10 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE 



[Jan. 4, 



generally, it is obvious that some peculiarity of the 

 seasons must have been the cause ; and in point of 

 fact, the preceding autumn was very favourable ; there 

 was not too much wet for the seed, or for the young 

 plant, and it suffered less than usual from the winter. 

 If it were sure that it would always escape the dis- 

 asters which commonly befall it, and the same number 

 of plants always survived the winter, four pecks of 

 seed, or even lees, might possibly suffice, but it would 

 be folly to act upon that calculation, till it can be 

 shown that such seasons may be taken as the rule and 

 not as a rare exception ; aud that besides the weather, 

 all the living foes arrayed against the crop— insects and 

 dugs and worms and birds, will not claim for themselves 

 more than half of that which the cultivator hopes to 

 reap. If it be asked, how it happens that under such 

 favourable circumstances the actual yield of (corn per 

 acre is so much less tbia year than it was the last — less 

 by several bushels— the answer is one among many 

 proofs, how much the presumption of imagining that 

 the course of nature can be controlled by any amount 

 Of skill or expence, is rebuked by Him who directs its 

 arrangements. Never was there a greater promise of 

 abundance ; but just at the critical period, when the 

 Wheat was in blossom, it was beaten down by thunder- 

 storms, and the thickest and heaviest crops had the 

 least power of recovering themselves, and the ears were 

 blighted or only half filled. 



Of all the ingredients detected by chemical analyses 

 in the structure of Wheat, two of the most important 

 aids to increased fertility are nitrogen and phosphoric 

 acid ; in order to obtain enough'of the former for one 

 extra bushel of Wheat above the ordinary produce, it 

 has been proved that 5 lbs. of ammonia must be added 

 to the soil ; and so many pounds of the latter are taken 

 away from it every year, in the shape of grain or 

 mutton, and not returned in farm-yard manure, that it 

 seems reasonable to fear that in land long under culti- 

 vation, the natural supply of it must be quite exhausted. 

 Hence it would appear that Mr. Solly was quite jus- 

 tified in asserting that phosphate of ammonia is a most 

 valuable manure, since it contributes the two ingre- 

 dients most needed for the increased development of 

 plant. I will not say that the experience of this 

 year has proved the contrary, because, not having 

 examined the article sold under that name before it was 

 used, I cannot be sure th it it was the genuine salt ; 

 certain, however, it is, that it has appeared to be 

 almost entirely inert. It increased the quantity of 

 straw a little, but the quantity of corn not at all ; more- 

 over the salts of ammonia are usually beneficial to 

 Grass land ; but there too the phosphate has failed, and 

 it is not only in this combination that phosphoric acid 

 has disappointed me. Combined with another base, 

 most essential to vegetation — potash, it was equally in- 

 active j and when mixed with some other manure, the 

 effect was no more than might be expected from 

 that other, if it alone had been employed* Never- 

 theless it must be remembered, how much uncer- 

 tainty attends all these experiments ; the same facts 

 must be repeatedly verified, to clear them from the 

 suspicion of arising from accidental causes, and it is only 

 ft long experience that can be liken as the test of 

 truth ; for it will be seen from the following statement 

 that if too much reliance were placed upon a few partial 

 experiments sentence of condemnation must be passed 

 upon some of the most approved fertilisers. 



been much shaken by these experiments, there is one 

 at least which has been confirmed by them, and one 

 which is very intimately connected with the precediug 

 discussion. It is not the first time that I have endea- 

 voured to show how much we are apt to overdose our 

 land with some favourite manure, and to forget the 

 old adage, that " too much of anything is good for 

 nothing." The following instances illustrate this : 



Hat. 



ft! 



■ • • 



• • • 



276 lbs. of guano on grass pro- 



'* viV* C '-* ••• •*■ ••• ••• 



T headlining land unmanured 

 224 lbs of guano 



Adjoining land 

 HO lbs. of guano 



Adjoining- land ... 



112 lbs. of guano 



Adjoining land 

 112 lb*, of muriate of ammonia 



Adjoining land ... 



86 lbs. of muria'e of ammonia 

 Adjoining land 



56 lbs. of muriat e of ammonia 

 Ac'joining land ... 



• • • 



• • 



t it 



• at 



• • t 



« > ■ 





. . » 



Tons. cwt. lbs. 





• • « 



1 



12 



76 



1 



9 



12 



1 



10 



60 



1 



6 



8 



1 



10 







1 



2 



56 



2 



9 



12 



1 



18 



24 



1 



11 



8 



1 



6 



8 



1 



10 



110 



1 



6 



8 



1 



12 



46 



1 



7 



16 



3. d. 



loss 11 2 



J1 



3 tJy 



profit 15 7J 



J* 



£1 12 10J 



loss 6 3 



t> 



4J 



profit 7 3 





COBN, 





240 lbs. of Peruvian guano 



"Without it 



1 cwt. muriate of ammonia 



Without it 



1 ewt. guano+l of muriate 

 of ammonia 



Without it 



160 lbs. guano+80 of mu- 

 riate ot ammonia 



Without it 



bah. gal. 



Loss, 

 per acre. 



• • • 



• • • 



* » » 



82 



32 



31 

 31 



25 

 25 



32 



- • . 



4 



4 

 2 

 2 





 



4 



4 



rr». 



lbs. 



122 



8 



108 



32 



III 



4 



105 21 



1 



105 20 



G2 



8 



80 







68 24 



1 



1 



d 

 5 



12 



1 



s, 

 1 



d. 

 5 



12 



The benefit derived from these manures was obviously 

 in the inverse ratio of the quantities employed ; and 

 while all increased the growth of the Grass, they could 

 not stimulate it beyond a certain point, and therefore 

 the larger proportions did not repay their cost ; but 

 here again I must repeat what I remarked before, that 

 notwithstanding several failures, that system of manur- 

 ing answered well, for in summing up the results of 

 16 experiments on Grass, the gain exceeded the loss 

 by 3/. 15s. 6d. ; and it is a comfort to know, that the 

 phosphates and ammonia which appear at present to 

 be useless, will not be carried away by the winter rains 

 into the bowels of the earth, wherever there is a foot 

 or two of strong soil above the chalk, but are retained 

 by it, and stored for future use, and may|improve the 

 pasture for the sheep. My garden experiments this 

 year contribute something to the same conclusion, that 

 production cannot be indefinitely forced, for having 

 ascertained by the experience of many successive years, 

 that in this soil at least (1 presume not to lay down 

 rules for others), the hoeing of Wheat is a useful prac- 

 tice, provided that it be not done too late in the spring, 

 aud that the soil be well consolidated by rolling or other 

 pressure afterwards, that was no longer to me a subject 

 of inquiry, but the proportions of food that may most 

 advantageously be administered to growing plants is 

 still an unsettled question, and this I proposed to in- 

 vestigate, retaining the six salts which I have always 

 employed — sulphate of soda, phosphate of soda, muriate 

 of ammonia, nitrate of potash, phosphate of potash, and 

 sulphate of ammonia. The four first were tried sepa- 

 rately in this way ; halt of 16 spaces, each of which 

 contained five rows, was watered with the respective 

 solutions in the proportion of 2, 4, 6 and 8 ounces; 

 the other half was sown with seed which had been 

 previously saturated with the solution. The answers 

 to these questions are not quite satisfactory, because it 

 was necessary to burn the annual weeds arid the creep- 

 ing roots on the spots which produced them, since it 

 would have impoverished the ground too much to 

 remove them from it, and they would have propagated 

 themselves too much if they had been dug in ; thus some 

 inequalities were necessarily produced on the spots 

 where they were burned. It is remarkable, however, 

 that the seed which bad only been steeped in the two 

 salts of soda, produced not only more corn, which might 

 happen if the crop were very rank, but more straw also, 

 than all those which were watered with the solutions. 

 From the nitrate of potash the straw was exactly equal, 

 the corn a little in favour of the solutions. The muriate 



reaped 20 barrels, of 20 stones each, to each Irish acre ; 

 that is, 80 stones produce to each stone sown. The 

 next I will give, was from an Irish acre of Wheat land 

 of good quality in Kerry, where I had 15 barrels, of 

 20 stones each, from a seeding, broadcast, merely 

 "harrowed in," of 35 lbs of seed, or 120 to one.* The 

 crop in Dublin was of course more profitable, not so 

 much, or, perhaps, at all, because I used double the 

 seed, but because the land was better, and tilled by the 

 shovelling of the furrows in a better manner. I have, 

 since I last wrote to you, sown Wheat in this island 

 with 601bs of seed to the statute acre, being 4 lbs under 

 a bushel ; and from the present appearance of the crop, 

 though on land rather worn out from a previous crop* 

 ping (bad farming, you'll say, before I tell you that 

 circumstances admitted of no other), I rather think 

 I would have plants enough, though broadcast, for half 

 as much more land. With the result of this crop, and 

 others under other circumstances, you shall be duly 

 apprised, if I am spared .+ 



Deep and Shallow Draining. — Like the Wheat 

 growing, I have had much experience in this depart* 

 ment, and like many others, had very strong prejudices 

 for some time against the application of deep drains to 

 all soils, and under all circumstances. My prejudices 

 are not yet totally removed, yet they are sufficiently 

 so to make me believe that the deep draining is far 

 preferable, generally speaking, on the great majority 

 of our Irish lands requiring drainage, and, though lam 

 draining lands, here now, which six weeks ago appeared 

 to require none, and where many now would wonder 

 where the water could come from, as little, if any, 

 appears at the depth of 1\ feet ; nor is the wouder less 

 on seeing a large supply given out at the depth of 4J 

 feet. I will, hereafter, when the work is done, give 

 you a more lengthened detail of this operation. I am 

 not surprised at the fact mentioned by Mr. Davis, of 

 the garden pond's drying under the circumstances 

 described, yet he may be a little surprised on my relating 

 a fact that came under my own observation near the 

 railway station at Kildare village, on the Great Southern 

 and Western line. There is, or was, when I last saw 

 it, a little watering pond near 

 railway to the south-west of 

 18 feet of the railway cutting, 

 than the same number of feet. 



the road that crosses the 



the station, within 12 to 



in depth, I think not less 



Yet the water remained 



i io © i io o 



in statu quo in the pond, as neither crack nor fissue 

 appeared to give it vent into the deep cutting. 



Roots in Drain-pipes. — I once found in a drain 4| feet 

 deep, a mass of roots which had completely choked the 

 inch and half pipe, though laid but 18 months. These 

 roots were from a Man-old Wurzel crop just removed 

 off the land where they had grown. 



Concrete in the ends of Drains.— I have repeatedly 

 found wedge-shaped masses of concrete as hard as the 

 mortar found in " the round towers of Ireland," com- 

 pletely shutting in the water. This concrete I suppose 

 must have been formed of the lime held in solution 

 till brought by the water to the end of the drains, and 

 then acted upon i by the atmosphere. The remedy 

 ag'iiiist this evil, I find to consist in not allowing any 

 water to settle in the drain, when I could prevent its 

 doing bo at the extremity. I, as yet, know no remedy 

 against the entrance of roots into the pipes, except such 

 as would make "the cure worse than the disease.'* 

 Has any of your readers yet made such a discovery ? 



" Irish Moss," as Food for Man and the lower 

 Animals. — The plant noticed in your last, is, I suspect* 

 not a Moss at all, though in Ireland called by the 

 natives, " Carrigeen Moss," which in English means 

 the Moss of "the little ruck/' collected on the rocky 

 shores in many places, but more especially on rocks 

 which stretch out into the Atlantic Ocean, on the 



it 



western and southern coast. I have never known 

 1 12 of 1 12 | °^ aramon ^ a wa s successful in the two larger doses, to be used in this country as a food for cattle. I have 



but in the two smaller the produce both of corn and never seen it, but in a dried state, sold at a high price 

 straw was less than "from the steeped seed. fin the apothecaries' shops, and have been treated to it 



This communication having extended already to too 



Some deduction must be made from this statement of 

 loss, on account of the increase of straw, which in some 

 cases was very considerable, and in one where the 

 phosphate of potash was combined with muriate of 

 ammonia, amounted almost to double, but still it has 

 an aspect of great discouragement towards experiments; 

 and yet it would be a great mistake to be discouraged 

 from making them ; for after deducting all the ex- 

 penses and losses of 27 experiments, there remains a 

 balance of profit ia their favour to the amount of five 

 guineas. I will only further add upon this subject, 

 that if the inactivity of manures consisting of ingre- 

 dients most necessary and most apt to be deficient ii to 

 be accounted for on the principle that the earth already 

 contains them in sufficient abundance, and if there is 

 no reason to suspect that any others can be deficient 

 we are driven to acknowledge that there are conditions 

 of soil which prevent it from producing more than a 

 certain maximum peculiar to itself, and which cannot be 

 corrected by any applications of art, for in these chalk 

 soils no drainage is required. There is, indeed, a mode 

 of improving its texture, which I still persist in recom- 

 mending, where it is not all too stiff, and which may 

 be practised with great advantage wherever there is 

 plenty of wool or other fuel. By burning the whole 

 surface of one-half of a field, it bore la*t year an excel- 

 lent crop of 1 urnips, without the aid of farm-yard dun* ; 

 and this year it has produced 10 bushels of Barley and 

 JU trusses of straw more than the other part which 

 received 18 loads of farm yard manure. Bat if some of 



me opinions which I had previously entertained have 



great a length, I will conclude it with two or three 

 curious facts. Where the sulphate of ammonia and 

 phosphate of potash were applied separately and in 

 combination to equal plots of ground, half of which was 

 sown with good seed and half with bad, the bad seed 

 having its vacancies filled up in the spring by dividing 

 the roots of those which grew, and watering them with 

 sulphate of ammonia, produced 6 lbs. of straw more 

 than the good, aud the total was 50 lbs. more than 

 jew on the same ground seven years ago, though it 

 as borne a crop of Wheat ever since, and bore as much 

 corn as it did six years ago, notwithstanding the 

 unfavourable season. That part which has been always 

 hoed, but never manured, except with its own ashes, 

 produces exactly the same as at first. L. Vernon 

 liar court. 



" Irish Flora," as to 

 than to recommend 

 friends, at this and 



! 



AGRICULTURAL MEDLEY. 



Thick and Thin Sowing.— I have tor more than 30 

 years been connected with Wheat rowing in Ireland, 

 and it has fallen to the lot of few to try so many 

 experiments on such a variety of soils, in so many 

 various parts of the island, and under such varied eir- 

 cum tances; and the result of my investigations lead 

 me to agree with Messrs. Hewitt Davis, Mechi, and 

 others, who advocate thin sowing as a source of 

 m ividual as well as of national profit. I will, out 

 of many other cases, give you two that have occurred 

 with myself. One was on a good Wheat soil in the 

 county of Dublin, where from 701bs. of Wheat " ribbed 

 in," in beds averaging 14 feet wide, lurrows 12 inches 



wide, and 12 to 15 inches deep, " double snovelled," I 



in the house of a clergyman in Mayo, 20 years ago, 

 as a most delicate luxury, which it really is, when pro- 

 perly cooked. Having never seen it growing, I can 

 neither describe nor fiud such a description of it, in 

 either the " Flora Hibernica," or 

 justify my saying more about it, 

 the notice of it to your botanical 

 the other side of the channel. There is another marine 

 plant, found on the coasts of Ireland, called 4i Dliutse," 

 or"Dhihsk,"set down by Doctor Mackay, in " Algse 

 Rhodosperuim Flora Hiberuica," Part 3, No. 6, page 

 195 ; and called Rhodomenia pahnata, which is 

 collected by the poor people, and sold to parties who 

 give it as a treat at fairs and markets. This, with 

 many others of the Algre, I have known to be eaten 

 by cattle, pigs, and even horses, on the coast, or when 

 collected amongst other marine plants as a manure. 

 Indeed, many of these plants have been, and, I fear, 

 still continue to be eaten by the starving Irish, especially 

 in the southern and western coasts ; cheap as are pro- 

 visions, and heavy as are the poor-rates. Would that 

 our poor people could enter into a commercial exchange 

 with our sea plants^for the Bean meal to whose value 

 you compare the Moss in question. You will now 

 naturally ask, why not grow the Beans ourselves ? aye* 

 " that's the rub," which brings me to another subject^ 

 namely : 



Bean Culture in Wexford. — A part of which is, aw 

 long has been the best, if not, the only district worthy 

 of the name of Bean growing in Irelaud. In^theje^ 



• The seasons were peculiarly favourable for Wheat growing, 

 i I cannot a^ree ia the opiaiou expressed by a former writer of 



ihe great value ot th* Mummy Wheat, I an trying it again. 



* 



