778 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



[Nov. 24, 1855. 



the following causes : — (a), degenerate seed ; (£), the 



frequent employment of seed from a richer in a 



poorer district ; (c), bad cultivation ; and (d), a too 



frequent repetition of the crop. This malformation 



then is finger and toe, being merely a forked or 



digitate n.ethod of growth; this is further 



distinguished by the following important charac- 

 teristics : — 



a). Finger and toe is common to all root crops. 



b). Anbury is only formed in the Turnip cirop. 

 In understanding finger and toe, therefore, it is 

 only necessary to carefully examine any field of 

 the common and Swedish Turnips to acquaint us 

 with the fact, that while some of the specimens will 

 be faultless in form, others will show many signs 

 of degeneracy, and it is well known that if we 

 choose the former for seeding, we shall make more 

 certain of a true future crop than if we chose the 

 latter; and indeed the most casual observer, if he 

 has much of this sporting in form, will complain 

 that his seed is not true. 



Almost any Turnip field will afford us examples 

 of that degeneracy in the Turnip in which instead 

 of merely one central axis of growth upwards, we 

 have the development of many stems ; this, like 

 finder and toe, is equally the result of degeneracy, 

 and, like it, is always the case in the first attempt 

 at civilising a vi/ild. example ; indeed it is generally 

 accompanied by finger and toe. 



In other cases, again, we have examples in which, 

 both in root and herbage, there is more the appear- 

 ance of Rape — doubtless the result of a downward 

 tendency in an aggravated degree to the wild 



Brassica, of which the Swede is but a hybridised 

 variety. 



All Swede crops may have examples of this kind ; 

 nay, the seed, from a single individual may present 

 sports of many forms, according to the circumstances 

 of the growth of seed, and of the after cultivation 

 of the plant ; this latter fact is particularly observ- 

 able where the seed is own-grown and planted in the 

 same soil, especially if the soil be poor and no 

 manure be employed, and it becomes still more 

 observable if the process be repeated. 



Hybrids derived from species, as the Swede, are 

 much more liable to finger and toe than those 

 obtained by hybrids of mere varieties, as the various 

 sorts of Turnip ; and hence forked roots in the former 

 will ever be found to be much more general than in 

 the latter. 



The experiment recorded in our first paper on 

 the seed of the Turnip, in which hybrids were 

 produced by growing Rape and Seeding- Turnips 

 in proximity, resulted in the production of what 

 we may term hybrid Rape, in which we had the 

 glaucous smooth herbage which characterises this 

 plant, as distinct from the brighter green rough 

 leaves of the Turnip, united with a disposition 

 to a bulbing of the stem, which presented a 

 large increase of cellular matter over that which 

 ordinary Rape would possess : and here, too, with 

 this more succulent stem was a forked growth of 

 root. In this we have a case of progression to the 

 Swede form of Turnip, which is marked by its 

 similarity to retrogression or degeneracy in our 

 finger-and-toe examples when under cultivation. 

 That the effects here described are the result of 

 degeneracy may be further shown by an inquiry 

 into the nature of soil and district in which finge'r 

 and toe is most prevalent. Wherever we meet with 

 this malformation we shall assuredly have some, if 

 not all, of the following attendant circumstances' 



It is constant in poor soils, in which Carrots, 

 Parsnips, and Mangold Wurzel will also be liable to 

 the same distortion. 



a man's sentiments may be, and hpwever formidable nis 

 prejudices may appear, they must of necessity yield to 

 the force of facts acquired by actual experiment. Hence 

 it occurs, that a simple narration of facts is always far 

 more fruitful of ocmviction, than a mere statement of 

 opinion *, however well formed or well expressed. But 

 to ascertain facts with correctness, experiments require 

 to be carried out with the utmost care and fairness. 

 This I endeavoured to do last year, and gave to the 

 public the results with every needful particular. And 

 again this year I have been induced to make a precisely 

 similar series of experiments, atid throughout have en- 

 deavoured to observe the strictest impartiality. I append 

 a table showing full particulars of these different trials, 

 the whole of which were made with Mangolds. 



But I may here observe, that this year I also made a 

 precisely similar class of experiments with Coleseed, and 

 although I cannot furnish actual results, as such a crop 

 cannot be tested by the weighing machine as the Man- 

 golds can, I may, however, state that the water-drill 

 produced from 30 to 50 per cent, more seed than the 

 dry-drill, all other things being equal. I ought also to 

 remark that all these several experiments, as well as 

 those of the Mangolds, were inspected and carefully 

 examined by several practical farmers, resident in the 

 neighbourhood, and who can bear testimony to the 

 perfect accuracy of my statements. Upon referring to 

 the table below, it will be seen that in Nos. 1, 2, & 3, 

 there is considerable less produce per acre, from both 

 drills, than in Nos. 4 & 5. This arises entirely from 

 the fact that in Nos. 1, 2, & 3, the soil is of a very hot 

 gravelly nature, and consequently much less adapted for 

 the growth of Mangolds than Nos. 4 & 5, where the sub- 

 soil is cool and moist, and the land necessarily much 

 less affected by drought. But notwithstanding this, 

 Nos. 2 & 3 are soils of greatly superior quality to 

 Nos. 4 & 5 for general farming purposes. I feel it im- 

 portant to offer these few explanatory observations, 

 although the relative merits of the two drills are in no 

 degree affected by these peculiar circumstances. 



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In the*e it greatly increases by a frequent re- 

 petition of the crop in the same plac^, and still more 

 rapidly from the use of own-grown seed. 



It will be found, though to a less extent, in better 

 land, If any of the circumstances usually attendant 

 upon degeneracy be present. 



Here, then, it seems clearly established that 

 finger and toe is simply a malformation of growth 

 arising from degeneracy ; and hence, as we shall 

 hereafter see, is perfectly distinct from Anbury, 

 which latter is more general in rich land and in 

 good Turnip districts. 



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I must thank you for your kindness in permitting me 

 to trespass so largely upon your space. Alfred S. filestore 

 Wenny Road, Chatteris. ' 



DRY-DRILL versus WATER-DRILL. 

 The wat-r drill has now ceased to be a novelty. Since 

 last year its use, in this neighbourhood, has been very 

 greatly extended ; and opinions relative to its value on 

 our ft n sods have undergone a thorough change. Many 

 who last year regarded it with a good deal of suspicion 

 and apprehension, have since been led to acknowledge 

 lis merits, and have pronounced favourably of its effects 

 Where it has been submitted to a trial. And I feel fully 

 persuaded, that the more extensively the water-drill is 

 used, and the more thoroughly and impartially its worth, 

 as compared wich the dry-drill, is tested, the more 

 .ar^y will it gain esteem Hid favour. And whatever 



LIQUID MANURING. 



Some observations in the Gardeners' Chronicle of the 

 3d inst. on an alleged new mode of applying liquid 

 manure, and many in former numbers of the Agricultural 

 Gazette on this subject are calculated to impress a certain 

 class of our agricultural brethren who trust to what 

 they read, rather than to their own careful observation 

 and experience, with the notion that liquid manuring in 

 the shape of supra- terraneous or sub-terraneous irriga- 

 tion is essential to successful production generally. 

 There is no doubt of the productive power of this mode 

 of manuring m the case of the perennial Grasses, and 

 other succulents of winch successive cuttings are re- 

 quired during the season ; but we have as yet seen no 

 evidence of any ad van -age whatever having been derived 

 by the cereal, grain, or root crops, from this application 



All manuring is, in fact, liquid manuring, for there 

 is not a plant which absorbs its food in any other than 

 a fluid or gaseous state. Not one of them can consume 

 solid manure. The real question is, in what shape we 

 can place the requisite food before a plant most effec- 

 tually and economically ! -whether by artificial solution 



to Mr. Wiikins, under the surface ; or by the m or 

 obvious and inartificial mode adopted by our forefather? 

 of spreading the solid manure on the surface, and incor 

 porating that with the soil, leaving to natural agents itl 

 decomposition and ultimate solution ready for apnro! 

 priation by the roots of plants. p 



The most rational and approved theory of manuring 

 plants is the same as that for the feeding of animals* 

 viz , to provide a gradual, moderate, and regular supply 

 of food, rather than occasional supplies of highly nutri- 

 tious and exciting food. We contend, that for all the 

 ordinary crops of the farmer, the advantages of manur- 

 ing by laying on the solid manure in the autumn, on 

 clean land, and ploughing it in, are not exceeded by any 

 other system. The result of this is gradual decomposition 

 in the soil, and solution by rain, and the continued 

 absorption by the roots of all those elements of the 

 manure essential to the nutrition of the plant, and by 

 which it is thus fed from hour to hour during the period 

 of growth. 



In the number of the Gardeners' Chronicle before 

 referred to the superior effect of Mr. Wiikins' subter- 

 raneous irrigation is evidenced by the production of a 

 long red Mangold Wurzel, weighing 14 lbs. 14 oz. ; by a 

 single Carrot having been found to weigh 1 lb. by virtue 

 of the liquid manuring, while the best he had on the 

 ordinary plan (by which we presume he means solid 

 manuring) only weighed 7 oz. ; and he further states 

 that some Lucerne yielded five cuttings under the liquid 

 system, while the same plant on the ordinary system 

 only yielded two cuttings. It so happens that we are 

 enabled to place in juxtaposition some results of that 

 ordinary system. We picked up and cleaned and weighed 

 a dozen Carrots out of a 4-acre piece, which weighed 

 56 lbs., being nearly 5 lbs. on an average, the heaviest 

 weighed 7 lbs. We then tried a dozen Orange Globe 

 Mangolds, which do not attain the weight of the Long 

 Red ; they weighed 121 lbs., averaging about 10 lbs. 

 each, the heaviest having weighed 15 lbs. We then 

 tried a dozen Swedes, whieh weighed 126 lbs., the 

 heaviest of which also weighed 15 lbs. 



Now, there is nothing remarkable in these weights, 

 excepting as compared with those grown under the 

 most approved mode of liquid manuring. We wrote to 

 a gentleman at Gloucester, who had been in the habit of 

 growing the Long Red Mangold on the solid manure sys- 

 tem, to inquire whether he had ever succeeded in raising 

 a root weighing 14 lbs. 14 oz. The reply is as follows : " We 

 grew them from 20 to 28 lbs. ; the heaviest we remem- 

 ber to have grown weighed 33 lbs., which we presented 

 to a gentleman who was rather hard of belief, for exhi- 

 bition at his Farmers' Club." 



Mr. Mechi states his growth of Mangold this year at 

 28 tons per acre, but he does not state how this weight 

 was ascertained. It is we know grown on the liquid 

 manure system above ground. The state of the roots 

 when weighad, and the mode of estimating the weight 

 vary so materially, that in the absence of such details 

 no comparison can be instituted. We had in one field 

 12 acres of the Yellow Globe Mangold, manured in the 

 usual way last autumn. The crop was topped in the 

 field, and then loaded into a set of Scotch carts of equal 

 size, just as many as would ride without falling off. The 

 number of loads was set down— one of them was shot, 

 and the roots cleaned and then weighed, and the weight 

 of the crop thus ascertained was 23 J tons per acres. 

 This is a very moderate crop when compared with many 

 accounts of which we read, and of which we entertain 

 doubts of the accuracy from the various modes of ascer- 

 taining them, some of which are very fallacious. In 

 this case the roots were generally fine, unusually close 

 in the rows, and there was not a spot in the whole field 

 uncovered, and the crop had been estimated by as many 

 as exceeding 30 tons. Charles Lawrence, Cirencester. 



A SOUND POTATO CROP. 



In the end of March 1852 I planted 5 acres rf Y^k 

 Regent, and 4 of Irish cup Potatoes, — the seed of the 

 former variety having been grown in Easter Ross, and 

 of the latter in Wester Ross ; but each on lighter land 

 than that in which they were planted. In both cases 

 the roots delivered to me had passed through an inch- 

 and-a-half riddle ; and after delivery I had them passed 

 over an inch riddle, and all under one inch in diameter 

 were laid aside. From a few of the Potatoes two sets were 

 got, but from the greater part only one ; and each tuber 

 from which only one set was got had a few of the eyes 

 cut out, with the view of preventing the growth of too 

 many shoots. 



The field in which these Potatoes were pi an ted. consists 

 of a free dry loam, and has an open, southern exposure. 

 In the end of 1851 it was broken up with a strong 

 furrow from one year's Grass (which had been cut for 

 hay and afterwards pastured). The crop preceding was 

 Wheat ; and as the land was out of heart by previous 

 heavy cropping, I was induced to try Potatoes, whereas 

 otherwise 1 should have taken Oats. The sets were 

 planted from 10 to 12 inches apart, and ploughed down 

 every third furrow, with Peruvian guano applied at the 

 rate of 3 cwt. per acre in the same furrow as the sets. 

 The whole field was then harrowed and rolled, and left 

 thus till the young plants showed themselves, when A 

 had the earth pared away, and a drill grubber pas# 

 between the rows — care being taken not to approacn 

 the young plants too closely, either in paring or grubbing* 

 In a few days thereafter they were carefully hand-hoed, 

 the weeds near to the stems of the plants were pulled 

 away with the hand ; and when all the weeds were 



in tanks, to be distributed on the surface, or according withered, the plants 'were earthed up with a double 



