170 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE 



three fi is *> that it was im 

 theestahl d course, especia 



existed of pasturing all the she*n of the narish on the 

 fallow in i miner, and on all < 



p of the pari! 

 :hers after liar 



the winter, and being harvested later, it interferes with 

 the Wheat harvest. 



In this neighbourhood the old school of farmers 

 often grow their Barley on Wheat stubble, which. 



keeping land clean 

 same soil, equal i 

 the same sort ni 



England this impediment was removed by the legisJa- ; though not a plan to be commended, may answer 



where a dry autumn allows the 



ture passing Acts oi mciosure, bat it is sun rai w uutujr 

 parts of the Continent. Where a sufficient quantity of 

 manure could be collected, by means of cattle fed on 

 pastures and commons in summer, and in the straw - 

 yard in winter, to give a regular dressing to the fallows 

 every third year, good crops were produced, and the 

 fertility kept up : the labour was very equally divided 

 through the year; and such was the regularity of every 

 operation, that a large quantity of land might be culti- 

 vated by the proprietor at a considerable distance, ! likewise dependent on 

 without a bailiff, provided he had honest servants. 

 But when pastures taJD6 to be broken up, and con- 

 verted into arable land, and cattle diminished, the land 

 could not be manured on every fallow, the crops suffered, 

 less straw being grown, the quantity of manure was dimi- 

 nished, and the land became less and less productive, 

 till from necessity a portion was left uncultivated, and 

 returned to natural and inferior pasture ; this gave the 

 idea of laying down land regularly to Grass, by sowing 

 seeds ; the apparent loss of a third part of the land by 

 the fallows, introduced various crops, which were sup- 

 posed to enrich the soil • of this kind one was Clover, 

 introduced by the Flemish, an I aft« r wards Turnips ; by 

 substituting them for an entire fallow, or rather sowing 

 then early in the regular fallow, the Norfolk rotation 

 was obtained. <; In 1 raters * the gn atest care is paid 

 to manuring and weeding ; much more manual labour 

 being wed than with us, and the crops seem more 



certain and abundant, in consequence ; that it is not 

 Unprofitable, we may conclude from the v. h of the 

 peasants, the comfort of the labourers, and the sleek 

 appearanc of the cattle. Aft • ploughing into lands i 

 we do, every inter* ling furrow i pened and cleared 

 with the spade, the earth bring thrown over the bed 

 •own; liquid manure (which is sadly thrown away in 

 this country) is carefully collected and distrilnr 1 over 

 poor light soil by means of water-carts, before Bowing, 

 and again when the crop is come up, which enable such 

 lands to yield crops of Rape seed, Clover, Lucerne, and 



corn, tjualin luxuriance to those on the richest soils. 

 Fallows are rendered unnecessary by the careful destruc- 

 tion of weeds ; in short, it is a garden culture on an ex- 

 tended scale. All the land is in tillage, except where 

 rivers occasionally overflow, and render the meadows 

 rich and profitable. The cattle are m tly kept in 

 stables, and fed with green food, by which means one 

 acre of Lucerne, or other artificial, will maintain five 

 times as many b ts, a* an acre of the b t pasture 

 the great object is to inn manure, especially in a 



liquid state, to be preserve. 1 in tanks till wanted. This 



in some cases, 



Wheat stubble to be ploughed and well cleaned and 

 several ploughings and harrowings given ; but in this 

 case it is not advisable to sow Clover and Grass seeds 

 on the Barley, or not till the Barley stubble is ploughed 

 up. The quantity sown by the acre was formerly 4 or 5 

 bushels, but now from 2 to 3 are reckoned sufficient 

 by advocates for thin sowing ; but this must depend on 

 the land and season. The time for sowing is of course 



, the middle of March, as 



»im. u,e corn, ana m the third ' 3^-.*** ** 



of dead sheks greater in bulk than t he * 



be found that the produce of com fl! 



not exceed the third . w \! T. from the W 



eeds. 



third ; but in the 



It J 



*her* 



?oon as the land is dry, is the best rule ; as in very 

 early sowing, cold wet weather prevails, which is 

 injurious to the young plant. The depth of depo- 

 siting the seed should be about 1^ to 3 inches ; after 

 sowing, rolling is useful. In some seasons of wet, the 

 Barley is rather choked up by Clover (when sown on it) 

 particularly when sown late. According to Mr. Rham, 

 in Flanders, Clover is hardly ever sown with Barley, but 

 with Hye, and a kind of White Carrot, sown instead, in 

 the sandy soils — these push out very little of the green 

 top, but shoot their fibres downwards. After harvest, 

 the land is well harrowed, and watered with liquid 

 manure. The Carrots then sown, spring up, and a good 

 crop is secured before winter. Barley is often raked 

 together like hay, after harvest, but it should, as well 

 as Oats, be tied up the same as Wheat. I conclude this 

 article with a result of the analyzation of the ashes of 

 burnt Barley and its straw, grown on a chalky soil (by 

 M. Theodore de Saussure). The grain, reduced to ashes 

 with its skin on, gave, out 

 which contained — 



corn, iln 



proving that tkT5 

 abstraction nf . 



there was room enough in the bed fL *L ^ 

 wouldtheyforbear to eat JJE %£S J 



01 nutrin^| 



quantity tf^SH*" 



governed by the amount of nutriment within S* 

 roots 5 and .„ other parts of his work, he £?£ 



following vear hfi fnnrwl a ^^dA i i 7 ,.~* >?, > ffl 



nee btfc 



ban 



of 100 parts, 18 of ashes, 



• • * 



Potash 



Phosphate of Potash 



Sulphate of Potash 



Muriate of Poteen 



Earthy Phosphates 



Earthy Carbonates 

 Silica 



Metallic Oxides 

 Lo: s 



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18-0 

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100 



system is also followed in Switzerland, which, consider- 

 ing its soil and climate is one of the best cultivated 

 countries :s, Europe. In Hofaiein the following course 

 is adopted :-l Oa on newly brolcen-up Gr -land ; 

 dtow ; 3, Wheat, manm I ; 4, Beans or Barley ; 5 

 Wheat, man d, , m!e ss done for the Beans the year 



before : (>. vms ^«c* ,i r_ ,i J 



In Mecklentnn ., a . .t„»„ not unlike the Scotch 



1, 



Beans or Pot! , manured ; 2. Wheat or Oats'- 3 



Barley j 4 I u or Ta res, manured ; 5, Wheat ; 6, White 

 Clover, ami seeds. Another: l,0*B;2,Be .s, manured: 

 h Wheat; 4, lares, manured; 6, Barley: 6, Clover 

 am. seeds mown ; J and 8 fed. Another on a rich soil • 

 l, Kape seed manured; " " 



6, Wheat; 7, Oats 



»„♦„, , , - 2 » Wheat; 3, Beans or 



otatoes. manured .n„d hoed ; 4, Barley ; 5, Clover ; 



Th„ ~ a t a- — Bmn down ,vith w «»te Clover! 



The end of this convertible system is to lay down the 

 the Grass will then be abundant, and continue good for 



xnsrf liriuid n,a,mrc caiTied ° n * in i^ 



wdl so enrich it as to adn of making the crop into hav" 

 or cutting ,t green for the cattle in the stable^ 



1 o resume the subject of Barley. Of all m a ins it is 

 perhaps, that which comes to perfection i„ the iaeS 

 variety of climates, and is found over most^f he 

 habitable world. It bears the heat and drought of 

 ropical regions, and ripens in the short summers of 

 those which verge on the torrid M , fa l> V pr Bar 



bTVe^o ft 8 ° Uth ° f Spai "' ' W> tr °P s of Sj X 



soi\n the preceding autumn. 

 m I.xodus, ix. 31. 



a rn -m This ex P ,ain s a passage 



-«,•»* r .. ^ fho 1<lax and the Barlev were 



" Tit 7 ' ,0 B i arleV " in lhe "«i and thl Fax 

 was bol I : but the Wheat and the Rye were irt 



smitten or they were not come up." nnYeVenTweSw 

 happen n, March ; the first n of Barley was th« 



forunrd tobe^n ST, Vfl" Were not ^cientlv 

 tor at d to 1 > injured by the plague of hail. Barley is 



dis tiiigmshed by its species from" the time of sown, Jit 



ww/r m w n T b t er of rows ° f " rain3 jn the 2?5 



ro^ed , four and two on flat Barley, which is most 



WHAT MAY BE DONE BY BETTER TILLAGE. 

 At present, when so much is written in favour of 

 an extended application of manure, some good may be 

 done by bringing in contrast instances of extraordinary 

 fertility gained wholly by improved tillage. It was with 

 this view I, a few weeks back, had something to say upon 

 the fanning of the Rev. J. Smith, who is growing 4 qrs. 

 of Wheat per acre year after year, from the same landj 

 at little cost, and without manure, simply by deep and 

 clean cultivation ; and it is to confirm what Mr. Smith 

 has said, that I now allude to what Jethro Tull wrote 

 120 years ago in favour of finer tillage, as opposed to 

 high manui mg and ordinary cultivation ; and as many 

 ot your readers may not have read his work, and it is 

 difficult to procure, and its old style makes it trouble- 

 some to peruse, I will begin by stating that Jethro Tull 

 for many years, farmed several hundred acres, near 

 Hungerford, in Berkshire, and we are indebted to him 

 for the origm of the drill and horse-hoe. which he in- 

 vented to enable him to clean, and to frequently move 

 and finely pulverise the ground aside his growing crops 

 His farm was called Prosperous, and such was his 

 success year after year, in raising more than ordinary 

 ciops of Wheat without manure, that he fell into the 

 error of believing land wanted no other assistance to 

 grow gram than finer tillage ; and well he might so 

 err, seeing that h.s crops appear to have gone on im- 

 piovmg, after having pursued this system for 16 years 

 and his returns were greater than his neighbours', not- 

 wuhstandmg that he left sufficient space* between the 

 n. ges, on which he grew his corn, to admit of plough^ 

 between them and m this way half his land a .parent y 

 lay idle ; but Jethro Tull tells us that this uncovered 

 space was not unoccupied, but was feeding the roots of 

 the adjoining rows of corn, which permeated it in <d 

 au-ectmns and he shows that in thi S P way tvn may be 

 fed from distances of 4 feet. y 



J t n S « , ? ,ar **? U0 y^™ after th; s ™s written 



TeH „!f T } "8 h0,n hl8 succe «% to the truth of all that 

 S "'if Stated ' a '" 1 y«* that such valuable 



stTfact,'-™ ^ mad r° ,iUleim l ,re ^kSSh 

 t: ; f ld T ma >' have doul,te > seeing the large as- 



nr,S C hatland n ° W receives - ^nd 'the inability fa» 



col?! l\! rC :7<r n ^ ChCap aS ° thei> ksa S 

 countnes do, of the correctness of the course that l,.,« 



been taken to advance agriculture. OneStS^ 

 back we were exporting corn at a profit, and science £s 



we 



i'y 



commonly eultivat 1 in tt^7w^&X "*? ^ much to d ™»^h ^^^ ^SKSTJS 



. At 

 following year he found a considerable diffe^f 8 ' * ** 

 crop on the ground between what had 

 the previous year and what had not, showing tta A. 

 good effects of moving the soil between the vcV ** 

 is not confined to one crop ; and he brings other n^^ 

 to show that land is benefited for years after bh- 

 and the disintegration from one year's good tilla^ 

 although, from the want of modern chemical knmtJF 

 he has not used the arguments which modern info/^ 

 would have afforded him, to prove that by fren^' 1( ^ 

 and fresh exposure of the soil between the rows of ™ 

 he was, from the decomposition of the mineral S3 1 

 ter, continually creating fresh supplies of fertility *l 

 therefore some of his explanations are unsound 

 it is curious to observe how much the discoveriarf 

 Liebig and other chemists may now be brought to& 

 port the horse hoeing of Jethro Tull ; and still more soflt 

 greater success of Mr. Smith, from deeper workin* of b 

 land. They go far to prove, as Liebig teaches, that; uX 

 ordinary cultivation, corn plants have more oecaAi 

 for artificial supplies of inorganic than of orane 

 matter— in other words, of the mineral constitue^ 

 soils, than of animal or vegetable matter ; and tfctf 

 whilst air and moisture abundantly supply the elements 

 of the latter, the disintegration of the soil is too star 

 in giving the former in a form suited for roots to 

 take up. The practice of Jethro Tull and Mr. Safe 

 confirm this ; for whilst they gave no organic matter 

 the soil, they were, by their deep cultivation, fine 

 division, frequent moving and exposure of the ioiL 

 greatly aiding its decomposition, and largely adding to 

 the available amount of inorganic matter. I worfl 

 suggest to agricultural chemists that they cannot render 

 a more interesting service to farmers than to enlighten 

 them upon the changes that soils undergo from aerate 

 and the alternation of heat and cold, wet and drought 

 and the value of these changes in producing fertility 

 That soils are vastly improved by frequent exposareli 

 been understood from the earliest times, but the oec 

 stant dissolving of mineral matter going on from ate- 

 spheric action, and the fertility thence arising, ii 

 open field for inquiry, and likely to yield much valoakfe 

 information. In farming it would appear that we 

 far from looking sufficiently to this aid to corn growiie, 

 although in gardening the practice is much more oot- 

 formable. The market gardens round London offerfile 

 practical schools to young farmers. On land paying ft 

 and 10£. an acre rent, Tull's wide intervals and inter- 

 row cultivation has long been adopted, and the fertility 

 gained by aerating the soil is highly appreciated, as is 

 shown by their practice of trenching, and laying 4eir 

 land up to the weather, and of finely pulverising and 

 continuously moving it ; indeed I believe the best 1 



i farming are to be gained in the humbler hut gene- 

 rally more intelligent schools of gardening. H t Zte, 

 3, Freder'iclSs-place, Old Jewry, March 1, 1051. 



Home Correspondence. 



( p and Durable Paint. — In reply to *M. B.a 

 inquiry, p. Ill, the m st durable and effective painty 

 am acquainted with is the iron paint of the patent 

 alkali company, which stands all Weathers, upon wood, 

 iron, slate, or brick, when used with linseed ° a >?"**[ 

 surfaces properly dry. It is also one of the c ^ e ^^ 

 linseed-oil paints, and covers a much greater J*?* 1 

 than white-lead. The colour is not pleasant, being » 

 deep chocolate or purple-red ; but this can be ob J^T 

 by a mixture of white or other light colour, with tn*fl» 

 coat. The coal-tar paints, which are less costly, neitK 

 lie so even, nor last nearly so long, so far as mj'^x* 

 rience goes. I do not think it is genexfOlyknowfl ujjj 

 country, but the London agent is, Mr. J. West, I, - 



Broad-street. /. Pridcavx. « M. B.» wishes to WJ 



what paint to use on his new buildings. I ^ ® ^| 

 pleasure in being able to recommend C. D. j, 3 ^ 

 Co.'s patent metallic paint ; the price is 5rf. per i ^ 

 it can be laid on by any farm labourer as w&u ^ 

 painter. I have twe i a great deal about^my f»n»> 



f far the best and most durable paint Uia 



:^^-«=^55Ma£ 



cost than 

 manures 



In inoret climates, where the winter 

 alternate frost and thaws, and the earl 



r!f .', „?' i !:. rt , !l Ame f»ca,in some parts. 



consists of 



apt to .uff.r, and the spring sown Barley -ives the Z£ ? Gn< 



certain prospects of a good crop- hut the Sn f t I1Cr 



latter _fa seldom so heavy as 'that which has "stood SSf^ii^P* t0 ? emSe ' S ' To retu ™ ^ J «thro 



inrih, f J- S another ex I»eriment of his which is 

 worthy of notl ce, as illustrating the imnort,,,,!! ] 



mn the farmer, aided as he £ '%% * "^^ 

 es, improved pi, ? h s and horses • ami »w • 

 more sin-ular, we find Mr Smith ;^ T? ' A • 1S even 



dressing whichlTS^^^^^^e 



school, that they make its ^^7^^^° 

 first consideration. tcw 



it is by far tlie best and most aurau«? y^y - ,^ 

 met with; it can be obtained at 22, ParliamenW^ 

 Westminster; or 1, Castle-buiMii =, J ^ erD v^jjr ar . 

 Liwrpool ; with oil, turpentine, brushes, &c. *p 



ring ton. 



The Drainage Act. 



The various 



on the 



Accordiog to liev. W. Kham-- Dictionary oflhilw~* 



But enough of this. 



. T !!, e T^ ue t " Trench rio«g^i" 



coromuni<»Wf 

 •our eolun* 



which have appeared from time to time m you 

 respecting the Drainage Act and its opera i ^ rf 



formation ana a g oou ^ ^ 



to see 



impor 



amusement. It is really quite langn^"" - lD d«oi^ 

 anxious certain gentlemen arc to n J ake / j^nefi* ' 

 income out of tlie money advanced for ^ 



suffering agricnlturists. Of course, they i , • 



this as°their motive. Oh no I it is all for t^e g* ^ 

 the nation. There has been some alius 

















