

 On the other hand, if the ground be a stubble, bury 



to 



every weed and withering stalk, and you promote 

 its decomposition in the soil, making manure of 

 what would otherwise injure as well as encumber ; 

 if it be a sward or a lea, still more urgently must 

 you inter every blade and plant that might spring 

 up amongst your intended crop. In the funda- 

 mental operation of tillage, the destruction of all 

 remnants of the old crop, and the loosening-up of 

 the staple for a succeeding one, you must " turn the 

 soil." Was it not for this very purpose of burying 

 obnoxious vegetation, and opening up a fresh surface 

 of earth, that ploughs with mould-boards super- 

 seded the imperfect scratching instruments of yore? 

 Is not the chief fault of the plough itself that it 

 does not completely hide all surface vegetation, but 

 too often (especially when the ploughman is blame- 

 able) leaves Grass or other living growth to shoot up 

 from tlie seams of its furrows, and defy the weeder 

 of the coming crop ? For many tillage purposes — 

 such as autumn cleansing or spring grubbing — no 

 such inversion is needed ; but in the first and foun- 

 dation work of breaking up after a crop, and to the 

 fall depth of the intended staple, you must H turn 

 the soil." Perhaps an instrument able to stir and 

 mix every portion of a deep staple might be made to 

 bring up repeated instalments of earth long buried, 

 and thrust down the long exposed surface to take 

 its place, at the same time forking out root-weeds 

 and rubbish. As far as mere fertilisation is con- 

 cerned, perhaps a frequent commixing of soil and 

 subsoil might suffice, instead of alternate exposure 

 of each upon the surface ; but the consideration of 

 weeds alone inculcates the necessity for " turning 

 the soil." Therefore, we maintain that the first 

 condition of the Society's offer is well chosen, and 

 that the premium will be misappropriated in the 

 opinion of practical men, if given to a machine (no 

 matter h%w expert at comminution) that cannot 

 entirely bury the surface. 



Then it must be also "an economical substitute 



pecuniary gain. 



Perhaps it may be unwise in the judges 

 trouble themselves with any further speculations as 

 to the probable effects of displacing a considerable 



employing more or less 

 een generally found that 

 when a new machine is worth having — the steam- 

 thresher, for instance — all questions as to the dis- 

 posal of surplus horses, &c. &c, regulate themselves 

 very easily and speedily. Once furnish the agri- 

 cultural public with a really "economical substitute" 

 for anything, and depend upon it John Bull is too 

 shrewd to let his love for antiquities prevent him 

 from using it. I.A.C. 



The statistics of dairy produce formed, as our 

 readers will find in the following pages, the subject 

 of a long discussion last Wednesday before the 

 Council of the Agricultural Society. We have not 

 room this week for the examination this report 

 deserves, and must be satisfied with a single para- 

 graph of comment. The ordinary experience of 

 dairy farmers is what one needs to know before the 

 value of Mr. Horsfall's practice can be ascertained ; 

 and testimony on this subject is so vague or so con- 

 flicting that a much larger number of witnesses are 

 necessary than have yet appeared before a safe con- 

 clusion can be drawn. We have received from 

 several correspondents information on the subject, 

 to which attention shall be called next week ; 

 it bears out the opinion that Mr. Horsfall's 

 average produce is above that of ordinary dairies, 

 and that 262^ lbs. of butter is above the ordinary 

 yield per cow per annum. 



Mr. Scott, in his reply to our criticism, seems to 

 think that his comparison of Kerries and cross- 

 breds with Mr. Horsfall's cows is as fair as 

 our selection of the short-horns from his table for 

 that purpose : in this he is obviously wrong. Mr. 

 Horsfall's cows must be compared with animals of 

 the same sort before the merits of their treatment 

 by him can be ascertained. And as a correspondent 

 has reminded us, and Mr. Horsfall has himself 

 so well developed in his Wednesday's paper, it is 

 not dairy produce only — the condition of the cows 

 must be noted also before the whole effect of his 

 mode of management is perceived. We add to the 

 information given in another page that the average 

 of the returns furnished to Mr. Scott from 11 corre- 



for the plough or the spade." If there shall be an spondentsin'England, and four in Ireland, represents 

 engine that turns over furrows effectively at less th e quantity of milk needed to produce lib. of butter 

 cost than the plough— (first expense included) here as about \H quarts, and there as about 12J 



although it may be incapable of any other labour — quarts. ** " 



give it the prize. And should there be a machine, 

 unable to plough at all, but able to dig in as perfect 

 a manner as men can with spades— if it will perform 

 this work alone more cheaply than men, it is 

 entitled to the prize. Ploughing ought to be accom- 

 plished for less money than by horses, and digging 

 (though this of course is a more expensive opera- 

 tion) at less cost than by men. The 

 have not to determine whether or 



Mr. Horsfall's milk yields a similar 

 quantity from about four-fifths of " these quantities, 

 and his cows are gaining flesh and giving this rich 

 milk abundantly together. 



judges 



- ~. not digging 



a la spade will be too expensive for the farmer 

 although indispensable to the market-gardener; 

 whether or not a cheaply-digging engine would not 

 inaugurate miracles upon the clays ; but (useful or 

 not) according to the terms of the offer, they must 

 award the premium either to an engine that digs 

 more economically than the spade, or that ploughs 

 more economically than our present horse-plough. 

 Should a machine be produced of sufficiently versa- 

 tile powers to execute both shallow work like a 

 plough and deep work like a spade, such a doubly 

 clever contrivance will of course merit the palm. 



Before awarding the prize, and so pronouncing 

 some invention to be an "economical substitute" 

 for the implements with which we break up and 

 m ™u wh °le ground— not merely for the grubbers 

 and harrows with which we stir and pulverise soil 

 already broken— let the iud^es well weieh this 



point of " economy." 



judges well weigh 



i%t .. . j- They must not sanction with 



the authority of the Society any machine that they 

 dare not recommend to farmers or gardeners in place 

 ^L, P r gh °\ Spade ' Besides the working ex- 



FhffnL 7 TS Ca I Culate the ™* a^ tear and 

 the interest of the first outlay in purchasing the 



Z^Z\7lV he °^ rid * of *• account^ 



SarLs iorZt "ll* f*®* estira *tions of the 

 cnarges lor tood, attendance, demerit mn km 



tSfw 1 ' S f e, « ^ W j U > vet0 eSnp-S the ex- 

 cellence or inferiority of the respective operations • 



and particularly they should fix a money Talue upon 



DAIRY STATISTICS. 

 Mr. Scott's communication on dairy management is 

 the most interesting that I have read for a long time on 

 that subject. It is indeed lamentable that this country, 

 with the finest pastures in the world, and supplies of 

 artificial food both in summer and winter far surpassing 

 in abundance what are produced elsewhere, should be 

 under the humiliating necessity of importing large 

 quantities of superior butter, while much which we pro- 

 duce at home is unfit for our own consumption. Mr. 

 Scott deserves the thanks of the agricultural world for 

 having drawn public attention to so important a subject. 

 Doubtless the ingenuity of our agriculturists in the 

 dairying districts will be directed towards overcoming 

 the evils of which he complains. One principal diffi- 

 culty, however, will be found in practice to be the want 

 of intelligence in the servants employed in the dairy. 

 When a farmer's wife, with only half-a-dozen cows to 

 to attend to, chooses to make up the butter herself, it 

 will generally be of superior quality. But where from 

 20 to 50 cows are kept, this is, of course, impossible, and 

 much must (even with the closest inspection) depend upon 

 the servants employed. This it is which causes the 

 butter in those counties which are not strictly dairy 

 counties to be frequently superior to that made in those 

 in which it is the staple product. The majority of the 

 dairy servants are deficient in intelligence, in cleanliness 

 and general refinement. They think they have their 

 dairy clean when m reality it is very dirty. They 

 unable to understand the absolute necessity of compli* 

 with the rules given them by their master or their mis- 

 tress, which they regard as mere whims or crotchets de- 

 signed m part to give them needless trouble, and which 

 they therefore evade whenever they have an opportunity. 

 I know nothing so difficult to enforce as cleanliness upon 

 a person not naturally inclined to it. It is first an 

 instinct, then a habit ; no series of injunctions or prohi- 

 bitions will effect with a slovenly person what the innate 

 sense of delicacy spontaneously does upon one of natural 



are 



rier 



M 



refinement. 



produce U „,„,,,„, ^TSKf, ,"jf w Z 



with ordinary servants : either you g Jj"} Jj* 

 they find you intolerable. The deanl 2 IS** 

 required is scarcely less odious to iheHj?*J* 

 want of it to you. All this strongly ZZ h? *** 

 for a modification of the education^ 2\ £?» 

 poor. There ,s no social reform more iSSJ 1 * 

 this. Along with reading, writing, and ouT^ *" 



etions, teach a knowledge** things, andim*^ 

 tical instruction m the more important of ZTf* 

 on which so much of the welfare of the poor* 

 depends. If at any parish school the girls were *^ 

 to wash, to make bread, and the rudiments ofi 

 management and cookery, they would be in^redi 

 petency for life, as well as being made useful m 

 of society. By learning such things on priwbU-L 

 knowing something of the why which is at the mlj 

 what they practise, the routine of their lives woSd k 

 less of a drudgery than now. Instead of looki» 

 labour as indignity only imposed by dread n«L'tr 

 they would feel that pride in the skilful exerciselffi 

 calling which is the foundation of all succea Tb 

 application of science to common things will fa t» 

 make them cease to appear low or mean— but is to 

 respect all classes have yet much to learn. 



Mr. Scott, after mentioning Professor Trail's *m j 

 ments on the proportion of butter yielded irom a m| 

 quantity of milk by Kerry cows, Galloways, and A* 

 shires respectively, says he "thinks, had the short bant 

 been included, they would have come in last" With* 

 pausing to inquire whether it is quite fair, by i* 

 putting a surmise by the side of an experiment," tofc. 

 predate the butter-producing powers of shorthorn, i| 

 is important to know in what sense Mr. Scott uses ft* 

 term. There are three senses in which it is by no 



uncommonly used: 1st, it is applied to it 

 short-horns of the u Herd Book," formerly called tht 

 Durham or Teeswater cattle, and now frequently Mf- 

 nated as "pure bred" or " improved " short-tam 

 2dly, as used by London dairymen and others, it 

 the ordinary Yorkshire or Holderness cow. &ilj,a 

 the midland counties the name is conferred upon flf 

 cow, no matter how bred, which happens to pom 

 short horns. I have frequently been amused on walknf 

 through the feeding stalls of my neighbours at theeos- 

 prehensiveness of the term as applied by them. Iom 

 inquired what breed a cow might belong to, that 

 appearance puzzled me, presenting as she did At 

 character of a mongrel between half-a-dozen 

 and Irish breeds, her colour being a dingy brown, her 

 skin as thick as that of a rhinoceros, and her fonnwA 

 as I never desired to look upon again, -when her ow* 

 informed me she was a short-horn! It is evident fti 

 the third sense in which this term is used is * ▼«? 

 inconvenient one, including, as it does, not onl y Aj* 

 shires and Alderneys, but every conceivable defjj 

 tion of cross and mongrel which happens t0 ^ a?e *f! 

 horns. The majority of the cattle bred by the ««J 

 farmers in this neighbourhood are descendants ft* 

 Yorkshire cows, with sometimes a dash of pure »«* 

 horn blood, and a not unfrequent intermixture sf<g 

 breeds too numerous to specify. They may be ^^ 

 dered, therefore, as degenerate Yorkshire cows, *&»■ 

 havingbeenbreduponnoprinciple(excepttheeco«W^ 



of expense and trouble in their production) V™*^ 



Wett 



descended, with 



Their 



K9Sf 



the faults of the stock from which th< 



few of their merits. ^^ 



cnaracter is to do light-fleshed, though large comuw 

 their hair is scanty, colour pale roan or white * ww 

 red or roan patches ; horns short and very t m , . 

 give a moderate quantity of rather poor milk, au ^ 

 are rather below than above the average size • ^w 

 they are a description of animal which 1 tnoro^ 



j- im_- i. • fu: v^ ™» onerous aoOW 



dislike, having nothing noble or generous -- ^ 

 I believe that their milk would hold a low P*^^ 

 percentage of butter which it yields ; suci 1 a .^ 

 been my experience of the few cows of tuia i u t^ 

 which I have happened to posses-. >> itii reg -^ 

 genuine Yorkshire or Holderness cow, it s ^ 

 admitted that she is more remarkable lor * * ^ 

 than for the richness of her milk. In ner ^^ 

 ever, must be mentioned the remark ° V her ^i 

 that aIia frivAA milk of much richer quality 







of the London dairiea. The same n'„ ^ m 

 mentions a Yorkshire cow of Ins °™>*„'«*. 

 some weeks after calving 15 lbs. of butter p^ ^^ 



much *#}* 



Hi- 



» 



There is much evidence to show 

 or improved short-horns, however •»-- 

 dividuals among them may tbroogn^ 1 1 _ 

 ment have lost their milking P ro ^[" e8 q0B lity 

 quantity, usually yield milk of a richer q 

 their ancestors/the cows of Holder***^, rf |, 

 alludes to the richness of the m»lk o ^ 

 cows, and Mr. Youatt particularly « uu ^ JjJ 

 proved breed making up m this reap fc ^^ 

 Quantity which they yi« d L Tha tcow J *ig 

 are frequently great milkers, I snow . # o- 

 :JL„ iwi,. The evidence in ■ rr. 



munication to you. The ^^"'^i I % 

 assertion accumulates upon me eve , ^ % f 

 soon to be able to publish a select on ^ ^ » 

 regard to the quality of their _m.i«, ^ rf m 

 decidedly superior in richness t &* #* 

 ordinary cows of the eonnfry^ ^ rf *8k J 

 which yield very large quant" wbl * 



percentage 01 whicb t 



churned from it. But ^.^JT^HfjS- 

 tioned in my last communication ^ Io p** 



milk, ia also a most superior buw 



deficient in the 



