30-1849.] 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



ft 01 * CIRENCESTER.^ iturd ^ the Ufli Qf 



V" *$£ HUhop of" Wincl 



m agricultural <8a?ette, 



SA TURD A Y, JUL Y 28, 1849. 





»Wb bee our readers to look, at the report, in another 

 JunuTof the Highland Society's late Half- 

 Ym-.;-' Mf.i-.tino at Edinburgh; and they should 

 especially take notice of the report and speeches 

 be chemical department. 

 Mr. Finnik's remarks on the practical advantages 

 derivable to the farmer from the means which agri- 

 cultural chemistry supplies are suggested by his 

 own experience, and ought to be read by all practical 



goes to the support of efficient chemical aid against 

 the fraudulent dealer in agricultural stores. The 



yet received that aid which it deserves. We hope 



been pushed to its limits. The question whether, 

 other things being equal, larger produce may be 



portance as to justify the weekly abstraction of a 



column for its discussion, from the few we have to 



M. It is certainly, however, of 



fc though, whatever be the decision arrived at, we 



stall not be able, in accord 



fevel our hilly or elevate oui 



«n the one hand of ploughing land into high ridges, 

 ad on the other of using the turn-rest plough on the 



justify the opinion we have already expressed on 

 ^subject at page 379. 



The question must be decided, we imagine, by 

 roerence to such practices as those alluded to, and 



jkj of land steep as a staircase. We do not deny 

 «« there are some kinds of plants that will grow 

 °*e largely on the steep surface than upon the 

 ^er extent of its horizontal ground plan. 1 ac-hens, 



P*E "a mt S lin°e * hfjfih "he' f&Z 

 lessor alluded to by Mr. Chaytor, we believe that 

 , sonie flat-growing plants may perhaps yield a 

 ^Produce upon the greater extent of the inclined 

 - ««, bo greater yield can be expected from plants 

 s, such as high hay-Grass, corn, or 



do&vau^T* do not de *? that good land on the . 



e propositio 



Me™,.. , A ," d if he contends that .t 



ST,*?" ftom hta ."V flat Z; beat ."he 



tie &Ja the foot of a slope ; in the former case, 

 ^ E*,T, n0t robbed h y the floods ' as those on 

 »4 fcrV e flood not n>b them, but it brings them 

 ** them. Smg mtter ' at the ex P ense ° f the Sl ° pes 

 »D B de7v![ tainl y is ™e point to which Mr. Chaytor 



S*«« on ilf !, t ori ? inalit y and some force - The 



^-VtlTo' oilTvethfa^nSe ofa 



:..Li. w 







necessarily greater in the one case than in th 

 y of sunshine lighting on the 



southern nor a northern aspect; the right thing 

 would be, to compare two similar circles of equal 

 diameter, the one level and the other surmounted 

 by a conical hill. In reference to the idea of more 

 atmospheric food reaching the hill plants, we may 

 also observe that the effect of winds, which bring 

 this food to the leaves, must very much equalise any 

 differences between the two cases that might other- 

 be assumed in the case of cultivable slopes, take just 

 as long, and not longer, to traverse the ascent as they 

 do to pass over the horizontal surface on which 



The question for discussion is — taking a piece of 

 originally level land, forced upwards from below 

 into hill and valley— whether witli the greater 

 superficial surface it has thus acquired, and altered 

 will yield larger produce to the 



negative : there is the same soil to feed the 

 i little consideration shows that it lias just 

 vertical depth as formerly— 1 1 



mether the leaves be considered or the passi 



greater number of upright plants can be grown 

 e case than in the other. If they could, th( 



decision, which is, pro tanto, in favour of level land 

 —but we can put a stop to that artificial process of 

 high ridge-erection which has disfigured so many of 

 our fields ; and which has injured them too, for the 

 process of surface drainage it facilitates is mis- 

 chievous, and that of under drainage which might 

 most usefully supplant it is hindered by it, not assisted. 

 In conclusion we add that, however fully we may 

 consider this subject to have been already discussed, 

 we are far from wishing to claim the last" word upon 



T.\v. Mayo, \\-o 



Rice, of London ; 



In my la 

 rer greatly 



I'AUMKUV I'Kn 



is perfectly just. Philosophers tell us that there is 

 ) such thing as absolute contact — that what we call 

 uch is produced by that repulsion which exists 

 rtween bodies forced upon one another : the greater 

 e pressure the nearer the particles are forced, and 

 the denser they collectively become— a thing which 

 could not be if there were absolute contact to begin 

 with. Just so with the stems of trees or of Wheat- 

 Mr. Chaytor has certainly seen before now the 

 npt at pressure in these cases pushed to its 

 ; — and the natural thinnings of our Larch 

 plantations and of our thick sown grain crops ; the 

 ' rs of stalks which perish in the struggle for 



adopt precisely simil 



do not differ in other respects, we will answer lot it 

 they will not differ in their produce. They will 

 differ in this— that the steep land farmer, though, 

 by supposition, he has no more soil to turn over, 

 will find it more difficult to accomplish, owing to the 



great labour they be prevented, 



- 





- 



e horse pond ; tor l am not auv, 

 as food for phi 



,ule food by a re 

 ! analysis. To get a standard c 



\d. per lb , the gluten Id., and the 

 /. 16s. 8rf. as the fo 



I 1080 'lbs. of starch, 48 lbs. of gluten, 

 *ortb, according to the same scale of 



ne little ingenuity to get 

 maumed and relived by 



and Bean and B*rley-t 



''ti'mlubfrnS 



