THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



25 



HMIE CONICAL BOILERS INVENTED BY 



1 JOHN liOGKRS, E*q., are supplied and fixed by John 

 She<ten, ironmonger, S Tenoaks. Also all kind* uf Hot \\ ater 

 Apparatus. For Churches and Public Buildings, Mr. Shewen 

 should be consulted, bis Warm Air Apparatus being safer, 

 more efficient, and more durable th an any other. 



BY HER 



MAJESTY'S 



EOYAL LETTERS 



PATENT. 



PATENT HOTHOUSE WORKS, KING'S-ROAD, CHELSEA. 



EDENCH invites the attention of Gentlemen about 

 • to erect Hothouses, &c, to the vast superiority in every 



■jpect possessed by hi3 PATENT HOUSES, which he will 

 warrant superior in every respect to any others. Good Glass 

 from 16 to 21 oz. per foot, 1 foot wide, 3 feet long, furnished, 

 and the Houses, when completed, charged from Is. 3d. to Is, 6d. 

 per superficial foot, according to size and quantity ; on one 

 principle the roof is formed without wood or putty, and on 

 another principle with wood rafters, and the glass put in with 

 putty. Patent Sashes, requiring no paint, from 7d, to 9d. per 

 foot. HEATING BY HOT WATER. 



*»* A te con d.h a n o^span - roofed House for S ale very cheap. 



PURE WATER raised to any height from a small 

 »'. ream, where a fall can be obtained, by FREEMAN ROE 

 and HANSON'S IMPROVED RAM; less waste, by two-thirds, 

 than those ordinarily in use. Portable Steam Engines for Agri- 

 cultural purposes, Threshing Machines, Deep- well Pumps, 

 Water-wheels, Baths, Hot-water Apparatus, and Fountains. 

 Towns supplied with Gas or Water. Drawings and Estimates 

 made.— Freeman Rob and Hanson, Hydraulic and Gas Engi- 

 neers : Office, 70, Strand, London. 



DO YOU BRUIaE YOUR OATS ? 

 No ; then you lose 50 per cent. 



A NICE STABLE MESS, effecting immense saving, 

 and vastly improving the condition of the animal— bruised 

 Oats, straw cut into chaff of a certain length, and a little hay ; 

 the whole steamed, and eerved up at discretion. No rack — 

 down with the racks ;— NfARY WEDLAKE'8 MACHINES, 

 IIS, Fenchurch-street, and 11, Taristock-street, Coven t-garden, 

 where a machine may be seen at work. A pamphlet on the 

 above, by sending 12 postage stamps. 



Eftt agrfntltttra! (Btmttt 



mania at Ci per cent., required to repay principal 

 and interest in 22 years. 



From what we already see of the effects of the 

 extensive drainage works now being carried on, on 

 various estates in different parts of the country, we 

 augur the best possible effects from them, where 

 they are judiciously executed, and that not only from 

 their direct action upon the land, but from the 

 powerful influence they must exercise upon agricul- 

 tural practice around them. Where they are carried 

 out in an enlightened spirit, and in a complete 

 manner, they are causing the extirpation of nume- 

 rous old and crooked hedgerows which interfere with 

 the proper laying out of the drains. They are com- 

 pelling the removal of numerous trees, which in 

 some parts of the island quite overshadow and 

 destroy the crops ; for no competent inspector will 

 sanction the placing of drains near Ash, Alder, or 

 other water-loving trees, where they would in a year 

 or two at most be rendered worse than useless by 

 the roots. The old crooked watercourses, with their 

 wide margins of weeds, are in course of being straight- 

 ened and reduced to proper limits, or are fitted with 

 large pipes and covered over, the effect of all which 

 is, that in some cases the available surface actually 

 receives an accession of one -fifth, while the expense 

 of cultivation, rent, rates, taxes, and tithes, now 

 commuted, remain the same. In some districts we 

 observe large extents of waste land in course of re- 

 clamation by trenching and inclosing as well as 

 draining, and in others, lands covered with brush- 

 wood and stumps of old trees made highly pro- 

 ductive by trenching and draining. 



We must here notice, in order to give our hearty 

 commendation to it, an arrangement which has been 



xp uses where the sum applied for approaches 

 1000/. will seldom exceed two or two and-a-half per 

 cent. ; while every one knows that the law charges 

 on a mortgage of similar amount, where such can be 

 made at all, are seldom under 5 per cent. ; besides 

 the trouble and discomfort of producing title-deeds 

 not to speak of the impossibility of making fresh 

 charges on settled estates— a difficulty which the 

 Drainage Acts were expressly framed to meet. The 

 expenses too, such as they are, must not be looked 

 at as merely incurred in guaranteeing the Commis- 

 sioners as to the expenditure of the money ; for they 

 secure the advice of some of the most skilful drain- 



Where large sums 

 10,000/. or 12,000/., 



not exceeded 



ing engineers in the kingdom, 

 have been applied for, as 

 the charges, in many cases, have 

 H percent. 



In conclusion, we heartily bear testimony to the 

 assiduity and care with which the Inclosure Office 

 has watched over the preparation "and administration 

 of these acts, which have been a great boon to the 

 agricultural community ; and we have abundant 

 means of knowing that no effort has been spared to 

 reduce the expenses to the lowest possible limit. 

 "J. T." seems, unfortunately for himself, to have 

 suffered from the want of completeness of arrange- 

 ments, which is always apt to be the case in the 

 first working of new and untried 

 especially during such periods of alarm and'suffer- 

 ing as those which characterised the period of the 

 passing of the first Diainage Act. We know that it 

 is now the practice of the Commissioners, and a 

 practice occasioned by the very case which has been 

 brought forward, to scrutinise all bills most rigour- 

 ously, and to cut them down where necessary. In 



more 



..->■■■ mmM^ m+ ^ m m mwrmm vv *v, c«i* wiim^^mvuu CUiVM UM plf*,w* vmoxj, ti 11 v i IU V, U. U Lll^lll \A\J \H 11 V11IC1C JUC^COSCilY. 1 U. 



come to on several large properties, by which the point of fact the Commissioners have struck large 



JANUAR 



MEETINGS FOB THE TWO FOLLOWING WEEKS. 

 Wbdnssdat, Jan. 15— Agricultural Soeiety of England. 



— 16— Agricultural Imp. Society of Ireland 



— 22— Agricultural Society of England. 



— 23— Agricultural Imp. Society of Ireland. 



Thursday, 



WBJ>NBSDAYa 



Thursday, 



Thorough drainage is to wet land what a good 

 foundation is to a house. We can no more hope to 

 exercise a profitable system of agriculture without 

 the one, than to erect a firm and substantial build- 

 ing without the other. The parallel holds good even 

 further; for as in the case of a badly-founded edifice 

 the more important and extensive the structure, the 

 more imminent the danger, and the greater the de- 

 struction and loss likely to accrue. So, the more 

 manure and labour we bestow on wet land, the 

 greater will be the balance on the wrong side of the 

 ledger at the year's end. 



Drainage, then, being so valuable in its results 

 everything which tends to throw light on its theory 

 or practice, or to promote its application, merits 

 every encouragement which such a journal as this 

 can give. In our present circumstances, called upon 

 as we are to contend with the world in the produc- 

 tion of food, we look to drainage as our sheet anchor 

 No country can vie with us in its application, and 

 in none does it produce more beneficial results. 



Much has been done during late years to illus- 

 trate the theory and guide the practice of this art 

 during the year which has just passed, its philo- 

 sophy has been popularised and made attractive by 

 the well-stored mind and pleasant periods of an 

 able writer in the "Quarterly Review;" while its 

 aims and ends, and its most improved practice, have 

 been discussed m a more practical manner in the 



"Cyclopedia of Agriculture," L ■ 



contributors, who 



by one of our own 

 shown that we must have 

 one system of drainage for the east side of the 

 country, and another for the west; that the inch 

 pipes, which serve to draw off 20 inches of rain 

 annually, at Wakefield, will be quite overpowered 

 with the 50 inches of the west coast, and that the 

 hssures in the soil, which are formed even without 

 draining during the summer months in a dry climate 

 will require the aid of drains at narrow intervals 

 lor their establishment under a humid sky. 



While we have thus been extending our know- 

 ledge of the art we have, at the same time, been 



w! g a a r ™ de ]y- ex tended application. England, 

 Scotland. IreW W. ^ JT.n ..._ mea | uri ' 



landlord undertakes the whole of the drainage, and 

 himself pays either the whole or the greater part of 

 the annual instalment on the outlay, deeming this 

 the best way to enable his tenantry to meet the 

 times. We shall be greatly surprised if, in the 

 course of a few years, both landlord and tenant do 

 not find themselves in a better position under such 

 an arrangement, than where the latter are left to do 

 the best they can with wet land and a reduction of 

 a few shillings an acre of rent. 



The carrying out of the provisions of the Drainage 

 Acts in Great Britain has been entrusted to the 

 Inclosure Commissioners of England and Wales. 

 The mode of obtaining advances under them is of 

 the most simple and comparatively inexpensive 

 description consistent with a check upon the proper 

 expenditure of the money. 



We are induced to draw special attention to this 

 part of our subject in consequence of a letter from 

 "An Assistant Commissioner under the Acts," 

 w T hich appeared lately in our columns, and which 

 has evidently been written under most erroneous 

 impressions, and contains insinuations against the 

 Inclosure Commissioners which are, as we feel con- 

 fident, entirely unfounded, and which were contra- 

 dicted in our last number by a communication 

 authenticated by the signature of Mr. Girdwood. 

 We the more regret the appearance of this letter, as 

 the signature would necessarily give weight to the 

 observations ; for the conclusion would be natural 

 that an " Assistant Commissioner " must know the 

 technicalities of proceedings under the acts, and 

 have assured himself of the correctness of his 

 position before he attacked his official superiors. 



We have taken steps to ascertain the facts of the 

 case alluded to, and we find it to be nearly, if not 

 altogether, a singular one. 



sums off several bills, and have ceased to allow the 

 gentlemen to act who made them. Those, there- 

 fore, who now take advantage of the acts will receive 

 all those benefits, which " J. T." admits that they 

 offer, without those drawbacks from which he un- 

 fortunately suffered. 



The new year opens gloomily upon the agricul- 

 turist. In spite of open predictions of amendment, 

 amongst the hopeful, and in spite of the not less 

 sanguine though secret hopes against their own 

 auguries, amongst the timid, prices continue low, 

 and the corn-grower sits apart, the sole unpartaker 

 in the feast that he has helped to make for others. 

 Meantime the nation is busy and prosperous ; trade 

 is active, capital increasing, money abundant, wages 

 good — so at least the usual organs of the world that 

 lies beyond the farm inform us ; but the news comes 

 sadly and unmeaning to the ears of that one interest 

 whose share seems but a scant one in the merry 

 Christmas, and which looks ahead with but a hazy 

 prospect of the " happy new year " that is passed, 

 much as usual, from mouth to mouth around. 

 Even to the most habituated preacher of despondency 



5 



no 



trial*, a • ' ,. v " aLXKX aiA "ecu iueasui 



their drainage expenditure by millions, to the 

 and nrr!!f mng ^ f the COst of labo ™ng the land, 

 £ oSfi ng ? e quantit ? of its P roduce > * h ^t 



maturitv fc * ^^ improved b * ies earlier 



maturity. Foremost among the promoting causes of 



LT w . X p e T e T 0perations stand the DraSage Acts 

 JS C Loan Acts, and the Private' Money 5 



Se ?l A t i, In T Sequence of the Pulsions of 

 mtL ♦ ' a ^ \ een P ut in the P^er of pro- 



embtr, a l ram th t estates > no matt <* how 

 mowf the y mav be > or how encumbered their 



3EKS ; f° V u ded ° nl y the improvement to be 

 th7l»nY a \ be Sh ° wn t0 add t0 the rental value of 



ine land such a enm o« «.:n *i_. , . . , 



It appears to have oc- 

 curred at an early period after the passing of the 

 first Drainage Act (1846), before inspectors had been 

 appointed in each district of country, and when the 

 charges of surveyors and engineers had been raised 

 to an extravagant height by the railway mania. The 

 high rate of expense seems to have been wholly occa- 

 sioned by the exorbitant bill of the gentleman who 

 made the preliminary inspection. We understand 

 that the commissioners took steps to prevent a like 

 occurrence in future ; and the effect of these steps is 

 sufficiently illustrated by the fact, that the inspection 

 on completion, although necessarily the most trou- 

 blesome piece of work of the two, did not cost above 

 one-third of the sum paid for the preliminary inspec- 

 tion. We find that there were no office expenses 

 whatever in the account, and the only charge, besides 

 those for inspection, was a small sum for advertising 

 in the London Gazette, and local paper. It also 

 appears,^ that if the same gentleman who made the 

 second inspection had made the first, the whole 

 charge would not have exceeded 181. 



We have 2one into this snhiert at snmp IatiuIIv an 



the prospect seems to offer the puzzle of a reality 

 that he never meant exactly to come true ; for people 

 differ more in their avowed prognostications than in 

 their actual beliefs, and commonly blame the hope- 

 ful seer more for his manners than his appetite in 

 which they entertain a common sympathy. Even 

 the wisest confess themselves puzzled : and not 

 in this country alone, but in more than half the 

 countries of Europe the same complaint, strange- 

 sounding to the ears of the "consuming 55 world, 

 prevails, and for the last two or three years has pre- 

 vailed, of a low price and plethora of food. 



Were agriculture, like most other business pur- 

 suits in this country, a struggle of capital against 

 capital, instead of a continual struggle against the 

 want of it in the immense majority of instances, the 

 whole matter would bear a different aspect. A few 

 years — a cycle as it is — of abundance and consequent 

 cheapness, would come upon the producing interest 

 it affected, bringing neither surprise, despondency, 

 nor resourcelessness ; profits might be lowered, 

 seemingly annihilated, for the time, as they have 

 been in the cotton, the silk, the woollen, the 



iron 



? 



in the cotton, the silk, 

 and most other of 



our 



the woollen, 

 principal trades, 



Hard- 



sunk 



w T ithin our not unfrequent remembrance, 

 pressed industry, and hard-earned capital 

 apparently for the moment, like a labouring 

 vessel in the trough-of-the-sea during a ground- 

 swell, would yet gradually rise again, steady 

 and still buoyant, chastened to a knowledge of the 

 ways, but not unmindful of the mercies of Provi- 

 dence. But in the agricultural world the cumber- 

 some inventions of human ingenuity and one-eyed 

 selfishness having for half a century shut out all 

 real trade experience, all extended and commercial 



# <-» «i — — o * — r j — 



we are anxious to correct the erroneous impression knowledge, all the external and powerful influences 

 which we may have been, in some degree, the un- that, operating with healthy and unrestricted freedom 

 witting means of propagating ; and we are also I upon the other arts and industries of our advancing 

 anxious to point out to those of our readers who may J community, have built up out of the progressive 

 have occasion to drain their lands, the great advan- intelligence of each pursuit its own best insurance 

 tages which the provisions of these acts afford. The against occasional periods of depression 





