570 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE 



[August 25, 185 



seed, in the hands at least of men of probity and 

 taleut, whose judgment and integrity will be equally 

 a guarantee for acquisition of seed as true and pure 

 as it is possible to procure. The farmer can in no 

 cise be completely insured agaii failure ; but we 

 do not doubt that the best results would arise from 

 some well digested system of raising agricultural 

 seeds for the market. At present it is a mere 



d he sound or not ; for the 





chance, whether the 

 more subtle complaints are not indicated by any 

 external signs, or at least by such as would be likely 

 to awake the suspicions of the purchaser. The agita- 

 tion of these questions of Vegetable Pathology, though 

 it seldom falls to our lot to be able to suggest a present 

 remedy, will at last direct attention to many a point 

 which has hitherto escaped notice. In the half-grown 

 seed before us there is indication enough of disease; 

 how far that might be discoverable in the ripe seed 

 is moie than we are able to assert. Our correspond- 

 ent* will at least take care that none of the produce 

 of his diseased Oat field can by any means be used 

 for seed corn, for there is no knowing to^ what 

 extent a malady may be propagated, though in the 

 first instance its appearance may seem altogether 

 fortuitous. M. J. B. 



Having made the bold announcement that all 

 mechanical difficulties in Steam Culture have been 



conquered 

 with 



namely, by Fisken's method of 'plough- 



w r e are bound to 



And here some 



Well 



the anchors. An 



least additional strain upon 

 endless » rope, driven by the engine, and passing 

 round pulleys attached to the anchors, is a neces- 

 sity of the case ; and by giving one line of tins rope 

 a turn round the rigger upon the plough-carnage, 

 the barrel may be driven, and the work proceed. 

 But if an endiess rope be a necessity, wherein lies 

 the value of a fixed rope and barrel as an addition ? 



• the originality of the plan consists iu this 

 endless rope moving at a high velocity ; the strain 

 it has to bear, and consequently its requisite 

 strength and weight, being reduced in inverse pro- 

 portion to its speed. The principle is just that of 

 applying one's little finger at the long end of a lever 



in order to lift a ton weight. 



In Fisken's most ingenious invention, as. at pre- 

 sent exhibited, the leverage gained is eleven to one ; 

 that is, the driving-rope is running 22 miles per 

 hour when the plough-carriage is going only two. 

 The strain upon the rope is thus only one-eleventh 



The 



thus burned to the extent 

 yard 8 



perhaps 200 



per acre by faggots and bvVnainC *" w C1 ** 

 fertile by this xnean? In a i^ZT^ 



the Journal Mr. Posky relates 



case as coming under his own observation 



a somewhat simiia. 



water in Berkshire, where the « very stiffest i • 

 worth 10*. per acre, had, by draining with 8 JJ 



stones ^ 



SS / 1 ? pa f m ^ spent in ^ K 



45 bushels of W heat per acre ; the effect of affi! 



zng wim a stationary engine; 

 make good our assertion by facts, 

 critical reader may question whether, in adopting 

 tlv principle of a stationary motive power, commu- 

 nicating motion to an implement by wire ropes and 

 pulleys, we are not running counter to all that has 

 been advanced for years in this Journal concerning 

 the fallacy of a steam traction implement, and the 

 isity for a revolving tiller, the speed of which 

 must be always proportionate to the rate of onward 

 movement of the carriage it is attached to; this 

 independable condition* pointing to the locomotive 

 engine with digging-cylinder behind as the best 

 form of machine, &c, &c. 



Now we have space only to say in a word — the 

 locomotive idea was the best that could be had 

 when the subject was first studied, and may be 

 subsequently renounced for a better, without affecting 

 the principles advocated. The principal points 

 taught by Mr. Hoskyns on this subject we continue to 

 maintain, and welcome the new invention not 

 because it has applied steam power to a common 

 plough, but because its peculiar mode of so doing 

 supplies us with the means of driving a rotatory or 

 any other for in of tiller. 



When Fowler's clever system of tackle for the 

 draining plough first appeared, everybody regarded 

 it as a foundation for steam ploughing, though 

 evidently a considerable modification was necessary 

 before the apparatus for drawing a tremendous 

 implement of 100-horse draught, at a slow pace 

 and in " furrows" (as they may be called) several 

 yards apart, could manage a light quickly-moving 

 implement making 9-inch furrows upon the entire 

 surface of the ground. The chief difficulty was in 

 fixing and shifting the anchorages, each pulley 

 having so firm a hold upon the headland as to 

 sustain a strain equal to double the draught of the 

 ploughs plus the draught of a wire rope hundreds of 

 yards in length, and at the same time being readily 

 shifted forward at intervals of a few minutes. 

 Hitherto, no plan had been proposed that did not 

 require too much labour in the digging of anchor 

 holes, setting down posts, &c. ; but at last an 

 inventor has surmounted the obstacle, not by im- 

 proving the old form of anchorage or any other 

 detail, but by a stroke of genius producing a new 

 scheme of action altogether. 



Mr. Fiskgn's aim seems to have been to lessen 

 the strain upon the anchorages, and to reduce to a 

 minimum the labour connected with their fixing and 

 adjustment. When an implement is dragged across 

 a field by mean- of a rope, of course the purchase 

 at the end of the rope must bear a horizontal strain 

 equal to the draught of the implement and of the 

 rope itself ; and with an endlaas rope passing round 

 a pulley, this strain, of course, will be doubled: but 

 if the rope is left at rest, and we make the imple- 

 ment propel itself along by windinn up a single 

 fixed rope, the strain upon the anchor will be 

 reduced dimply to the draught of the implement. 

 instead of pulling the ploughing implement by 

 mam force then, we fix upon it a grooved barrel, 

 and give the stationary drag-rope (fastened down 

 at each end of the field) one turn round this barrel, 

 so that when slowly revolving it may work its way 

 along the rope taking the implement with it'; 



of the whole draught of the implement. I'M rope 

 does not reverse its motion, but works round the 

 rigger upon the plough-carriage, always in one 

 direction ; so that as the implement traverses back- 

 ward and forward, this strain is alternately exerted 

 for and against its progress, the anchorage at the 

 far side of the field having to sustain a drag equal 

 to the draught of the implement jp/hs one-eleventh ; 

 and the other, which is nearer to the engine, the 

 draught of the implement minus one-eleventh — or 

 rather, as it is used to divert the direction of the rope, 

 it is subjected to a strain equal to the draught of 

 the implement. How much more easy to fix and 

 shift these anchorages, than when they must be 

 made to bear double the strain] 



But this is not all. The weight and draught of 

 the rope itself add to the strain upon the anchors. 

 With a wire rope strong enough to drag the imple- 

 ment by direct traction, this is found to be very 

 considerable ; if running along the ground, the 



friction is great, and if supported by friction-rollers 

 mounted upon stand frames (as Fisk 



s driving- 



rope is), the weight must occasion also a very great 



On the contrary, a rope 



exceedingly 



strain upon the anchors, 

 riyining at a high velocity may be 

 light, Fisken employing merely a liemp cord three- 

 eighths of an inch thick to work two ploughs at 

 once. This being so light, and running on friction- 

 wheels set at intervals along the field, occasions 

 only a trifling pull upon the anchorages. 



The economy of power is no less remarkable than 

 the ease and portability arising from this arrange- 

 ment ; and this point we will elucidate in our next 

 paper. I. A. C. 



cubic yards per acre), by themselves being ascerSS 

 by the crop (37 bushels per acre) obtained wZ 

 none were used. Even on the still stiffer cW 

 Kent and Sussex, drainage, we are told, is effort 

 for their amelioration and improvement This Z 

 the application of bulky manures, and thepracfr. 

 of burning, seem then to be the means which ol»»- 

 vation ascertains to be efficient in the fertilisation of 

 stiff infertile clays. 



The application of lime must not be Wfen 

 in our enumeration of the means of fertilising land 



No dressing is more universally in vogue than lime* 

 whether in the form of the heavy application once 

 in the commencement of the lease which is common 

 in Scotland, or in the more frequent smaller quan- 

 tities applied in England, or in the still more 

 frequent, and still lighter dressings recommended by 

 Professor Way. Lime is admitted by all, whether 

 theorists or farmers, to be one great cause of fertility 

 in soils. How it directly acts in the removal of 

 infertility has been observed in the case of many a 

 moor and boggy soil, and how it increases the pro- 

 ductiveness of fertile lands, is witnessed in the 

 farm practice of every county in the kingdom 

 and on every kind of soil, from the loosest sand to 

 the stiffest clays. We know a farm which when 

 broken out of Grass received a heavy dressing of 

 lime over the first corn stubble ; and in one of tk 

 newly broken up fields a ridge was left unlimed as 

 an illustration of the application ; and this it con- 

 tinued to illustrate, more especially by the produce 

 of the grain crops on that field, for many subsequent 

 years. The direction of the ridges had been 

 altered since that blank was left ; but there, lyiag 

 obliquely across the new furrows, was the perch 

 wide land as plainly marked as ever in each alt 

 nate year by the relatively scanty straw and yield 

 of the grain crop grown upon it. The heavy drea- 

 ing of 250 to 300 bushels per acre, which is some- 

 times practised, is advisable only in the case 0; 

 peaty soils, or land full of vegetable matter wtob 

 has never been limed before. The more common 

 application of half a bushel to the perch once in a 

 six or eight years' rotation is an abundant dressin 

 under ordinary circumstances. 



Before winding up our remarks on the observed 

 causes of infertility we should have referred to 

 instances where defective fertility is attributable to 

 excessive stiffness and adhesiveness of soil . The clays 

 with which we are best acquainted are those upon the 

 blue lias formation. The poor pastures on this clay 

 become good pasture under the influence of manure. 

 The u home " ground upon a blue lias dairy farm is 

 generally green, when all the rest is brown. 

 Drainage too has benefitted these clays. An arable 

 farm with which we are acquainted on this forma- 

 tion, after drainage 3 feet deep and 20 feet apart, 

 ha been most productive of heavy crops of Bean 

 and Wheat, repaying the expenditure most liberally; 

 and drainage and manuring will, we believe, thus 

 cure most clays of infertility. Instances exist of 

 land in the neighbourhood of Bristol where the 



OF PIPE IRRIGATION 



A SKETCH 



SCOTLAND, June, 18oo. 



IN 



long am* 



There was a time, and it is not so very 

 when it was popularly supposed that any nanco 

 a farmer; when the tradesman who ^/^y 

 want of ability to carry on the business to whi . 

 been brought up, when the idle care ei jijgj 

 younger son, or the middl«^batl« jj^gi 



reverse tf 



the housekeeper, or in short any one 

 education bad previously been the very 

 agricultural, found no difficulty in p**gr*g J^ 

 and for a time at least continuing to *w*\j&t 

 was supposed to be the only thing wq^j^ 

 to some" small capital often ^^^i 

 The rent was probably not grea t, but fe p ^ # 

 the land was small, and the finale too otte ^ 

 t« ant and trouble and embarrassment to ^ ^ 



at least a 



chaug 8 



i 



town and stable dung brought out from Bristol have 



so enriched and loosened the poor and stiff clay 



soils upon the lias, that crops are produced which ca nnot last ; tlier 



are obtained only from land in the highest state of 



fertility. Gas lime is used near Bristol, a waggon 



load per acre, with good effect on these stiff soils. 



Burning is another remedy which not only 

 diminishes the stiffness of clay soils directly, but 

 which renders them more able to give up to plant 

 the fertilising matters they contain. In the fifth 

 volume of the Journal of the Royal Agricultural 

 Society of England will be found the history of 

 an improvement of this kind effected by Mr. 

 Randell, of Chadbury, on a farm near Evesham. 

 Land worth 7s. 6d. per acre — a foul Bean stubble 

 entered to in autumn — was skimmed to the 



Matters are now different, or «/^; tta *tri* 

 going on. It is true that there itf «S3 W< 



going on. It is true that tn « w 1 f w " 1 % luBl btf..W" 

 of Country in primitive ««^^S^i 

 cannot last ; there is a restless spirit ^bw . ^ 



•"« .*«'»ESSS? 



unwilling are swept along ^JJ^ has acted ^J 

 Necessity. The abolition of P££*£i spU r up*£ 

 British agriculture like tie »"^^i fj^jj 



red* cour-er, it has Ji^ B ^Sd !•*» *» 

 Urn ™ uaaion of Necessity, an ^t* 





and 



the 



next we have 

 barrel from 



to communic e 



the steam- 



to 



motion 

 . ,. . -engine, which is 



<t a distance, m such ajgroner^aa will cause 



* We should be extremely oblieed when the #wm 4. ^~> 4 *u« 



-i^-h™ p.™„» W0 J d lor ^ «•£ ">; «»p **»>£** 



P088ible from partially abortive panicles. 



depth of about 1| inch, and all that the 

 plough raised was burned with faggots, at the 

 cost, including spreading, of 42*. per acre. 

 was then ploughed and scuffled, and, the weather 

 being favourable, was rendered perfectly clean. It 

 was then planted in October with Vetches, which 

 the following summer were eaten off by sheep folded 

 on them, and this was succeeded by Wheat, which 

 produced one bushel in the field more than 4-"» iiishel 

 per acre. The produce was sold for 7*. 6d. per 

 bushel, and this crop therefore produced more than 

 the fee simple of the land in its former state. Mr. 



It 't. 



Light 



the sharp persuasion ^""Tnds'to w° rk >^* 

 tenant have alike set their »»wtoj» theW rf<g 

 their aid the science of the- chenust . _,„ &> 



skill of the engineer, in order* priBOr- jrf 



they fancied was before them. 1* J ^ JjJJ 

 same taught by the old s or) » Jj * % ^^ 

 having been asked by » old ten.« ^ 



rent, instead of granting *£*% farm, £ ** 

 Aware of the cM-JJ^o-I "^3 



fr? useful i-yjrs* 



the home of &» of 

 .king «> <£» «« f h rtunul* » ^ 



tried it again, and under tbejr m n^ ^ 



Hon, not only paid the increased ^ 

 «anted a reduction. Ot «"• .^c 



succeed in every case, but > w ^ 



judgment of the landlord led , 



required.. . ._ : . M diffico lt to »£ *&* 



its careless cultivation, 



this method of inculcating _ 



tenant not liking to quit the n gjjnlulo9 to 





J Randall states other instances in which clay land perfect horse, so many 



A perfect farmer » ■» |ific rfoi- 



are 











