2-1849.] 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



- 



i-ESSRS. NESBIT'S CHEMICAL . 



GUANO AND OTHER 

 PERUVIAN GUANO, of the finest c 



AND PROPRIETORS 



T ANL 



: , i ,, , ,. .•...;■ .• . 



making aDd every d 



ss.fis 



mHE LONDON MANURE COMPANY beg 1 

 LONDON MANURE COMPANY 's'cORN MANURE. 



.r U c° rn crop™ wMle the'urat" 





#;ir£/jRD4Y, JANUARY 13, 1849. 



Me. J. B. Law E£ 





of the " English Agricultural Society's Journal/ 



try of agriculture, to which a laborious anc 

 lengthened series ol researches had led him. Fo: 

 these he has been taken to task by an anonymom 

 writer in the Farmers' Magazine. " T. L. C 



i with ignorance of the or 

 guage of chemistry— insinuates that his 

 erroneous upon their own showing, are biassed by 

 ins personal interest as a manure manufacturer, and 

 concludes a fluent and confident invective with sym- 

 pathy for his "brother farmers who are, in the 19th 

 century provided with such worthless scientific 

 information." 



Now there are not yet very many men who claim 

 to .. b ° ,d - "^Pendent opinions on the subjects ol 

 w!, i ch . Mr : Lawe, has treated-most readers of 

 agiieultural chemistry are still constrained to accept 

 the doctrines of the few who have made it matter 

 ol personal investigation— and to attack the charac- 

 ter of a teacher is thus perhaps the easiest way to 

 nfluence the faith of th« m »L ^ a ™ m „w ♦„ 



We have not referred to the details of this dis- 

 cussion, because our present subject is tea style 

 rather than its subject matter. The latter— the 

 source of the alkalies inplm 

 which all this Reeling has been dlsp 



loes not in ms second paper wn 

 in his first: certainly, he does not 

 his courage rises as he proceeds, 

 apparently successful 

 ponent who had chalh 



another opponent who had challenged him, 

 attains its former sticking place ; and he ends thus : 

 ,( Mr. Lawes has, we believe, promised the infliction 

 of another article on Agricultural Chemistry. We are 

 il never see the light— the Journal of the 

 Royal Agricultural Society will never again be dis- 

 graced with such worthless scientific information. 

 Thanks to Mr. Lawes' reply, too much attention has 

 now been directed to the matter : it will never happen 

 again. Should, however, Mr. Lawes si i 

 his intention, let him take the advice of a farmer for 

 once ; 1st, don't presume to call his writings Agri- 

 cultural Chemistry ; 2dly, write common sense ; 3dly, 



Mr.' Lawes is, doubtless, well able to sit unmoved 



there is no other reader who is not indignant. 



On the 2d of last month a paper was r 



before the Newcastle Farmers' Club, on "W 

 science has done for Agriculture ; " and a \ 

 interesting paper it is, as our .readers (we havi 

 in type) shall judge for themselves. The wri 

 after citing the tasks which science has yet to \ 

 form, and the difficulties she has yet to overco 

 asks, "How are these difficulties to be solv< 

 Certainly not," he says, "as Professor Johns- 

 wishes us to do by leaving scientific farming 



n. Nor will Sir Robi ~ 

 by saying that all fallows are syi 

 ignorant and improvident agriculti 

 look for assistance to Dr. Tho; 



■ 

 long alter they shall have withered and turned 

 yellow, to the blade of the Wheat in its most sweet 

 and tender state. It is only in this state that they 

 do it any injury, and by the time thai - 



• 1 go"fTurnip-tops,itwillbetoo 

 owth to suffer from them. At 



ing, the compromisi 



e covered our Wheat so thickly with Turnip- 





o defend fa 



his honesty ; and as to hi 

 t between the attempted sai 



1 T. L. C./' and the respectfu 

 i Johnston and Way, whor, 

 authorities, was sufficiently ii 



Mi 



"berofthe Farmers' Mai 

 e subject, but with an evi 

 of style; his language 



ific men can be expected to possess ; and they 

 us more likelv to devise remedies or estimat 

 the M'^t'ions of others. Mr. Lawe; 

 r, and much of his success as 

 t arises from his lengthened experience on I 

 We would by no means leave the task c 

 . ui< to exclusively scientifi 

 it is indeed very desirable thatscientifi 

 farmers disposed to display their experience for tb 

 ood of others were more common than they are 

 i this we quite agree with Mr. T. L. Colbeck, tb 

 uthor of the above paper ; but, we ask, What 



)rwardr e i?a n "T! L. C/' to ready to meet 

 ith the insolence which dictated the cone 

 assages of the critique, quoted above ? 





: 



j field 

 An anonymous writer may pretend to 

 his labours, but the really eminent in 

 the scientific world, and the really earnest among 

 practical men, unite in placing them among the 

 important whose results have, of late years, 



to be desired that many 



en given to agrici 

 It is, we n 



equal patiem 

 Mr. T. L. C< 



e curbed which 

 the rough and i 



' 



m,-l 



ibounded with disquii 

 feeding sheep and 



portant subject t 



one of 



lents, " Why I am engaged in the 

 ing mine, and a Sisyphean labour I 

 ect half a peck every morning from 

 yet they do i 





preserve your 



less cost. Instead of troub 

 J Turnips as slug-traps, to be t 



state. All that the slugs do not eat will make ex- 

 cellent manure. The farmers of Norfolk have found 

 that there is no better dressing for Wheat $00 

 i nc time for strewni- is 

 .. or at any rate not later 

 than the time when the seed may be supposed to 



before it reaches the surface. 



We might urge strong theoretical arguments in 

 favour of feeding slugs instead of attemptim; to 

 destroy them. We might urge that nothing has 



in becoming 

 winter proud ; lag this is as " 



sheep, to which farmers not unfrequently have re- 



ig W r heat from the ravages of slugs, by 

 in with food more to their taste. The 

 actice originated rather more than 30 years ago 

 ith the farmers of Middlesex. After in vain en- 

 javouring to destroy their enemies with lime and 

 salt they attempted to effect on a large scale the 

 trapping of slugs by means of Turnip-tops, which 

 ' e neighbouring market-gardeners pi; 

 ssfully on a smaller scale. Women and children 

 ;re employed every morning to clear the leaves 

 slugs to which they had resorted in the night for 

 elter, it was supposed, and accident caused the 

 ange of plan from catching to feeding. A suc- 

 ssion of wet days having prevented the collection 

 bad been em- 

 ployed in the interval in .!• 

 that as long as they were supplied with Turnip- 



After this discovery, the 

 >on became general in th 

 the advantages of the pi 



district, though beyond 

 ng during this mild and 

 t, and many a farmer will find in it the 



SKETCH OF THE FENS, 

 ears ago the great level of the 

 laratively unknown by the pi 



of wild ducks and agues, have found the 



rares within its precincts, and have 



ly and safely over its dark surface 



r enters from the south, he findi 



', or clay sudden 



meadows bordei 



' 



and winding K 



