714 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



[Oct. 27, 1855. 



when in the hart is of a slovenly fanner; with regard will at the same time afford us examples of enemies, 



to which, however, we may just remark upon the 

 folly of planting hedges if they be not cared for, as 

 neglect of weeding for the first few years of growth 

 is so injurious that the fence seldom recovers ir, and 

 can never afterwards be a hedge of first-rate character. 





The plants of our list, however, 



such 



which are not the less so because they appear to be 

 armed in our favour. The wood of the different 

 species of Blackberry, like that of their congener the 

 llispberry, is biennial ; and hence, while the shoots 

 of the previous year are bringing forth their flowers 

 and fruit, ne^v or barren shoots are either preparing 



by stolons from the ground or from the bending 

 down of the flexile branches, and rooting in the soil 

 like the scions of the Strawberry. The Blackberry 

 bears a great quantity of large leaves, and insinuates 

 itself by its flexile arms amongst the Whitethorn, 

 acting to the detriment of the hedge in the fol- 



are sucn as 

 gain strength with the advance in height of the 

 hedge in which they occur, most of their class pos- 

 sessing strong underground perennial rhizomes, 

 underground stems, which like those of the Black 

 Briony increase from year to year, each season sending 

 up an increase of stronger shoots ; and there twisting 

 about in the hedge in every direction, though they losing methods, which we view as so many counts 

 make the hedge look thick by reason of their large of indictment against it. 



fall off a. Ic covers up, and therefore smothers and impedes 



the growth of the hedge. 



b. Its dead branches leave their places by dying out. 



c. It stools out in advance of the fence, thus being 

 unsightly in making it broad and straggling, and 

 too frequently indeed encroaching upon the field 

 crop itself. 



and thickly placed leaves, yet when th 

 they invariably leave a weakness in the growth of 

 the fence, the Whitethorn with its small leaves having 

 been completely smothered and its wood not being 

 allowed to harden on account of the shutting out 

 of air and light by the broad-leaved intruder. The 

 Bindweed is iniurious in the same wav. its 



is injurious in me same 

 twining habit like the hug of a false fiiend only em- 

 braces to destrov, and this is the most difficult to 

 eradicate, as while the bine entwines the branches 

 of the fence the rhiz >me is no less active in spread- 

 ing among the roots, so that a whole hed 



roots, so mat a wnoie neageiow 

 quickly becomes smothered with this weed. However lhese l )lants st ° o1 underground, and thus 



The Roses, though more perennial in habit, com- 

 pletely take possession of their place of growth, 

 presenting in youth an almost impenetrable thicket, 

 but as they get older the old stocks present smooth 

 straight sticks only branching towards the top. 



from 



P 



ever 



age 



in all this group of plants we may prevent present 

 mischief by cropping the branches as they appear, 

 a treatment to which their roots must ultimately 

 succumb, as indeed no part of a plant can increase if 

 its leaves, the plant lung, be but prevented growing. 

 Closely allied to the foregoing in their effects are 

 the Honeysuckle (Lonicera Periclj/menum), and 

 the Bitter Sweet Nightshade (Solanum dulcamara). 

 In these, however, ti stems are more or less peren- 

 nial, but they possess no armature ; their older 

 branches are constantly decaying 

 useless as a fence. 



become a 

 n the run 



& , so that they are 

 while they prevent the due 

 growth of the hedge in which they have established 

 themselves. 



sending up shoots in every direction 

 spreading evil in advance of, as well as 

 of the hedgerow, thus causing an increase of trouble 

 and expense in keeping it in order. 



Here, then, we may sum up these remarks by 

 observing that from a long and attentive exami~ 

 nation of the habits of growth of plants usually 

 found in hedges, we are fully convinced that the 

 Whitethorn is the best adapted for a living fence; 

 we therefore view all other species as interlopers 

 and enemies which, from various causes, prevent the 

 due and vigorous growth of our favourite and friend 

 to the ultimate^ production of gaps and weak 

 places, which give rise to the thrusting in of biis 



2. Our second group, though presenting species °* dead Thorn to stop up holes, or the safer though 

 .:^i -^ u s * • «i -.• i . m... ■ I — ually unsightly expedient of post and rail. 



From these observations, therefore, our conclusion 

 should be to view all plants in merely farm hedges 

 other than the Whitethorn as weeds, and to root 

 them out in as early a stage of their growth as 

 possible, as otherwise little can be done than cut- 

 ting them down, and then it is in their stooling outand 

 creating thick bushes that they are most objection- 



which are seldom viewed in the light of intruders, equally unsightly expedient of post and rail. 

 and indeed are too often encouraged in our hedge- 

 rows, yet if carefully examined will show us that 

 weak places in living fences are mainly due to their 



Let 



the means which they have used shall be in g^ni 

 operation, the result will be— not an abandonment here 

 and there of the class on whom those means have been 

 brought to bear, but a general elevation of the whole in 

 intelligence and merit— so that labouring men will no 

 longer be a hindrance, as they often at present are, t 

 the progress of agricultural improvement. As the thing 

 at present is I have no hesitation in saving that at what- 



you take them agricultural labourers very 

 often prove this hindrance in the experience of the enter- 

 prising agriculturist who may wUU to introduce a 

 novelty in practice, or to test the experience of others 

 in his profession. Take them as boys, and nine farmers 

 out of ten will tell you that in the first year or so after 

 they leave school or home they are much more plague 

 than profit ; and though I would not quote as just the 

 opinion of the farmer who said that for every boy upon 

 his farm a man was needed to look after him ; yet of 

 boys not so looked after the opinion of another farmer 

 may be safely taken — that while one boy was no doubt 

 a boy, two boys were but half a boy, and three were 

 ne'er a boy at all. This, however, is true of them only 

 during the first year or two of service, when the /amir 

 has to do the work of education for them imperfectly 

 much of which, I contend, might have been better done 

 by the teacher in the school. Then, again, take them 

 as men — and what farmer does not know the difference 

 between intelligence and stupidity in his working men! 

 I heard Mr. Bullock Webster, an agricultural engineer 

 of some eminence, state the other day that having to 

 employ some hundreds of agricultural labourers in dif- 

 ferent parts of the country, he found large numbers of 

 them almost useless to him on account of their ignorance. 

 I do not suppose that ignorance often reaches the length 

 of utter uselessness upon a farm, but I am quite sure 

 that the successful progress of a farmer is very often 

 limited by the ignorance of his men. I am quite sure 

 that before that superiority of intelligence which makes 

 oue man a better farmer than another can fully show 

 itself upon a farm, it very often has to spend itself 

 for years in educational influence upon the men 

 who are there employed. The same man who has 

 farmed successfully in Scotland, and is known there 

 as a good agriculturist, comes south and fails — 

 because of our climate, it is said, and because of 

 our English clays, neither of which will yield to 

 Scottish management ; yes, but often and in great 

 degree because he has not the same machinery here 

 that he could command there : and I do not refer to 

 his implements, but to his men. The more intelligent 

 labourers whose services he could procure in Scotland 

 are as it were self-acting tools ; — they need but to be 

 Ci set " correctly at the beginning, and will go through 

 their work correctly to the end. Exchange them for 



some of whom, 

 I am sorry to say, I have known and employed — and 



careless uneducated and ignorant men 



you could not be sure either that your instructions were 



with it, whil.vt its own shoots become caney, branch- should be prevented, but these, notwithstanding 

 less, and liable to decay ; thus affording no protec- every precaution, necessarily produce weak places in 



tion in themselves, they are cut away in the laying growing, and when ultimately cut down completely 

 of the hedge, leaving a gap which can never be ruin the fence ; but in this case, as the fence will, 

 adequately filled up, and which, whatever expedient 

 be adopted, will ever present a weak place in the 



fence. 



Indeed, all the shrubs in this division, and all the 

 trees which from stooling out after being cut down 

 in hedgerows assume the character of shrubs are 

 injurious from their smothering effects, and from 

 being deficient in those requisites so well combined 

 in the Whitethorn : and where any of them have 

 established themselves, there either is or will be 

 some future period a weakness in the fence, more or 

 less serious, according to the habit of growth of 

 each individual intruding and the general want of 

 care in the fence management. 



Though the shrubs in the third list would 



, — — -„ 7 — — -«,— ^,„ .. „..., 



by reason of age, naturally have passed its best 

 period, it would not unfrequently be better to 



attempt its renewal than to keep working year after 

 year at the patchy old scrubs one sometimes sees 

 encumbering the ground. 



at 



3. 



first 



at 



sight appear from their possession of Thorns to 

 be liable to only slight objection, yet it must be 

 borne in mind that the Pyrus torminalis and Rh 



am- 



SCHOOLS FOR LABOURERS. 



My subject is the policy of agricultural instruction in 

 our common country schools. This is of course to be 

 defended by the same argument as that which justifies 

 technical or professional education of any other kind. 

 The possibility of it is limited by the humble means within 

 reach of the teachers of such schools, and by the early 

 age at which the labour of children in the field becomes 

 valuable enough to induce their parents to remove them. 

 It is the latter point — the possibility of conveying agri- 

 cultural instruction in these schools, the means at the 

 command of the teachers, the methods they might 

 employ, the extent to which mere language is capable 

 of conveying agricultural truth that is the most likely to 

 provoke discussion. But on the former part of the 

 subject, including the advantages derivable from in- 



presence. .Let us examine the Elder by way of 

 example : here we have a tree sending up a com- 

 plete thicket of straight shoots ; if our hedges be 

 kept neat this soft-wooded quick growing plant soon 



overtops, it, and presents an unsightly appearance, able. If forest trees be permitted in hedgerows it 



Its leaves are lai j and early deciduous, so that they should be with the intention of training them up understood at first or would be attended to longer than 

 effectually prevont the growth of any other species *?* timber, in which case low lateral branching i your personal superintendence was continued. 



And I look for another advantage ultimately accruing 

 to farmers as the result of agricultural instruction given 

 to the children of the labourer, beside that of being no 

 longer restrained and limited by the inefficiency and 

 ignorance of their working men. There is an immense 

 amount of ignorance in this country still amongst the 

 occupiers of land themselves — no doubt among the 

 small occupiers, but therefore unfortunately among the 

 many. It is not ten years ago since I was told by a 

 corn-factor, in large business in one of the largest corn 

 markets in the west of England, that more corn was 

 sold to him by men who put a cross opposite their 

 names than by those who signed a receipt in full. 



I do not believe that that could be said of any market 

 now ; but if any proof be needed of the ignorance 

 which still prevails, the success of fraudulent manure 

 dealers would amply furnish it. Societies and periodi- 

 cals have attacked that trade continually, but in vain ; 

 for its customers are men who do not read, and pub- 

 lishers and writers therefore work in vaiu ; — the teacher 

 is the man before whom it must ultimately fall : and 

 agricultural ignorance in the middle class, while 

 attacked in the van by such institutions as the Ri>y«l 

 Agricultural College at Cirencester, and in the main 

 body, I hope, by schools urged on by Lord Ebrington's 

 scheme of district examinations under the superintend- 

 ence of the Society of Arts, will be all the more effec- 

 tually routed if also attacked in the rear and from 

 below by the efficient agricultural education of the 



class. The policy, then, of agricultural 

 instruction to the children of agricultural labourers is 

 demonstrable from the obvious tendencies of things as 

 well as from the personal experience both of labourers 

 and farmers. That some among the latter both admit 

 it and desire it is prcved by the handbill which is 

 before me, in which the East of Berwickshire Farmers 

 Club offer certain prizes for the encouragement of agri- 

 cultural instruction in the parish school of the district. 

 The offer is I suppose almost unique of its kind, and 

 I therefore add it 



nus catharticus do not present this armature on 

 their young shoots ; this they have in their older tree j 

 state, in which they would be of no use for 

 fences from presenting boles and not lateral branches 



in stooling out, and these being cut down, the srruction so given, I wish to add a few words to what 

 consequent shoots act much like those in the list! ^ as ^ een a l rea dy said on the advantage of what may be 

 preceding. Shrubs of the character of the Herberts called a professional education for agricultural labourers. 

 vulgaris and Prunus spinosa, though presenting 1 In * h ? first place, then, the policy of the agri- 

 thorns in the youn* state, are yet objectionable CultUral 1D8troctlon of 

 from the want of the following requisites : they send 

 up straight reedy shoots on being cut down, these 

 are little liable to branch out laterally, so that their 



labouring 



orth 



children in country districts 

 of course rests upon the advantages of intelligence in 

 agricultural labourers as in all other working men, both 

 to themselves and to their employers. Boys who are 

 to be carpenters and mechanics should be taught 

 drawing, and their le ions in it, in arithmetic, and so on 

 should have special reference to the handicraft or art by 

 which they are to earn a maintenance. No one will 

 deny this, neither therefore can it be denied that those 

 who are to be employed in the fields, whether as plough- 

 men, cattlemen, or shepherds, should receive special 

 instruction on those subjects in connection with which 

 their livelihoods are to be earned. It is true that in the 

 few instances in which I have known this better 

 education given, bovs have availed themselves of 



hedge is never a close and thick one ; and besides, 

 they have neither of them the capabilities for laying 



power of endurance under constant cropping 

 and trinimm which processes, though they would 

 Ultimately _d< roy shrubs of this character, only 

 make the V\ hitethorn hedge more tidy in its appear- 

 ance, and more efficient as a fence. 



4. The individuals in the fourth list, though of 

 only two genera are so numerous in species, and so , Ari ,.,. K * ., , 4li 



universal in all hedgerows, that thevhave hecomp Catl0u P™ n ' h V s have ava,led th * m8e,v « a 

 important for good or evil ; an examination nf ,kI ! !V t0 WorK themselves »P, € « of the agricultural 

 method of grovvthof the tCg^erTtms w^ 



it will — -*-* nJ «r;»k c ^ • * ,enc x °™s, while sirable result— certainly not to themselves nor to those 



it will present u, with some interesting ciilferences, i in that class whom they leave behind them ; but when 



Eyemouth, Feb. 12, 1850. 



Phizes for Aoi uxtobal Instruction in Schools, ofk*bei> 



by the East of Berwickshire Fakmkrs' Club. 

 "With the view of encouraging h >ys, before leaving school, ■ 

 acquire nome general knowledge of the principles of scientii 

 agriculture, the committee will expend a sum nor exceeding 6*.j 

 to be applied in the purchase of bo»ks, medals, or chemical 

 apparatus, to be presented to any schoolmaster who has been 

 successful in teaching the principles of agricultural chemistry, 

 and to the boys in his school who have shown proficiency in that 

 branch of instruction, during the course of the ensiling spring 

 and summer of 1&50. Conditions.— I. The boys must have bee* 



