780 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



[Nov. 24, 1855. 



Ill cutting 



Home Correspondence. 



Hedges. — AByou are directing attention to this im- 

 portant subject the following suggestions will tend to 

 further ventilate the question. The cheapest of all 

 operations in keeping a white Thorn hedge in order and 

 uniformity is properly cutting it at suitable short periods. 

 Railway managers are fully alive to th s, but the 

 expense of cutting and trimming a Jengih of hedge by 

 manual labour is considerable. I have for many years 

 pointed out the necessity of a hedge cutting and clipping 

 machine to be worked by horse-power. The operation 

 is a regular and uniform one, and therefore most 

 amenable to the application of machinery, — the 

 clipping or cutting to be performed by either revolving 

 circu'ar knives, or knives with concave cutting edges, 

 set on radiating arms of a wheel or a series of clippers 

 like shears, the motive force to be obtaiued from a 

 horse drawing the machine upon wheels from which 

 shafts to connect the cutting instruments could only be 

 made to act. As in having lengthy shafts a loss of power 

 would be sustained, the point to be attained would be to 

 have the«e shafts as short as possible, or if possible 

 without any shafts at all, if the considerations of 

 expense, strength, velocity, &c, would permit it. In 

 the case of railway hedges I have long arrived at 

 the conviction in my own mind that the machine 

 would be best if it was simp'y with two wheels 

 running one on each side of the hedge, and the cutting 

 as far as possible to act immediately from these wheels. 

 Velocity would not be thus obtained, but power would 

 be economised, and so perhaps the cutting in such a 

 machine should be best in the form of shears, either 

 straight or circular with the wheel, and of course the 

 axles would have to be connected by bending over the 

 top of the hedge. On coming to a cross hedge one of 

 these wheels would either have to be got over through a 

 small gap or unshipped, and so lifted over or raised 

 whilst on the machine by a lever, and so eased over the 

 crossing hedge. In adopting a machine for this pur- 

 pose it should be borne in mind that great velocity in 

 cutting is a great element, for by great velocity the 

 whole of the power is directed to the point struck, and 

 there is no loss by vibration of the other parts ; for 

 instance, a bullet at great velocity will cut out a hole in 

 .a piece of glass only the size of its own diameter with- 

 out fracturing the rest of the glass, and a tallow candle 

 may, under the same circumstances, be shot through an 

 inch deal board. It is also known that soldiers have, 

 whilst standing with the musket in their hands, had 

 part shot away, and yet never felt their musket to move 

 or vibrate. Velocity in such a machine would, I fear, 

 require multiplicity of wheels or bands (the latter I should 

 feel incline to favour, as free from jars, &c ,) and so in- 

 crease the weight and diminish the power. It should be a 

 primary object to alwa\s make the force act as direct 

 as possible from the wheels (which roll along the 

 ground), one on each side of the hedge, either by re- 

 volving knives, cutting or clipping, or clipping like 

 shears, or by one arm of the shears being fixed and 

 the other moving. Friction in cutting should be re- 

 duced as much as possible, and if there were made a 

 rod, &c, to move in advance of the cutting edge, and 

 of course more out from the hedge the twigs would be 

 bent away, and when the cutting edge arrived to sepa- 

 rate the portion to be amputated, this bending would 

 open the cut as it was being made, thus reducing the 

 friction. I have always deemed this a requisite yet to 

 be applied to reaping-machines in general. 

 Box edging 1 have for many years had the top cut off 

 -with a scythe, which will beautifully level a great 

 length of Box edging in half an hour, and perhaps if 

 the hedge was gone over often to prevent the shoots 

 •becoming strong the same mode of cutting at a greater 

 velocity obtained by horse power might be available for 

 the end suggested. A machine of small size but on the 

 same principle could be made to trim Box edging, 

 although the scythe will not only level the top but may, 

 in a handy hand, do to trim the sides of such edging if 

 well kept ; perhaps in practice it would be found that a 

 machine to only cut one side of the hedge at a time will 

 be the limit in a general way, first cost and power being 

 -considered along with due portability. I have already 

 trespassed too much upon your valuable space ; but trust 

 I have in this rough notice to draw attention to the 

 matter sufficiently indicated the general requisites of the 

 suggestions. IF. Woolei; Nov. 10". 



Drains with Brushwood. — In reply to" H. B.V in- 

 (uiries I can assure him he may safely drain lands with 

 brushwood, viz., Thorns either white or black, but 

 black are best ; they will last good tan years ; Willow 

 is not so good ; they so readily strike root, especially 

 if they get air and moisture. The best mode of using 

 the Thorns is to cut them as long as you can, and then 

 •tie them in long narrow bundles ready for laying in the 

 drain when cut, not put in " helter skelter" as the work- 

 men will do (being less trouble), if not prevented. A 

 drain so made wid la*t ten years. If " H. B." lias land 

 or other atones to put in with his Thorn faggots, the drain 

 will be better. But one tile drain will be equal to two of 

 Thorns in efficiency and durability, and made with the 

 old-fashioned horse-shoe tile 24 to 3 inches wide by 

 .3 inches deep, and laid upon a fiat tile or sole, thereby 

 making a firm bottom, and the upper tile less likely to 

 et displaced (like the pipes), when they happen to be 

 aid in loose sandy places or sand-galls, so frequently 

 met with in cutting drains. Presuming * H. B." a 

 novice, I thould by all means advise him to "drain 

 deep" as he can go f securing a fall for his water by his 

 outlet. One deep drain, whether in loose soil or strong 



clay, is equal to two shallow ones. 



first ascertain the dentil of fall of his main drain or 



outlet, and work upwards from that, bearing in mind 

 that the deeper the drain the further it will draw the 

 water and carry it off ; never mind what your stiff land 

 men say about' water not getting through strong soil. 

 If there is a vacuum below I know it will drain off, not 

 so fast through strong soil as porous, but it will get 

 away ; and when the strong soil is once run dry, all the 

 rain that falls after will only be sufficient for the fer- 

 tilising: the soil. I would advise " H. 13." to cut his 



isrht angles : 



u H. B." should fit for sheep or game, but this I think will be found a 



mistake by any one who will take the trouble to examine 

 the soil, or try arable cultivation. A. U. F. C. 

 The Turnip Flea. 



X* 



c raining, 



drains across the fall— diagonally, not at 

 I am quite satisfied that if water gravitates downwards, 

 a drain cot slightly across the fall is more efficient than 

 one cut directly down the fall. It intercepts the water 

 (fall ins; between drain and drain, or rising up from 

 below) more completely. But where the fall, as in some 

 low lands, is so little, and the drains necessarily 

 shallow, it may be best to cut the drains down, or with 

 the inclination of the land, in order that the 

 water in the drains may get more easily away. 

 There is one important point to be attended to 

 after you have made your drains, I will suppose 

 well ; that is, to take care that their mouths are always 

 kept clear, not left (as is too frequently the case) to be 

 blocked up by rats or the earth that runs down the 

 brink of the ditch in dry or frosty weather. I would 

 recommend " H. B." to procure Mr. Mechi's iS Letters 

 on Drainage ;" also Mr. Parkes's u Essay on Drainage ; " 

 and last, though not least, a little book on u Under- 



1 published at Newman's, Bond Street ; the 

 author, Mr. John Wiggins, agent to Sir Thomas 

 Hare, Bart, Stowe Hail, Norfolk, published it for the 

 use of the tenantry. It contains a fund of sound in- 

 formation, and although published at a cheap rate, it is 

 really a valuable little book oa the subject of land 

 drainage. A Constant Reader. 



Tabular Statement, showing the distances required for 

 planting or sowing various quantities of Wheat grain. — 

 There are Iron* 16,000 to 20,000 grains of Wheat con- 

 tained in one quart, or 608,000 to 640,000 in one bushel, 

 and 6,272,640 square inches are 1 statute acre of land. 

 Taking the latter numbers as a rule, it necessarily 

 follows that about 10 square inches are thus allowed for 

 each grain, admitting ail the land to be sown uniformly 

 without furrows, or 14 grains on each square foot, or 

 132 grains on each square yard, or 4000 grains on each 

 square rod, at one bushel of seed for an acre.* The 

 following simple tabular form will, we trust, serve to 

 show the different distances for each plant at this ratio, 

 from more and less quantities of seed, which may or 

 majr not be thought most proper to be sown by any of 

 our agricultural friends. For general sowing on a large 

 scale, we ourselves think proper to draw a line of dis- 

 tinction — say one bushel or less, avoiding either ex- 

 tremes — bearing in mind, however, the fact and possi- 

 bility of growing a large amount of produce from a 

 small quantity, and the impossibility of reaping an 



average crop from a full plant of a large quantity of 

 seed. 



In connection with your article 

 on the above subject of the 10th inst , it is a serious 

 evil in many seasons, and should be the aim of all to 

 contribute (however small) their experience in ridding 

 the Turnip crop of that noxious insect, the flea beetle. 

 Agreeing with you in the expedients you propose, which 

 if followed out, would no doubt tend to destroy numbers 

 of the insects, yet a simple plan which we have followed 

 for some years may not be uninteresting to your readers, 

 based on your " Adoption of Expedients in Sowing." 

 Instead of sowing alternate rows of Swedes and common 

 Turnip we mix the seeds in the proportion of one-fourth 

 white Turnip, which, when sown together, comes up 

 •first, and from the known predilection of the insect for 

 Turnips proper, allows the Swedes to get into the second 

 leaf, when great part of the danger is over. Our pre- 

 ference to this system is, 1st, that a crop of Swedes is 

 more valuable than a crop half Swedes and half common 

 Turnip, as it would be in the way you suggest; 

 2d, that Swedes require to be sown earlier ; and 3d v 

 that should any of the white Turnips escape the flea, 

 they are easily distinguished from the Swedes at the 

 thinning process, and rooted out then. We might also 

 suggest that in sowing a crop of common lurnipsitis 

 advisable to mix seeds of various seasons growth, as 

 from brairding (germinating) at different times, there ia 

 a greater chance of some of the crop* escaping than 

 when all the seed sprung at the same time. Armis, East 



Lothian^ Nov. 12. 



Threshing Machine. — The American agricultural paper, 

 the Albany Cultivator, for last month has an article on 

 the " trial of reapers in France." In the same article it 

 states — " There were four threshing machines entered for 

 competition. One American (Pitt's, of Buffalo), one 

 English, one Belgian, and two French. They worked 

 half an hour. Six men worked Iialf an hour with flails 

 at the same moment the machines started. The six 

 threshers — 60 litres of Wheat ; Pitt's American 

 thresher, 740 litres of ditto ; Clayton's English thresher, 

 410 do. do. ; Dunoir's French thresher, 250 do. do.; 

 Pinet's Belgian thresher, 150 do. do." In regard to 

 Pitt's machine, the Moniteur says :— " Pitt's machine 

 has, therefore, gained the honours of the day. This 

 machine literally devours the sheaves of Wheat ; the 

 eye cannot follow the work which is effected between 

 the entrance of the sheaves and the end of the operation 



it is one of the greatest results which it is possible to 

 obtain. The impression which this spectacle produced 

 upon the Arab chiefs was profound." Richard NicMm 

 [We will endeavour to obtain a further report.] 



Steam Ploughing. — It has lately been the fashion to 

 cry down the plough as not suited to the purpose for 

 wiiich it is used, and so far is this taken for granted 

 that very plausible arguments are built upon it. Let us 

 shortly examine what its alleged faults and failings are. 

 The first and greatest is that it presses and hardens the 

 subsoil so much that the powers of language have been 

 exhausted in describing its evil effects. But did the 

 plough press it ? I believe not. As well might we say 

 that a knife is a very improper tool to cut the top off a 

 round of beef, because it leaves the surface of the re- 

 maining part smooth and close ; and hence argue that 

 meat ought to be torn apart because it must be disinte- 

 grated before it can combine with or be absorbed by the 

 human system. Does the planing tool compress the 

 surface of the wood because it leaves it smooth and 

 close ? Some say this reasoning does not apply to the 

 plough because its weight must be taken into account. 

 Well, how heavy is it ! Fifteen stones. And what 

 pressure will that exert, even upon the loose surface, 



to sav nothing of the dense bottom ? Plates^ 



it requires 



t ___ r ___ n _.. n _ _ _ tt 9 inches, a 



Hardy <b Son, Seed Growers, Maldon, Essex. 



The Mole. — The Talparian theory of drainage is cer- [ the top empty, it requires a strain of 8 to 12 stones. 









■'g 



• 



• 



0D ~ 





Peb Acre. 



CO ej 



C a 



oS tt 



* - 



— - 









•** 



s- w 



~ * 





*c £ S 







5- 



eg 



~ 







3 bushels at 



20,000 











grains in a 



quart. 













and 6,272.640 ins 













in an acre 



gives 













about 



• • • 



1,920,000 



12,000 



396 



44 



4^ 



- 



2 ditto ditto 



• i • 



1,280000 



8,000 



264 



29 



6 



X 



x N tt 



■ ■ • 



640,000 



4,000 



132 



14 



10 



O 



2 pecks, „ 



• » • 



320,000 



2,000 



66 



7 



20 



O 



* tt tt 



• • • 



160,000 



1,000 



33 



34 



40 1 5 

 81 1 ix 



2 n tt 



• • • 



80,000 



500 



16* 



If 



* H tt 



• • • 



40,000 



250 



&i 



1 



162 



*— ^ 



1 quart „ 



• • • 



20,000 



125 



4 







324 



2 



1 pint „ 



• •• 



10,000 



62 



2 







648 





2 V tt 



• • • 



5,000 



31 



1 







1296 J 



i° 



that 



say nothing ~ f AU ~ J u —* — ' K,aies in 



Morton's m Cyclopsedia " prove 



in ploughing a furrow 5 inches by 



strain of 16 to- 20 stones, and to draw the plough upon 



tainly very nice for a winter's evening, and doubtless 

 would be effective in the field generally speaking, pro- 

 vided Talpa would train his pipe-draining property 

 to pay the necessary respect to levels — but the " water- 

 kelpie " system of subterranean " tarns " and pools they 

 follow, has little to recommend it, either to the park- 

 keeper or his employer ; and besides drains must be 

 closer than many would like before any visible effect 

 can be produced on insects, while the standing pools of 

 water they make destroy the finer quality of Grasses, 

 and encourage the growth of Rushes and other inferior 

 plants, unless the land is sufficiently drained without the 

 assistance of moles. We have found this to be the 

 result in all the deer-parks and sheep-walks we have 

 managed or examined. As much of Fowler's pipe 

 drainage as you please, then, but away with your Tal- 

 parian gentry. B. 



Waste Land. — Some of your correspondents do not 

 seem to agree as to the amount of cultivable waste land 

 in the New Forest, but they had better turn their 

 attention to the much greater waste of land in other 

 places, snch as the Highlands of Scotland, where glens 

 and plains amorist the mountains are to be found 

 abandoned to Heather, but which, with enclosure 

 shelter, and a little drainage, would be capable of 

 growing ordinary field crops, varied according to the 

 height and exposure. In the west the climate is very wet 

 but even there improved Grass and green crops might be 

 grown, and all the eastern and central Highlands are 

 ty enough and traversed by good roads, and in many 

 places steamboat stations are near at hand. Peonle 

 seem to take it for granted that the Highlands are only 



But the difference between a furrow and no furrow 

 is in many cases less than this, which I think proves 

 that the weight of the plough is as it were brought 

 forward to the resisting poiut when in work, and no* 

 that it requires only 7 or 8 stones to cut and turn a 

 furrow 5 in. by 9 in. Thus we think that the plough 

 only polishes up the bottom of the furrow as a trowel 

 does mortar — that it is only a great knife that cuts up 

 a square junk, and the turn-furrow comes after, an 

 lays it over, giving it a squeeze as it does so ; this com- 

 pression serves to pulverise it, instead of hardening i • 

 and in this respect it excels the spade, which turns oye^ 

 but does not break up without an extra turn by u?i n jj 

 the spade as a hammer. With these remarks I sha 

 conclude that the plough is the most proper imple- 

 ment that we yet possess for turning over the soi. 

 But though our ploughs, so far as to their cutting p»r», 

 are about what we want, yet in applying 8team-po**e 

 for drawing them we must support them on two >v *) ee 

 in front and one behind ; and the shanks of tnes 

 wheels should extend above the frame of the pl° u ? ' 

 and be held on it by a moveable joint to allow the sha n 

 to swing backward and forward. Then we shall b& ^ 

 our draught-rope attached to the top of this shank, an 

 the effect will be that when the plough is pulled f° rW ^ 

 the wheels will be raised, and of course the P' oU <L 

 lowered, and when the draught is backward the w " ee .., 

 will be lowered, and the plough ra»sed before it wl 

 move back at all, and so it will clear itself above uV 

 land. The single wheel behind will work in a socket as 

 the front wheels of scarifiers do, and by it we 

 guide the plough backward. Of course we must h* 





can 



