Oct. 6, 1855.] 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



apart. 



apart. I know instances of deep drama at«long distance 

 apart on clay lands, with a small quantity of chalk iu 

 them, not running at all after the first year or two. On 

 the other hand, if your subsoil is anything else but pure 

 clay, or intermixed with any veins of gravel or stone, 

 you cannot drain too deep. I have laid the wettest fields 

 perfectly dry by drains 5£ feet deep and 60 feet 

 S. B. Buggies Brice, Spams Hall. 



XXXI. — The result of my drainage operations has 

 beenmore satisfactory upon porous subsoils than on strong 

 soils. — The drainage adopted is parallel. — Irs prevailing 

 depth 3 feet strong clay ; 4 feet porous soils. — No dif- 

 ference in the mode of draining between arable and 

 Grass land. — As to the direction of drains, I have 

 always followed the course of the furrows distant 20 and 

 24 feet apart.— -I have used; tor* 'minor 2 and 2^-inch 

 pipes, and for main drains 4 and 5 inch — no collars 

 or sockets. — I have found L enefit by giving air at 

 places to the drains. — The number of acres dischargin 

 at the one outlet averages right acres. — The soil a deep 

 loam, part strong, but greatest portion porous — average 

 1 yard in 20. — The mean height of the land drained 

 above the sea level is 200 feet. — I have nearly drained 

 1000 acres of the land that I occupy, and have in many 

 instances nearly lost the first crop after the draining ; 

 but coming the second time over I find great benefit, 

 the land being much lighter enables me to work it 

 sooner in the spring ; and the manures act with more 

 certainty, particularly the artificials, when used on the 

 green crops. From Mr. Stephenson, of Throckley. 



XXXII. — The result of my drainage is perfectly 

 satisfactory. — The drainage is made on a parallel system. 

 —The depth ,of drains, miuor 4 feet, main 4 feet 6 ins. 

 — No difference made between arable and Grass land.^ 

 Direction of minor drains with the fall. 



607 



No attention 



paid to furrows where land was in ridges. 



w —Size of pipes 

 for minor drains, 2 inches ; and the main, from 3 to 

 4 inches. No collars or sockets used, the land being 

 too strong.— Never tried giving air to the drains.— The 

 average number of acres discharging at the several out- 

 lets varies from 5 to 15 acres. — The soil chiefly gravelly, 

 and subsoil clay intermixed with sand. Geological 

 formation chiefly grit or sandstone. — No raeaus of 

 ascertaining the height of land drained above the level 

 of the sea. — Cannot state what average depth of rain- 

 fall is here. From Captain Harcourt. 



XXXIII. — So far as my experience goes, drainage 

 has been perfectly satisfactory. — The drainage adopted 

 has been parallel always, and generally diagonally across 

 ridge and furrow. — The prevailing depth of the drains has 

 been from 3 to 5 feet, according to circumstances. — I 

 have made no difference in draining between arable and 

 Grass land. — The direction of the drains has been 

 always with the natural fall of the land.— I have used 

 2-inch pipes for the small drains, and from 3 to 6 

 niches for the outfalls. No collars or socket pipes. — 

 I have found benefit by giving air at places to either 

 main or minor drains. — 10 or 12 acres discharge at 

 one outlet. — The soil is loamy clay, and clay subsoil, 

 with sand occasionally. — The geological formation js 

 red sandstone. — The height of the land drained is very 

 little above the level of the sea. Thomas Partington, 

 Lazeriby, Redcar. 



XXXIV. — The result of our drainage operations on 

 all descriptions of land has been satisfactory in every 

 case during the last half dozen years (formerly we only 

 drained about 18 inches, but have taken op these and 

 put them in deeper, and where not done, it will have to 

 be). — The drainage is parallel. — The prevailing depth of 

 the drains is from 2| to 4 feet ; never less than 3 feet 

 if I can get the fall, and never more than 4 feet unless 

 jt be through rushy ground. — I have made no difference 

 in the mode of draining between arable and Grass land, 

 but not much Grass drained ; what has been done was 

 where, from the abundance and luxuriance of aquatic 

 plants, it was highly necessary ; in one instance, 

 10 years ago, a 12 acre field was only drained 2 feet 

 deep ; in three or four years Rushes and Sedges dis- 

 appeared, and it is now a beautiful pasture field. — The 

 drains have been taken across the fall, and where the 

 J^nd is in ridges, across the ridges and furrows. — 

 2-inch horse-shoe pipes principally ; main drains, 3 \ to 

 4 inches; no collars ; no sockets. — About 7 acres dis- 

 charge at each outlet — The soil is warp upon clay ; 

 and warp upon moor. — The mean height of the land 

 gained in this neighbourhood and Howdenshire is 4 feet 

 below high water mark, all the county. From J. 

 WeUs, £aq m) £ cot h Ferry, Goole. 



XXXV. — The result of my drainage operations on 

 *U descriptions of land has been satisfactory.— I have 

 adopted a parallel system. — The prevailing depth 

 °f the drains is 4 feet. — I have made no differ- 



niain 



ence in my mode of draining between arable and 

 Grass land.— The drains have been with the fall of the 

 kod, and crossing the furrows where necessary to cor- 

 respond with the fall to lead more land to the outlet. — 

 I have used 2-inch pipes for minor drains ; for main 

 Jhains they have varied much from 3 to 9 inches, 

 pilars only used where the drains are unsound at the 

 bottom. — I have not tried giving air at places to either 

 or minor drains to any extent. — The average 

 dumber of acres discharging at one outlet varies from 

 *» to 100 acres. — The soil and subsoil are strong 

 foam soil. Subsoil variable ; part retentive clay, part 

 ^d, gravel, and marl. — The geological formation is 



tl i! sand9tone at various depths, but in all cases below 

 the bottom of the drains.— The mean height of the land 

 gained above the sea level has been about 600 to 

 *W feet. From the Right Hon. the Earl Fowys, Pawys 



ON 



SOME POINTS CONNECTED WITH 

 AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY. 



By ,J. B. Lawks, F.R.S., am. Dr. J. H. Gilbert, F.C.S. 



British Association. Glasgow, September 17, 1855. 



Section B.— The authors explained that their subjee 

 was necessarily somewhat controversial, for Baron 

 Liebig had recently published a criticism on their expe- 

 riments and opinions which had been circulated very 

 freely in England, France, Germany, and America. 

 And, from the well merited reputation of that distin- 

 guished chemist, his statement! and opinions had I to 

 echoed almost unexamined by numerous writers, both 

 in the technical and general press. To those state- 

 ments and opinions, therefore, the authors no»v pro- 

 posed to address themselves. They would first call 

 attention, however, to the unfairness of an article on 

 the question at issue in a recent number of the Journal 

 of the Highland Society ;• as by so doing they would 

 be n iturally led to a proper definition of thesubject 

 before them. They explained that it was agriculture, 

 not normal vegetation— that is, the growth cf plants 

 under cultivation, aud not their growth in circum- 

 stances under which every element necessary for their 

 development had to be specially provided. In other 

 words they pre-supposed, as the preliminary conditions 

 of their inquiry, a soil under ordinary cultivation and 

 an atmosphere, each yielding their quota to the result. 

 Indeed Baron Liebig had defined the province of agri- 

 cultural chemistry to be that of producing more eorn, 

 and more meat, and not simply corn and meat, which 

 had been produced lor centuries without her aid. 



Looking at the subject in this point of view, the 

 authors maintained as a fundamental fact that the com- 

 position of agricultural vegetable produce was no direct 

 guide in the choice of manure for the various crops 

 grown in rotation, that which was required being simply 

 the resultant deficit for the artificial production of that 

 margin of produce which distinguished agriculture as 

 practised in this [country from natural vegetation, or, 

 from produce obtained for the purposes of export with- 

 out any return to the land by home manures. 



Those of their experiments which had been passed 

 under criticism by Baron Liebig were taken, with 

 others by their side, to illustrate the conclusions to 

 which the authors had arrived. They first brought 

 a summary of the results of their experiments on 

 the growth of Wheat by different chemical manures 

 during many consecutive years ; and they maintained 

 that inasmuch as by means of such manures they 

 could raise the produce by from 10 to 20 bushels per 

 acre over the unman ured produce, and indeed far 

 exceed the result obtained by the annual supply of 

 farm-yard manure ; that this being the case, the objec- 

 tion of Baron Liebig that their soil was naturally so rich 

 as to be unfit for experiment must be considered to be 

 entirely without foundation. They then illustrated by 

 tables and diagrams of results, by reference to which 

 Baron Liebig had endeavoured to prove the contrary, 

 1. "That the mineral constituents of Wheat cannot by 

 themselves increase the fertility of land;" and 2. "That 

 the produce in grain and straw is rather proportioned to 

 the supply of ammonia." So far as it went, they fully 

 accepted the above definition of their conclusions as 

 given by Baron Liebig — subject of course to the quali- 

 fications which their own papers would indicate. But 

 they utterly repudiated that definition when understood 

 in the manner assumed by Baron Liebig when summing 

 up, aud giving his verdict on their opinions at the con- 

 clusion of his treatise. They next showed by reference 

 to tables that nitrogenous manures, whether applied in 

 the form of ammoniacal salts, nitrate of soda, or Rape- 

 cake, had a great effect in the increase of produce of 

 Barley also, the next in importance of the cereal grains. 



Turning to Turnips, the type of the root crops grown 

 in alternation with the cereals, they submitted that 

 Baron Liebig's statement that phosphates were the only 

 manures which they had found to increase the growth 

 of the Turnip, was directly contrary to the whole tenor 

 of their papers on the subject; in which they had main- 

 tained the absolute necessity of matters yielding both 

 assimilable carbon and nitrogen within the soil, for the 

 production of a full amount of the crop in question. 

 They did maintain, however, that phosphoric or phos- 

 phatic manures had an action on the development of 

 the underground fibrous feeders of the plant, and con- 

 sequently on its rapid growth and development, which 

 could not be accounted for by the mere supposition of 

 supplying the actual constituents of the crop to be 

 grown and removed from the land. They illustrated 

 that in their experiments they had the very circum- 

 stances provided which had been demanded by Baron 

 Liebig as necessary for the support of their conclusions; 

 and thus it was proved that even where there existed in 

 the land a residue of phosphates from previous 

 manuring, more than would be contained in many 

 heavy crops, still an annual additional supply gave 

 annually a considerable increase of produce. They 

 further pointed out that Baron Liebig had endeavoured 

 to substantiate his objections by comparisons which 

 they showed to be quite inadmissible ; whilst one main 

 argument he had founded upon a mere misprint, which 

 reference to the succeeding tables would at once have 

 explained. His argument on the point in question was, 

 therefore, simply reversed. 



They next illustrated by a collective table the action 

 of manures on some of the most important crop9 of 



* Professor Anderson, on the part ot the Highland Society, 

 repudiated its responsibility for the article in question ; and Mr. 

 Robert .Russell, ot Kilwhiss", also disclaimed all connection with 

 its authorship. 



rotation, including Wheat and Barley as cereals J 



Turnips as a root crop, and Beans and Clover a nu- 

 minous crops. From this table it appeared, that whilst 

 mineral manures alone had little or no effect in increas- 

 ing the produce of Wheat and Barley grown respec- 

 tively in succession, nitrogenous n nures on the other 

 hand yielded most striking results. And here attention 

 was culled to the fact, that these manures had a similar 

 effeet in raising the produce of corn after the exhaus- 

 tion of corn cropping on the farm of the Earl of 

 Leicester, at Holkham, of which the surface soil was 

 thin and light, but with a subsoil of excellent marl ; 

 and also at the farm of the Duke of Bedford, at 

 Woburu, on a soil and subsoil naturally of the poorest 

 possible description. And they further maintained that 

 these results of direct experiment on different soils 

 were perfectly in accordance with the general ex- 

 perience of practical farming all over the country, as to 

 what was the predominant characteristic of corn ex- 

 haustion. In the experiments quoted mineral manure* 

 were, however, of course found to give a fur titer in- 

 crement of increase when the nitrogenous manure 



employed was in excessive quantity. 



With Turnips again, super] hosphate of lime had given 

 an average increase during a series of years of more 

 than seven tons of the bull) ; the addition of alkalies to 

 this had even diminished the amount of increase. 

 Ammonia salts alone, on the other hand, had only given 

 a few hundredweights of increase, instead of more than 

 as many tons by the phosphatic manure. The mixture 

 of botli mineral and ammoniacal manures had, however, 

 given a better produce still ; though not equal to that 

 which would have been obtained had there been also a 

 liberal supply of carbonaceous organic matter within 

 the soil. Turning to Beans and Clover, nitrogenous 

 manures which had been so beneficial to the cereals, 

 and phosphates which had been so much to to the 

 Turnips, had here comparatively little effect The con- 

 stituent of manure which acted in the most charac- 

 teristic manner with these leguminous crops was the 

 alkali potass ; which, when used as a direct manure to 

 soil oi a similar description had comparatively little 

 effect in the increase of growth of the cereals or Turnips. 

 In these remarkable facts, though the experiments cited 

 were by no means to be taken as examples of manuring, 

 the authors considered there was afforded an interesting 



and 



clue to the principles involved in manuring, fallow, 

 the rotation of crops. 



( To be concluded in our next.) 



ON FATTENING POULTRY. 



( Concluded from p. 651 .) 



Chapter II.— The Practice of Feeding. 



Section IV.— Food. 



The food usually selected for fattening poultry is oat* 

 meal mixed either with scalding milk or water ; the 

 cause of the superiority of this meal over that of Barley 

 has already been stated. Cooped fowls should be sup- 

 plied with fresh food three times daily— namely, at day- 

 break, or as soon after as possible, at midday, and again 

 at roosting time ; as much as they can eat should be 

 given on each occasion, but no more than can be de- 

 voured before the next meal : should any be left, it 

 should be removed and given to the other fowls, as,, 

 if kept, it is apt to become sour, when the birds will 

 not eat it freely. The troughs for the soft meat 

 should be scalded out daily, which can only be done 

 conveniently by having a supply of spare ones. 



In addition to soft food, a supply of fresh clean 

 water must be constantly present, and a little gravel 

 must be given daily, otherwise the grinding action of 

 the gizzard, which is necessary to the due digestion of 

 the food, does not go on satisfactorily ; the supply of 

 a little green food will be found very advantageous to 

 health ; a little sliced Cabbage, or some Turnip tops, 

 or a green turf to peck occasionally, being all that is 

 required. 



A variation in the diet will be found very conducive 

 to an increased appetite, and therefore the occasional 

 substitution of a feed of boiled Barley for the slaked 

 oatmeal is desirable. Some feeders have a division in 

 their troughs, or still better a small extra trough, which 

 always contains some grains for the fowls to peck at. 



Should the birds be required very fat, some mutton 

 suet or trimmings of the loins may be chopped up and 

 scalded with the meal, or they may be boiled in the 

 milk or water preparatory to its being poured over the 

 food, and the fat of fowls so fatted will be found ex- 

 ceedingly firm. 



An objection to this mode of fatting will probably be 



made— namely, that it is expensive owing to the cost of 

 the oatmeal. * In the yard of the writer this objection? 

 has been removed by the partial substitution of fine 

 middlings for oatmeal. The plan adopted is to bake 

 the middlings dry, and when made as hot as possible 

 without burning cold water is added, so as to make tbf 

 whole a crumbly mass. When it is borne in mind that 

 the constituents of fine middlings are nearly the same 

 as those of oatmeal, its value as a fattening food must 

 be admitted ; and the writer, from long experience, can 

 speak very decidedly as to its utility when used in con- 

 junction with oatmeal. 



In the course of about a fortnight to three weeks at 

 the utmost, a fowl will have attained under this system 

 of feeding the highest degree of fatness of which it is 

 capable, and it must then be killed ; for if the attempt 

 be made to keep it any longer in that state, it becomes 

 diseased from an inflammatory action being established, 



which renders the flesh hard and even unwholesome* 





