

52.3 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



[August 4, 1S55 



2 



the 

 with 

 with 

 run. 



bem^carried on ar the same time, and then 



and spreading 



the plough directly follows, breaking it up as deep as we 

 are able on this soil. After this is properly worked 

 down, I set the marker to work running widths 

 about 28 inches apart, after which follows close the 

 bouting plough, which will keep four or five women 

 alive setting at 14 inches apart in the rows, with a man 

 to supply them with seed, and after these instead of the 

 plough, as practised by Mr. Bennet, I set half-a-dozen 

 menwith hoes to cover up — this leaves an even surface ; 

 in this manner from 7 to 7 o'clock I can get about 

 3 acres planted. I plant about six bags to the acre ; 

 some plant more, the seed this year being worth 4 J. 16s. 

 per acre. Here I may remark that it is a common 

 practice in this neighbourhood to have them put in 

 with the breastplouuh, the dung being spread all over 

 surface previous to commencement The man 

 the plough opens a trench, a woman or boy follows 

 the sets, the man covering up with the next 

 the dung being thrown upon the top of the 

 Potatoes; then follows another turn, and again the 

 sets are planted — for this they pay about 10s. per 

 acre ; for several reasons I think this objectionable. 

 Now for the cleaning, as soon as the Potatoes are visible 

 all along the row, I set the horse-hoe to work, and a day 

 or two after, as soon as the weeds worked up are dried, 

 I set the hoes going so as to clear all along the rows ; 

 and again previous to earthing. I earth when the 

 Potatoes have got about a foot high with the bouting 

 plough, women following again to set all straight with 

 their hoes ; this is the last finishing until fit to dig. 

 The price paid for digging, clearing, and pitting is 

 about \L I have not given the price paid for labour 

 throughout, because some can get it done much cheaper 

 than others, that depending entirely upon the state of 

 the land and the nature of the soil. I may here as well 

 suggest that, for light soils, I think a marker might be 

 made to prepare the rows for planting. John Spriggs, 



Dairy Produce. — I believe I have had upwards of 

 25 oz. of butter per quart of cream, and I have often 

 heard of "a pound a pint" during warm weather, when 

 cows were fed on rich grass, and see no reason why the 

 exception may not become the rule. No doubt this 

 latter is an old story, handed down by our simple f 

 fathers, but still it has its meaning. Let me ask 

 three questions : — First, for example, did ever any 

 of your readers see cream clouted by the heat of 

 the weather ? — and did they ever churn it to see 

 what butter it yielded I — second, did ever any of those 

 who follow the Devonshire system churn the clouts or 



to Dr. Gregory, who will, perhaps, kindly recoucde the 

 portions here objected to, and say how far the responsi- 

 bilities mav lie with the author or the translator. To 

 Liebig we are indebted, not only for his direct disco- 

 veries, but for his very important efforts to elucidate 

 and simplify great principles of agriculture on which 

 our previous notions were indefinite and obscure. And 

 if he is apt to write positively on cases which appear 

 definite, rather from rejecting than explaining the 

 numerous except'ons, it is not uncommon to enthusiasts, 

 and gives value to the heavier corrective labours of men 

 of more caution though less genius. If theory requires 

 the knowledge of all the conditions affecting the sub- 

 ject (p. 6, 7), who can be a theorist \ who knows all the 

 natural laws (p. 8) affecting vegetable growth and culture? 

 But from theory, such as we can attain, we infer yet 

 untried practice ; and it is to such inferences, not yet 

 confirmed by experience, that the farmer objects as 

 deceptive. Hence the R. A. S. motto, " Practice with 

 science." Is it yet certain fact or theory that carbon 

 in plants is assimilated from carbonic acid only, and 

 nitrogen from only ammonia and nitric acid (p. 17) " 

 Is it true that soil, air, water, and manure, influence the 



Eowth of plants only by their constituent parts (p. ]6) I 

 what sense are we then to understand this of water, 

 which acts more as a solvent than iti any other way ? 

 and now the same property is awarded to ammoniacal 

 salts ; and common salt does it as well as sulphate of 

 ammonia. Yet what can be more unlike than the 

 manuring effects of these two salts? And are we yet 

 in condition to affirm that other manures (even a 

 majority of them) may not affect the growth, as well by 

 their compound actions as by their constituent parts? 

 Or what evidence have we, in this book, or any other, 

 of the repeated declaration (p. 110, 115) that the dimi- 

 nution or increase of the crops is in (anything like) 

 " exact proportion," to the diminution or increase of the 

 mineral constituents conveyed to them in manure ? 

 Is it certain or theory that only exhaustion reduces the 

 fertility of soils (p 62) I and are there not, very probably, 

 chemical and electrical reactions amongst the soil and 

 manure producing other benefits than mere solubility 

 (p. 20,21, 91 )! Is the excrementitious theory of De Can- 

 dolle yet absolutely disproved ; and do not spores of un- 

 healthy fungi, &c., after repeated crops, injure those 

 following, unless duly decomposed into wholesome food I 

 At p. 113, it is said that "principles, not recipes, are 

 necessary f but what is the farmer to do before the true 

 principles are certainly ascertained, while so many 

 u x 9f s (p. 80) yet remain * unknown " to us, in the vital 

 forces and actions of vegetables and conditions of soil \ j clots separately from the thinner portion of the cream, 

 And which may he safest trust for his present guidance — or that imperfectly clouted, and ascertain the yield of 

 experiments decisive of select points, upon a select soil, 

 such as rarely comes under his hands ; or such as are 

 deduced from extensive comparisons of the variety of 

 soils in general use, embracing the unknown as well as 

 the known conditions and causes of success ? When all are 



op 



waggon- 

 hind wheels. 



com 



change. The improvements we notice are aV« 

 front of the Norwegian harrow, an aid to thTt ll •talh 

 applied to the haymaking machine, and th* J?*" 1 * ■** 

 wa^on for rough roads, by carrying most of tiwi^ * ■ 



Jackson & Co.'s troughs, made of fire clav &« m mv 

 mmendatinn both as cattle and pig troughs an.1 V *~T 7 * *• 

 Mr. Carson (Warminster), as usufl, sho^d hta^£ft* 

 cutter; his safety clutch is very good and auplicabte tM? 

 pigment requires more capacity for work 1 *^ 



Hornsby & Son exhibited a splendid lot of imrtem«i*. ^ 

 threshing machine and cake breaker we have noticed rfL2* 

 Their drills kept up their well-earned reputation W^S? 

 a comparatively trifling but important addition to the«IE?! 

 the ridge drill, whereby the mould is thrown upon euanf^f 

 cient quantity to set aside all danger from drilling the *1?T 

 closely in contact with it. The improvement is bv twoZSSl 

 blades being attached to the coulter iron, and workin* aSTtt 

 side the coulter track so as to mould it up The Iolii^S 

 piping on tubes appears to. possess great advantages to *Z 

 drills, and we were much pleased with the easy mode of nZ 

 the pigeon-hole slides or feeding cups; it is done by a rod nu2 

 the whole length of the box, supplied with small cog wheeUaJS 

 every slide, and by which they are Taised up as required aL 

 other improvement they have made is to raise the seed bar 

 the side so as to qualify it for drilling hill sides with «^L 



accuracy. This is done by two racks and pinions elevitodbrT 

 screw. " * 



known (if ever) recipes will be drawn from principles with 

 delightful clearness : and for their gradual disentagle- 

 ment, we owe no one hitherto so much as Liebig ; but the 

 doctrine that " the whole future of agriculture n lies in 

 these 50 propositions (Advert, p. vii.), appears to me 

 fitted to hinder the progress of agricultural science, by 

 neglecting the results of often compared and corrected 

 experience in behalf ot an immature system of incom- 

 plete principles. Not that I mean to dispute their 

 general truth or importance, nor to deny that they may 

 be found in his previous works (except the 14th, p. 35), 

 but how many others, different from these, may also be 

 found there ; and how many more may we yet expect, 

 to enter by the 14th, exceptional to the preliminary 

 postulate (p. 16), that "soil, air, water, and manure 

 influence vegetable growth only by their constituent 

 parts ? rt J. PHdeanx. 



^ Notes on the Culture of the Potato. — As the cultiva- 

 tion of the Potato is now again brought before the 

 public in your pages in the form of an extract from 

 Mr. Bennett's Essay, and as I see that a little discussion 

 is expected to arise therefrom which I have no doubt 

 will prove very useful, and perhaps instructive, amongst 

 the agricultural community, I embrace the present 

 opportunity of laying before you the plan I have prac- 

 tised in growing this useful vegetable, as well as a 

 remark or two respecting its culture as observed 

 amongst my neighbours, leaving all to form their own 

 opinion upon the cultivation and produce. At the pre- 

 sent time I am unable to say what the return has been 

 with the produce since the visitation of the murrain, 

 though from a report of W. H. Hyett, Esq., published 

 in 1842, from experiments carried on on 

 farm from which I now write, I find 



smallest return then under any mode 

 was 85 



butter therefrom ; and, third, did they ever scald their 

 milk by steam, according to M. Mabra's method of 

 heating milk in preserving it for keeping \ If not, 

 haps they would oblige by tryiDg one experiment, 

 giving the results in your columns. W* B. 



per- 

 and 



5>j)rietfe& 



consists or 



underneath a u-araner s Turnip cutter, which has only mwii 

 knives instead of two. One of the rollers revolves much f^ 

 than the other, and so cleans it. The machine, with t»o 

 will reduce Turnips or Mangold to a pulp as quickly as the 

 slicer above can cut ; that is T about 50 bushels an hour. 



The pjize pulper, by Phillips, of Brandon. Norfolk, hasaiHft. 

 ing plate instead of the whole hopper beinjr made tovibnfc, 

 in the machine previously shown by this maker. It mine* 

 efficiently than any other pulper, and tears to piecas 38 

 per hour. The object of this machine is to introduce i 

 profitable method of feeding animals, by giving them 

 roots mixed with straw-chaff or other chaff, or metl-bran, 

 Linseed or Rape-cake, instead of the old method of feeding tta, 

 sometimes with roots only and sometimes with dry food <mti. 

 Animals, by this mode of feeding, improve faster and at co&afcr- 

 ably less expense than by the old system. It is also partieiiirfy 



necessary in connection with the system recommended by tit 

 inventor of feeding animals with steam straw-chaff. Tkii 

 machine has been greatly simplified and rendered more efficient 

 by the inventor, and reduced in price from 11 guineas to 61 life, 

 since its exhibition at the Lincoln Show of the Royal Agrieal- 

 tural Society, where it took the first prize. Price 6Z lQi. 

 Among the drills we observed some novelties, hut did not see i 



single dibbling machine. 



Howard's press drill (st. 91, art. 20) is a very admirable machine, 

 in which the seed is covered by small shares which divide cretf 

 of the furrows. A most simple delivery is made by a zinc rolkr 

 and brush, the level of the drill-box in no way affecting the omb- 

 tity of seed sown. 



Garrett's seed and manure drill, fitted with Chambers patint 

 distribut -r, is one of the mo<t efficient of machines, the scrapers 

 for cleaning the manure barrel being very prettily contrived. 



Among clod crushers, that invented by Mr. Patterson, ot 

 Beverley, and exhibited by Mr. Palmer, of Stockton-on-Teei, 

 claims particular notice. Its novelty consists m trie use oU 

 straight axle with eccentrics on it, thus placing each disc ma 

 backward-and-forward position with regard to ite neighbour. Tit 

 eccentrics are so arranged on the shaft that their centra WjUlj 

 in the same horizontal plane, or equidistant from ™j»j~ 



obtained," owing to the peripheries of the discs com™* 

 crossing and recrossing each other. The crusnmg_.y»_ 

 greatly improved by i his plan; for in consequence of »■■* 

 section of the discs at the part where they come in «pnta« w»"» 

 soil, a grinding action is exerted upon the clods, by ™™J?J 

 are reduced to a tine mould. To insure durability tne *w£ 

 part of the discs and eccentrics are chilled or casiB-hardeffl*» 

 peculiar form, having the side points near to the circunua— 

 of the rings (instead of being held some distance aWfi » 

 around, as in Crosskilfs), renders its pressing actioa j- 



Wheats more like the treading of sheep; and h ^°g ^ 

 instead of serrated rings, it has less tendency to ua «■ 

 Price, 304nch discs, with travelling wheels, 18«. . ^ 



Smith and Ashby's haymaker may still be <* n > ! f J™ 1 ?*. 

 yet made, although a rival has appeared in the raacm 

 Nicholson, of Newark. The wheels have cast-iron f W^ 

 of which is boxed, and contains two spur-wheels, or inw j ^ 

 external gear; these work two pinions, botn on uw ^jv- 

 haymaker, and by sliding these pinions, ™^ 1 ' e«** 

 cation of any intermediate pinion, the reversing . ^ 

 effected. The contrivance for lowering is ingenious, oe s^ g 

 a circular rack in which works a pinion with on y ^ 

 pins, which hold the rack in its place without a iy P ^ 

 being required. This machine cannot be made * u m 



like Smith and Ashby's, that gives so ^J^Am^ 

 fork bars, but the single hinge and spring i* verj ^ 



as constructed in this haymaker. By ™£™ 0l 

 plicity of parts the price is unprecedented^ io* • te v fe* 



Crosskill's clod crusher is improved »V ™ •'% b*f * 

 being of larger size, the holes in them for the au 

 course correspondingly larger. 



HORSES. ^ 



Class 1 contained stallions for agricultural pur*— 



foaled previously to the 1st January, A™*^ ^ * 



0* 



L 



There are less entries by three in this cia £ 



incoln. The first prize is carried oft JI ^ * 



whilst his 

 Jerseys. 



bags 



any 

 each 



the same 



that his 



practised 



the acre. 



of 24 cwt. each to 



largest return was 1174 ^ a ? s » ^ rom 

 I am not going to say that we shall this year 

 see a return at all like either of the above, but I merely 

 mention it to give an idea of the return upon the same 

 place previous to the disease. The soil on which my 

 mode is practised is a light soil (stone brash on the 

 upper oolite) in the parish of Painewick, Gloucester- 

 ■hire. W for the mode of cultivation carried on. 

 laking \\ heat stubbles as stated by Mr. Bennet, if the 

 ground is fou, after the stubble is off, I run over the 

 cultivator and set women to clear and burn up rubbish ; 

 it not for* T — ■ — J --— 1- . - . r y 



this state 



down a little before time for planting77nd ~agai"n°the 

 women go over the ground to clear off all weeds that 

 are to be seen. The ground being worked I immedi- 

 *tely put on dung, about 12 tons to the acre, the carting 



T i i r • ,. t0 clear an<1 bu ™ up rubbish : 



foul I immediately set the plough to work ; in 

 iteit lies till spring, when I proceed to drag it 



CARLISLE MEETING OF THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL 



SOCIETY OF ENGLAND. 



We add to our last week's report the following farther 

 remarks on some of the implements exhibited : 



On Stand 3 we noticed a cheap ventilator for stables invented 

 by James D. Ferguson, of Bywell. It acts by valves for allowing 

 the escape of vitiated air by the simple operation of palling a 

 cord, while at the same time, and by the same process, fresh nir 

 is admitted into the building below by air-drains and dampers, 

 moving flush with the inside of the wall. Price (according to 

 size) from 21. to 3Z. 



Robert Tinkler's (of Penrith), barrel churn is well made and 

 cheap. It is provided with three breakers, the first and second 

 being to break the cream, and the third to gather the butter, 

 which can be done from the commencement in 15 minutes; and 

 it is so constructed as to be entirely free from ail iron or other 

 metal ; and an improvement has been made in the castors and 

 wheels, so as to diminish friction. It will churn at one time 

 from 6 to 80 lbs. of butter. Price U. 



Mr. Greening's (1 & 3, Church Gate, Manchester) combined 

 washing and wringing machine and churn is clever. It effects 

 by machinery the action given to the "Peggy" by the laundress, 

 viz., a perpendicular motion at the same time as a circular one. 

 The wringing is accomplished by rollers. When desired, the 

 machine is readily converted into a churn by substituting a 

 churn and churn- staff for the washing tub and " Peggy." 



At Stand 7, Messrs. Reeves (Bratton, near Westbury) exhibited 

 their improvements on C Handler's liquid manure drill. It is on 

 the same principle as Chandler's patent, as far as regards the 

 mixing of artificial manures with the liquid and drilling it with 

 the seed ; but instead of its being delivered by buckets, it is 

 mixed by means of a stirrer, and flows out through the bottom of 

 the liquid cistern, ' The apertures through which the liquid 

 passes are kept open by means of steel springs fixed to the 

 stirrers, which act as cleaners to the openings. Price 221. \6s. 



Sewell's (Longtown) roller, at stand 12, is a wooden cylinder 

 covered with angle irons. Price 121. 



Boby's (Bury St. Edmunds) screen is a good one ; a collar passes 

 between each wire, rolling as the grain passes down the screen, 

 and keeps all going and all clear. 



Gilkenson's (Carlisle) churn is of barrel shape; no iron in the 

 inside; worked well. Price 3?. 15*. 



Messrs. Garrett & Son displayed their customary assortment 

 of beautifully made implements. The prizes and commendat is 

 they receive will of itself sufficiently testily their merit; and 

 the descriptions of several of the trials will suflice for a more 



lengthened notice. We highly approve their taste in making a ZZilA^VAa ^first nlace. 

 good selection rather than bringing so far a greater number of wouia Wlve * lil v 

 implements. 



Smith & Ashby (Stamford) have a choice selection of highly 

 useful implements. Their celebrated haymaker has had some 

 improvements, and their horse rake has undergone considerable 

 alterations. Their cake breaker has undergone great improve- 

 ments ; the frame is now made in two sectional parts ; the crush- 

 ing rollers are in two parts only. The reversing of the action of 

 the handle enables it to break for either cattle or sheep. 



We were disappointed in not seeing Dussuc's steam cultivator 

 or " machine latx urer," affix* d m catalogue at stand 22. I the perfection oi i"« ^"**~ fl rjrizes. AS ** V 'J~ #&** 



Crosskill's stand we thought larger and longer than usual. His fashion, and so he goes miiiUS P ver afl^tf , £* 

 exhibition of implements is exceedingly good, and, for the major mfti . pfl ' „ reat J e al of money no „ ^^e ^ 



part, we see them under varnish, and the woodwork is fully open f ,a *. co * £ . .^^n^ to the S0IU 

 to inspection. The mysteries of paint and putty are for once ' he IB right in Keepj«& 



legs wr 



though he has had a very heavy season i : * ^ 



_._/r b (BL. —:„~ ; a «l* s ervedlv a*ar<* e " • li .\f#* 



* 



and M. Reed, who, with the sa me au ^ ^ 

 second prize last year *t Lincoln. |m ^ 



1 6.3, and is Leicestershire bred. He looksj ^ % 



s had a very heavy 



puff. The prize is de ^^j^Jdrf to "*g 

 deservedly is the second prize oi m. awa j* 



S. and R Spencer, of »^ n fV^^i * 

 stallion, standing 16.2, though in wm &#*** 

 could have wished him a little other* > e fi ^ 



a good type of the Warwick taeei » carried off * 



thr* 



England's Glory, a son of the ■ b°™^ r 

 181. prize at Windsor in 18ol, de ser ^ &s ^i,m 

 admirably topped, and *«» ^£ i& «■ ** 

 would take a first place. He «an , 



seems large enough to take a Ate* m 



Mr. Joseph Faulder, ^* C *^ a ^ Willi*"* 3 * 

 year old Jll furnished bay bo"*^ too tfjJJ 



of tin. county, shows » >*«J *££„. *-»£l 

 best point is the reach of ^^^ six o£g £ 

 meeta again another ^^ t0 perfjf * 



t0 " aVe ^tl t ffoltfdoes not «<»« 





seems 



br*** 



N 



