j^rGtJST 18, 1855.] 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



557 



^^r's^rdeners) 2,000,000 bushels are actually 

 cottage * & %j*ju &c., every year in these two 



destroyed^ by 



bird 



^ , No mean consideration is this surely, 

 C °? S of scarcity, coupled with other sad wastes of 

 m hich we have alluded to m a former paragraph. 

 C °™V* d Son, Seed- growers, <fcc, Maldon, Essex, 

 n! Wheat Midge.-l have not observed in your agri- 

 lnral reports any allusion to the Wheat midge, whose 

 cui coloured maggot is making serious ravages in the 

 Sw crops here, and as far as I can learn, through a 

 TlSe extent of the Weald of Kent and the 

 Zoning part of Sussex. Here I should say that the 

 3 ficiency from this cause threatens to be something 

 rke from one-fourth to one-fifth, and if this is general 

 hroueh England, it will most seriously affect the favour- 

 able estimates you have given of our prospects for the 

 . year# Hoping that this will call forth notices of the 

 C revalence or otherwise of this little pest from your 

 P nmerous correspondents. W. 0. Morland, Lamberhurst. 



Wheat Crop, Berkshire. 

 rrathered from separate pieces of Wheat, containing in 

 all many hundred acres ; only one ear from each sepa- 

 rate piece. As compared with last year, they seem to be 

 at least one quarter deficient. The district whence 

 they were taken is on the upper green sand and gravels 

 of the country, which are good Wheat lands. James 

 Clutterlmck, Long Wittenham Vicarage. 



Making Beer with Sugar.— The practice of brewing 

 from a combination of sugar and malt is rapidly extend- 

 in» itself in this country, and would, no doubt, be 

 universally adopted at the present time were it known 

 how important a saving is thereby effected, particularly 

 to individuals brewing for home consumption who do 

 not pay the excise duty on sugar. The following table 

 shows the comparative cost of malt and sugar. 



Price of malt per quarter 70$. Qd. 



Deduct grains at 4<2. per bushel ... 2 S 



peated the second year, unless steers are intended to be 

 fattened at two years old ; therefore in October, at one 

 year and a half, or at two years and a half old, they 

 should get chaff of good hay, with two quarts 

 of Barley or other meal, either from Oats, Beans, 

 or tail Wheat, or instead of meal 3 lbs. of oilcake, 

 with as many Swedes as they will consume 

 given them twice each day, with no water. Heifers 

 should be kept on similar treatment until the last 

 winter before calving, when roots are not needed, and 

 can be given to greater advantage to other stock, 

 as a plentiful supply of straw, and a little hay, for the 

 last two months before calving, is more healthy and 

 likely to avoid risk from inflammation. At this time 



resolved to continue the inquiry, the Society had again 

 consented to undertake the charge of it, and that the 

 greatest part of the schedules for the present year had 

 been issued, about 40,000 having been sent out since 

 the 2d of July. He had pleasure in being able to 

 report that the returns were being made promptly and 

 accurately, above 4000 replies having been received 

 within a week, and he begged to impress on every one 

 the importance of completing and sending back his 

 schedule. This was the more necessary, in consequence 

 of a desire strongly expressed by the Board of Trade 

 to have the average of crops published, if possible, 

 before the rise of Parliament in August, which could 

 only be accomplished in the event of no delay being 



good hay, good water, which is very essential^ and good incurred on the part of those to whom schedules had 



These Wheat ears were 



1J cwt. sugar is about equivalent to a quarter of malt. 



Take Madras at 31s. per cwt. 1 cwt 31s. (W. 



• i do 15 6 



i do 7 9 



67 s. id. 



• 1 1 



5 1 s.Sd. 



Saving to private brewers 13s. Id. per quarter. Excise 

 duty, 35. 9d. per cwt. ; equals on 1* cwt., 6s. Id. Saving 

 to licensed brewers, 6s. 6d. per quarter. A faulty mode 

 of employing the materials has given rise to the idea 

 that beer made from sugar will not keep. The prin- 

 cipal error has been boiling the sugar with the wort. 

 This is a great mistake ; the sugar should never be 

 boiled in any stage of the operation. The Hampshire 

 farmers brew very generally from sugar, and I have 

 heard of a brewery in one of the home counties where, 

 ic consequence of the use of sugar, the waste beer 

 returned by customers during the year was so much 

 reduced as to be barely sufficient for finings. I have 

 myself tasted capital bitter beer made according to the 

 subjoined recipe, the excellence of which consisted, as I 

 was informed, in the length of time it would keep 

 without becoming hard. 



Recipe .—Boil 54 gallons of water in copper; run it into mash 

 tub, and let it cool to 90° Fahr. Put in 4 bushels malt; let it 

 stand three hours covered with sacks, &c., to keep in steam ; run 

 into nnderback, and immediately pump into copper. Mix and 

 stir 8 lbs. Hops with it. Boil three hours; run in trough to 

 cooler, mixing 25 lbs. sugar with hand in the wort as it runs 

 along trough. Cool to 70°, and let down into working tub. This 

 will make very strong beer. If ordinary beer is required make 

 second wort in same way, with some malt and Hops and 25 lbs. 

 more sugar. Cool separately, and mix with first wort in working 

 tub. Put 1 pint yeast into flat bowl; put bowl in wort, so that 

 wort can just touch yeast. Let work 12 hours, during which 

 skim off yeast three times. Keep covered except when skim- 

 ming, and rack off into casks in cellar. It may work a fortnight. 

 HUup casks every morning with what has worked out of cork 

 hole into tub beneath. Skim before returning it to cask, and 

 ^ean away all yeast which rises to top of cask through bung- 

 uole. Put three or four handsful of dry Hops into cask through 

 Dung-hole, and bung it up. The sugar should be of a damp 

 Pasty quality, such as low Madras. Another Method of Mixing.— 

 immediately before running wort into cooler, take out of copper 

 wopailsful of wort and empty into small cask ; mix sugar with 

 Iff • V url) ack into copper, mixincr thoroughly, and directly run 

 «* into cooler. Do not boil wort after sugar is added . 



»• U, Inner Temple. 



. F °odfor Young and Growing Stock. —The following 

 1S an answer to a question addressed to us by a cor- 

 espondent. Calves at a month old, by the 1st of 

 April, have proved to do well on half a pint of good 

 Uatraeal, or the same quantity of Linseed mixed in a 

 "ttle cold water, and boiling water poured over it, 

 J? a «ng the half pint of meal or Linseed into two or 

 J-Hjee qua r t 8 f liquid. This should be mixed 12 hours 

 Before &Yen to the calves, as it should stand this time, 

 ™a the vessel being covered it will be found then of 

 ■Mncient warmth. Best Scotch oatmeal is most econo- 

 . . » and is perhaps better than Linseed. It should 

 ^ given at first with a small quantity of milk, or the 

 !* T.? 8 having been fed previously only on this will not 

 t Ull y tft ke to this food ; together with this, hay and some 



°te are a good preparation for their taking to Grass. 



* *eeks of this feeding will suffice, giving them the 



Will Tl '* t0 Weatl tiiem fr0m * t; and b ^ thiS tIme th ^ 



Soon* i t0 Grass as their only and sufficient food, if 



« u ^'holesomp tmof™*.^ Wntar elmnUl nnlv he edven 



mixture only <»nce a day the last week, and lowering 



lte ^ahty, to wean them fr " 



^ take to Grass as the 

 verv ! esome pasture. Water should only be given 

 aej 8par5n Sty when required from drought, and on no 

 to? U ^ su °uld calves at Grass have unrestrained access 



the? I* T ater ' A * the ni S ,lt8 S et cold in 0ctoher > 

 of Ca have a smail <Ju»Tititv of hay, and the tops 



^ow« t8 . 0r earl >' T »rnips ^ifl now forward their 

 **th en ^ Ul Decembe « , » *h«» a regular supply of Swedes 

 good -° f 0at or ^fey straw, mil keep them in 



they &T°. W|n g condition until the tinoo for grazing, or 

 an/o 3 * e J* e pt well through the summer on c 



Wurzel until early 

 treatment itaUK be re- 



*ndn p \ ue *«pt well through t 

 ^£?i lful ^PPty of Mangold 



chaff 



pasture, is the staple food for cows in milk and during 

 the three months of winter, December, January, and 

 February, during which time it is usual they are dry 

 before calving. The straw -yard, as beforesaid for heifers, 

 with a good supply, a stream of water, shelter, and a 

 little hay added a month before calving, will keep cows 

 in good condition. C. C. M. 



been sent. Last year the schedule included columns 

 for acreage calculated to cover the whole area of a 

 farm, the land in grain and in green crops, in fallow and 

 in Grass, in sheep walks, waste, woods, houses, gardens, 

 &c. So far as regarded the main object of the measure, 

 the columns in the schedule of 1054 applicable to 

 Grass, sheep walks, waste, wood, &c., were not abso- 



Deep Divining.— I quite concur with Mr. Sherrard, ,utei ? required ; and while these returns were not 

 . 540, as to the efficiency of deep draining. This estate, re q u *ed *or determining the produce of food, they were 



the greater part of which is strong clay, has been 

 thoroughly drained within the last fivevears with 4-feet 



drains and upwards, and the results are highly satisfac- 

 tory. The average crop of Wheat prior to draining 

 and deep cultivation was five sacks to the acre. Last 

 year the average was ten, and it promises to be equally 

 good this, the straw being stiff and ripening of a good 

 colour, and not laid so much as in many places. One 

 field in particular has passed all expectation. Being 

 close to the covers, it was sown with tall Sunflowers ; 

 that crop not coming so well as could be wished, after 

 the first hoeing half a bushel of Buckwheat was sown to 

 the acre, which is now a most luxuriant crop, many of 

 the stems being as large as the finger, and upwards of 

 4 feet high. /. IF., Bignor Park, Petworlh. 



Mr. MechUs Lecture at Carlisle.— On this gentleman's opinions 

 at Carlisle it was objected that the nun-fall was too great in 

 Cumberland to allow of threshing in the fields ; surely the rain- 

 fall in Ireland is equal to, if it does not exceed, that of Cumber- 

 land, yet many of the small farmers in Ireland, for want of barns, 

 thresh out their corn (Oats) (Wheat is not grown by them or by 

 those who are not rich enough to have such an accommodation) 

 in the fields, or more generally on the highways. Thin and rank 

 sowings also met with objections on the same ground, or rather 

 the same water feeling, the greater humidity of the climate to 

 that of Tiptree Hall, yet I have not found in Ireland thin and 

 rank sowings, where the thinness of the sowing has been pro- 

 portional to the rankness of the soil, so liable to lodge or be 

 beaten down by our heavy rains and storms as thick sowings; 

 indeed, it is a common remark on a thick sown field, that if the 

 harvest comes wet it will be lodged and little worth, and also 

 that in a thin sown field the head will make up for any deficiency 

 of stock ; and, indeed, in proportion to the thinness of the sowing 

 so is the strength of the stem. Barley in rows. 21 inches apart, 

 has in rank semi-garden ground been lodged with four-sevenths 

 produce of grain and straw 4 feet long, where, with intervals of 

 42 inches and 21 inches, it has been quite erect with seven- 

 sevenths produce of grain and straw 5 feet long. Many years ago 

 an English steward (a Mr. Aisop) of the late Lord Thomond's 

 introduced in Cork (called the water-pot of Ireland) the 

 drilling of Wheat at 9 inches, with a saving of one-third of 

 the seed (the quantity sown bein^ under two bushels). I believe 

 not much more than one-and-a-half, and with this sowing he had 

 crops superior to the general run of the country. /. M. G. 



worse than useless, because deceptive in any question 

 connected with area, and only calculated to create 

 erroneous conclusions, and to weaken the confidence 

 that might be otherwise reposed in the proper result* 

 of the inquiry. On these grounds, and on the general 

 principle of excluding from statistics that which cannot 

 be accurately ascertained, it was determined by the 

 directors to curtail the acreage columns by restricting 

 them to land under tillage — that is to say, land actually 

 under crop of any description, in bare fallow, and in 

 Grass under rotation. The two latter columns might, 

 with reference to the food returns, have been omitted ; 

 but their presence made the schedule and the answers 

 under it complete as regarded the tillage lands of Scot- 

 land, the extent of which could, with reliable accuracy, 

 be given by every occupant. 



Miscellaneous. 



Oilcake. — The average composition of the cakes from 

 different localities does not differ to any great extent y 

 and the subjoined table, giving the average amount of 

 oil, albuminous and saccharine matters in those cakes, 

 of which more than one sample has been analysed, will 

 suffice to render this obvious. 



British, 

 American, , 

 Copenhagen 

 Flensburg 

 Italian 



# • • 



- . - 



No. of 

 Analyses. 



7 

 8 

 2 

 2 



2 



Oil. 



Albuminous 



Saccharine 



matters. 



matters. 



12.90 



2S.47 



39.01 



12.9(5 



28 28 



34 22 



1221 



29.75 



34.92 



12.23 



24 55 



23.99 



7.67 



31.74 



37.87 



£>orietfe3« 



ROYAL AGRICULTURAL OF ENGLAND. 



Trial of Rkaping-Machines.— Mr. Miles, M.P., the 

 President of the Royal Agricultural Society of England 

 at the Carlisle meeting, having on that occasion placed 

 the crops on his farm at Abbot's Leigh, near Bristol, at " * S > 

 the disposal of the Society for any subsequent trial of ' 

 reanins machines that might be found requisite, the 



reapm 



Stewards of Implements have availed themselves of this 

 liberal offer, and have made arrangements that the 

 private trial of the selected machines shall take 

 place under the immediate superintendence of the 

 Stewards, the Field Judges, and the Consulting -Engineer 

 of the Society, in the presence of the respective imple- 

 ment makers, on Wednesday, the 29th of August, at 

 1 1 o'clock in the forenoon. This trial will be strictly 

 private ; but Mr. Miles has proposed to the owners of 

 the machines that a public trial should take place on the 

 following day, namely, on Thursday, the 30th of August, 

 in order that an opportunity may be afforded, to all 

 persons interested in the subject, of viewing the reaping 

 machines at full work under ordinary circumstances. 



Highland and Agricultural Society : Half-yearly 

 General Meeting.— The Earl of R< -*ljn in the chair. 

 Eighty- seven gentlemen, 70 of whom are tenant farmers, 

 were balloted for and admitted as members. 



Agricultural Statistics.— Mr. Hall Maxwell then laid 

 on the table the report by the Society to the Board of 

 Trade, in reference to the statistics of occupants rented 

 at less than 10J. in the lowlands, and 20/. in the high- 

 lands, which completed the statistical inquiry for 1354, 

 of which the following is an abstract : — 



No. of 



Occu- 

 pants. 



16,144 



42,229 



1. Holdings in 26 counties rented 



at less than 107 



2. Holdings in 7 counties rented ftt j 



tess than 201. 

 Total 



■ • • 



• •.» 



• • > 



No. of 

 Arable 

 Acres. 



77,180 



[l 433 



f 



Total 



47,760 



287,648 



17- 



U.308 



Mr. Hall Maxwell stated thsA Government 



having 



As far as the first four of these varieties are concerned; 

 it is manifest that their composition is so similar thai 

 it may for all practical purposes be termed identical ; 

 the proportion of oil and albuminous matter in no case*- 

 varying to the extent of much more than 1 per cent. 

 The Swedish, Sonderberg, and Konisberg cakes contain 

 a somewhat smaller quantity of oil— averaging about 

 10 per cent. ; and the latter falls materially short ia 

 the quantity of albuminous matters. The Italian and 

 French cakes are remarkable for the small proportion 

 of oil which they contain, and, as a necessary con- 

 sequence, by the proportionate increase in the albumi- 

 nous compounds. The quantity of oil averages ahotia 

 7 per cent. ; and it is remarkable that Professor Way, 

 in his analyses, found SLlician cake to give, on the 



6.80 per cent, of oil, although he found as 



as 11.84 in Italian cakes. A priori ye *houM 



have anticipated the smallest proportion of oil in home- 

 made cake, as in most cases the machinery employed 

 in the oil-mills of this country is much superior to that 

 used abroad. Although we find that when the average 

 is taken all cakes are tolerably similar, matters are 

 altered when individual samples are compared, for then 

 the differences become very material. Comparing, for 

 instance, the different samples of American cake, wo 

 find that the oil varies from 9.5 up to 16.17 per cent. ; 

 that is to say by nearly 30 per cent, of the whole ; and 

 similarly the albuminous compounds fluctuate between 

 26 and 31 per cent. As a general rule, the higher the 

 oil the lower the albuminous matters ; but frequeE* 

 exceptions are found, as some cakes are found to be 

 remarkably rich in both. The estimation, however,, 

 of the feeding value of the different samples is a matter 

 attended with some degree of difficulty and must turn 

 upon the point whether the oily or the albuminous com- 

 pounds are most important in promoting the fattening 

 and growth of cattle. At one time we held that the- 

 latter deserved the preference, and that they might bo 

 correctly taken as the measure of the value of any sort- 

 of food. We now know that this is not absolutely 

 correct, for it has been distinctly recognised that &. 

 proper proportion must subsist between the different 

 classes of nutritive matters ; so that if we had a food 

 containing abundance of albuminous matters, it would 

 be of inferior value, unless a proper quantity of oily and 

 saccharine matters were also present. In estimating 

 the value of a Linseed cake it appears to me that we 

 must take into consideration both substances, but that 

 the greatest weight is to be attached to the albuminous 

 compounds ; thus, for example, the first sample of 

 American cake, containing 13 of oil and about 31 of 

 albuminous matters, and the Dublin cake, are to le 

 preferred to any of the other cam plea Dr* 



in the Transactions of the Highland Society.] 



A ndcrson, 



