











THE AGRICULTURAI 







GAZETTE 



87 



0* 



, ,,f -leiKlerer straw close 

 ^J^^^ be 10. aa acre with me. 

 fn^S/ items are omitted— thatching, 

 ^^J^^LSSg. which together I should 

 ■** !T£re There is still another item of cost 



**llXZid to bi 1 tun 12 cwt., and ^flh 



& 



I find practically that deep cultivation, by subsoilin 

 trenching, &t\, greatly facilitates the passage of 



conviction that 



our a gri- 

 ll 

 seen 



nth!. 



- **£Jf uloTa tonT Mr. Smith, if I remember 

 *>** *l .?; pll.hlet that it was worth that to 



I can only say that I live in a dis- 



puted 



^ JlSiX're is r^y'go^d sale for straw, and 

 ** Ifreauently sell a few trusses at 8d. a truss, but 



Mi 



_ld nut let more than 6rf. a truss upon the prem;ses, 



ft-TtaSl » ton or more, and sometimes not more 



JL.TL And if straw is to be sold, there is a 



^ rf & 6rf. per ton for trussing, bearing birds 



^ the rate of 3*. an acre is an item which 



JJJtt J -all events to be calculated on, to be on the 



^vjfkt us see what these additional items come to. 

 ruTthere is trenching at 91. an acre. Say it wou Id 

 5 require to be done again. Bi" if "'« were to 

 3«es land, who would pay for it J 

 fcp? get this principal returned in £ 

 .winea a year would be prudent exp 



One must, there- 

 few years. Say 



being more and 



Zutinie, making 305. more lor annual outlay. We 

 out sav another pound at least for reaping, thatching, 

 Ukine in rick, and marketing. Then there are probable 

 expenses, for trussing straw and bird-keeping. To the 

 •Uement of cost then given by Mr. Davis, I am com- 

 pelled to add 50s. per acre. I cannot hope for more than 

 ;0i a ton for my straw. This reduces the' return by 16s., 

 and adding to 50a. increased cost, the " net profit of 

 3L0L&1- per acre," estimated by Mr. Davis, will be changed 

 into a net loss of 5s. 6d, per acre. Mr. Davis, however, 

 arrived at b profit by allowing " 40s. an acre to cover 

 rent and inn .-rest of capital, and 40*. an acre more for 

 provision for contingeiwiw and dressing ;" allowances so 

 ample, that I am not satisfied to dismiss the case, espe- 

 cially 'as, on Tullian principles, I do not think there 

 would be a cost of above 5s. an acre for dress ; and that 

 principally consisting of phosphates, 

 more convinced that stirring while the crop is growing, 

 renders unnecessary the application of ammonia in such 

 quantity as is required by an unstirred crop. One 

 question more, as a Tullian farmer, I should like to 

 have answered. How did the crop succeed this year ? 

 Mine was so excessively blighted that I had but 10 

 bushels per acre ; whereas my crop, by the usual hus- 

 bandry. 1 estimate at 30 bushels, and the Tullian fetched 

 but I . a quarter the same week that some of the other 

 fetched 38s. And again, is not Mr. Smith's land fresh 

 broken up within the last five years ? The great weight 

 of straw would seem to indicate this, as well as the pro 

 duce of Wheat. But this only shows the propriety of a 

 fuller description of the soil. I have assumed the 91. for 

 trenching done at one before the commencement of 

 sowing. Mr. Smith's plan is, however, to do two-fifths 

 only the first year of the growing crop, and two-fifths 

 the next year. For the reasons above stated, this ap- 

 l>ears to me impossible, except at a very great expense 

 in doing it carefully, and 'preventing the raised earth 

 from burying the Wheat. But the great objection to 

 Tull's plan is the bad quality of the Wheat. I have 

 tli is year some Beans on the same plan, which, perhaps, 

 will not hurt in quality, to be followed by thicker plant- 

 ing of Wheat, and then Beans as before, the trenching 

 to be done only or mainly during the Bean crops. If, 

 however, it is possible to describe by words the process 

 of digging between the rows, and so render an actual 

 inspection unnecessary, Mr. Hewitt Davis and Mr. 

 Smith will confer a great obligation on the distressed 

 *ad overs trained British farmer. Amicus Tull. 



Home Correspondence. 



Open Furr< s on WeU-drai d Zand. — I maintain 

 the necessity for open furrows. We have had heavy 

 floods to-day. The drains have discharged most abun- 

 dantly, but on the heavy land quite as much water has 

 passed from the surface as from the under drains whilst 

 it continued raining. This remark applies to land 

 drained 32 inches deep, at only 4 yards apart, and filled 

 10 inches deep with pipes and stones, as described in 

 toy first pamphlet ; also to land drained 4 feet deep, 

 ^ith pipes at intervals of 28 feet. The drains had the 

 Opacity to discharge more water than they did, could 

 it have reached them, but the continuous rain supplied 

 *ater faster than the physical character of the soil per- 

 mitted it to permeate or filtrate. These remarks apply 

 to 1W acres, which I closely examined to-day during a 

 continued heavy rain. - Let me not be misunderstood. 

 -Ine stet&es and furrows are not the absurd mounds 

 *°d tortuous valleys of our midland counties. The 

 ^tches are flat, the small narrow furrows being about 



"tehes deep, and not perceptible on a good Wheat 

 ^°P at harvest. The water sighs into them invisibly, 

 ? u * "* e aggregate of these weepings in long distances 

 orms a flood of tears of very awful proportions. Water 

 °r cross furrows intercept and convey them away, ere 



e y acquire on hill sides too great a momentum. 



our undrained heavy Essex lands it is no un- 



«otnmon thing to see cart-loads of fine earth thus 



Wa »ed into the ditches. How strange— is it not ?— 



water, f have a strung 



cultural pie-crust does not exceed, as an average, 

 4 inches on the solid or land side. I have 

 much ploughing not 3 mches, or about the diameter 

 of the mouth of a wine-glass. If some of our ap- 

 posed deep ploughers will carry, as I sometimes do, 

 a wine-glass in their hand, and place it in the track 

 of the plough, they will be surprised to see so much of 

 it above the earth ; and after all it is only 5 inches 

 ln>h! Allow me to say, that the first 80 acres I 

 drained with pipes and stones at 12 feet apart is per- 

 fectly drained ; the crops being ripe evenly over the 

 whole field. I am almost inclined to revert to my old 

 theory, that the area of porosity in drains has some- 

 thing to do with increased facilities for drying land. 

 /. J. Mechi, Tqjtree-hall, March 15. 



A good way of Painting Farm-buildings.— Ka\mg, 

 some years ago, to superintend the erection of a great 

 number of farm-buildings, and it being the particular 

 wish of the nobleman, on whose estate they were built, 

 that they should be rendered as durable as the mate- 

 rial employed would admit, viz., timber in all parts, with 

 the exception of the roof and foundation, I had all the 

 body of the buildings done over with a mixture of gas-tar, 

 two parts; pitch, one part; the other part half quick-lime 

 and common rosin, put on quite hot; it requires two coats 

 at least, three is better, the first to be perfectly dry and 

 hard before the second application ; while the last coat 

 was still soft I had dashed on it, with a trowel, well 

 washed sharp sand, or more properly minute flint 

 stones, which remained after several w things ; this we 

 managed by the assistance of a fine wire sieve, and a 

 stream of water with a good fall ; this forms a perfect 

 stone face to the timber ; and from the appearance of 

 them when I last saw them, they were likely to last 

 many years longer. The sand should contain no stone 

 more than three lines in diameter, in fact, if all 

 the earth is washed out, the smaller the better. The 

 window frames and doors . were done over with the 

 commonest paint I could get in London, a stone-colour, 

 three coats, besides the priming; the paint mixed thick, 

 and darted over in the same manner as the rest of the 

 building, with a still finer sand ; this also appeared to 

 stand well ; the sand must be made perfectly dry before 

 it is used. The expense I cannot exactly state, as I 

 cannot lay my hand on the book just now, but I know 

 it was not much, and has given great satisfaction. It is 

 right to state that the wood- work must be perfectly dry 

 and well seasoned before this mixture should be applied ; 

 it is better to wait a year to effect this end than put it 

 on green wood. E. X, near Braintree, Essex. 



The present state of Irish Agriculture— In my former 

 letter I succinctly showed that the cause of Ireland's 

 wretched husbandry was to be traced to the apathy 

 of landlords as to the improvement of their tenantry. 

 It is only now that proprietors are awakening from 

 their lethargy to a full sense of their neglected duties, 

 which has been the means of consigning many a happy 

 family to irretrievable ruin. The progress of the 

 people has aroused our dormant landlords to a direful 

 contemplation of their darkened future ; they see their 

 tenants destroyed from the mere want of attention and 

 encouragement to their interests — for landlords have 

 ransacked, where they could come at, the available 

 effects of their tenantry, to satisfy the pressing demand 

 of threatening creditors. Eviction is sure to follow a 

 penniless tenant, aye, eviction from a dismal, yet to the 

 suffering tenant, a home ; either subsequently to live at 

 the mercy of a relieving officer, or die, between the 

 struggles of famine and misfortune. The few who have 

 withstood the crushing demands of a bankrupt landlord, 

 too proud to brook a diminution of those pleasures to 

 which he clings, and that style of living for which he is 

 unable to pay, are yet verging onwards to the vortex of 

 ruin, because they are not able, from the want of educa- 

 tion and economy, to pass into that transition state from 

 imperfect husbandry to successful farming. The time 

 has passed when Potatoes could be used as a " guardian 

 angel" to appease the rack-rent landlord, and meet 

 other personal engagements : the time has passed when 

 prejudice and custom dictated at the cost of com- 

 mon sense, for society is now 



cattle — in fact, there is no harmony in their systems of 

 management ; a repelling power predominates, which 

 frustrates all attempts at reform — which produces a kind 

 of culture that deteriorates instead of improving, and 

 d troys every effort for permanent good. And what is 

 this to be all attributed to I Assuredly to the farmer's 

 ignorance — to his want to discriminate between that 

 which is solid and practical and that which is speculative 

 and unproved. This leads me to notice some of the 

 means for improving the agricultural class in Ireland. 

 The first of which, as being first established for giving 

 an impulse to the improvement of Irish agriculture, 

 stands the Royal Dublin Society, established in 1737, 

 with a Parliamentary grant. The objects of this society, 

 which partly bear upon rural industry, consists in hold- 

 ing an annual cattle show in spring, open to all Ireland 

 for competition. As the show is ever held in Dublin, 

 its benefits are naturally availed, with a few exceptions, 

 by Dublin and its adjoining counties. If the exhibition 

 was held alternately in the different provinces, it would 

 excite more attention towards rural improvement in 

 those backward districts, far removed from the vicinity 

 of its workings. Libra, Ftb. 12. 



Chicory.— In the volume of the " Agricultural Survey 



5> 



of Arthur Youug, published in 1808, giving an account 

 of the state of agriculture in the county of Sussex, there is 

 the following passage respecting the cultivation of Chicory,, 

 p. 145 : — " This plant, by the experimental improvement 

 of the age, has recently been introduced to the know- 

 ledge of the farmer. For rapidity of growth, luxuriance 

 of burthen, nutritious qualities of the food and duration, 

 it stands unrivalled ; all sorts of cattle and sheep feed 

 upon it with avidity. Where it has been cultivated, it 

 is usually sown with Lent corn, mixed in a certain pro- 

 portion of other artificial Grass seeds. The Earl of 

 Egremont having ascertained the merit of it, spread the 

 cultivation over several acres, and finds it a most useful 

 and profitable plant. In 1798 and 179©* he had 

 above 100 acres of it, and the use it was of to him in the 

 support of an immense stock of cattle and sheep, ex- 

 ceeded everything that could have been expected from 

 the soil ; and the benefit would have been still greater, 

 had that stock been still larger, for much of it ran to 

 seed." In the account of this plant, by the Rev. W. L. 

 Rham, in his valuable work, « The Dictionary of the 

 Farm," it is stated that " the result of some accurate 

 experiments on a large scale, made in France, has been 

 unfavourable to Chicory, as compared with Lucerne, 

 and other green food, in consequence of its giving a dis- 

 agreeable taste to milk and butter, when cows are kept 

 upon it." But he adds, that " for sheep it is very good, 

 and a small portion mixed with other food may probably 

 | be a preservative against the rot." A very favourable 

 account is given of this plant by Arthur Y 

 "Farmers' Calendar," published in 1815, wlio say 

 that " whenever it is the farmer's wish to lay a field of 

 Grass by way of resting the land, or of increasing the 

 food of sheep, he cannot hesitate. There is no plant to 

 rival it. " These writers are directly at issue as to the cha- 

 racter of the soils upon which Chicory may be grown with 

 the greatest advantage. Mr. Rham says that " the land 

 should be rich, deep, and high." Mr. Young says that 

 " on poor, barren, blowing sands, such as many districts 

 abound with, especially in Norfolk and Suffolk, it will 

 yield a greater quantity of sheep food than any other 

 Grass in cultivation f and that " on fen and bog lands 

 and peat soils it thrives to much profit." If any of your 

 correspondents can communicate the result of their 

 experience, with respect to the cultivation of Chicory, as 

 an article of food for cattle and >heep, they will much 

 oblige JR. IF. B. 





who 



throwing off the 



and 



emerging 

 Farming 



that I 



cannot persuade our heavy land Essex friends, 

 *t would be useful and profitable to drain their 



*J*g clays. They 



^* e * smartly for then wa tui»v ; *** **<?«, scooui 

 I 0ur ^^respondents will continue to discuss 

 ■•rr&w question, especially our north countr 



hope 



chains which fettered its progress, 

 into the light of science, reason, and truth, 

 must now be based upon the practical application 

 of scientific principles and a skilful employment of 

 labour, so that an increased quantity of food may be 

 produced both for individual emolument and adding to 

 the material comforts of the nation. How are Irish 

 farmers to keep pace with the go-a-head tendency of the 

 age I Will their slovenly tillage warrant their onward 

 progress, and be the stability for the nation's weal ! 

 Will a reckless abandonment of every established prin- 

 ciple of improvement — a wilful disregard to recognised 

 facts — where a studied exhaustion of the soil's expiring 

 fertility is thought of, and no more — be permitted as a 

 uccedamum for a system of cultivation whose pseudo- 

 routine has been disorganised by the wholesale destruc- 

 tion of a single crop ? Can Irish farmers practise hus- 

 bandry where green-crop culture is but an experiment I 

 — where it is doubtingly received, because it requires a 

 little extra attention to be successfully pursued I — where 

 the management of manure is heedlessly attended to, 

 and the drainings of the manure-heap kindly invited 



prepared channel, to empty into the nearest 

 Does this not drain the purse I Irish farmers 



isers to the advantages of house-feeding cattle 



feeding, and rearing of 



along a 

 stream ? 



to the economic breeding, 



ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND. 



Weekly Council; March 12 : Sir Robert Price, 

 Bart, M.P., in the chair.— (Continued fr > page 172,). 



Salt in Agriculture. — The Baron MERTENS,a life- 

 member of the Society, residing in Belgium, attended the 

 Council for the purpose of calling the attention of the 

 members to the great interest felt at this moment by 

 the Government and farmers of that country in reference 

 to the value of common salt as an application to the 

 land and crops, and as an adjunct to the food of animals 

 on a farm. As opinions on these points varied so much, 

 according to the circumstances under which the experi- 

 ence had been gained, he was anxious to ascertain, if 

 possible, the best information on this subject, which he 

 thought important to all cultivators of the soil, and 

 feeders of cattle. The abuse of salt in Belgium h be- 

 come, he stated, a real ruin in some cases to the tenant- 

 farmer, as well as to the landed proprietor ; and he had 

 been given to understand, by some of his friends in Eng- 

 land, that it had not answered well with them. Salt he 

 believed to be, to a certain extent, useful to fattening 

 stock, if not forced upon them, but placed in their way, 

 in order that they might take as much of it, and at such 

 times as they felt disposed. In France it had been 

 thought very advantagious to live stock, by M. 

 Barral, M. de Beague, and others ;. hut the ex* 

 periments, in his opinion, were not at ail satisfactory- 

 It had lately been found in Belgium that ordinary doses 

 of common salt had proved to be the cause of abortion 

 among the farmers' breeding wtock ; in one case '21 cows 

 out of 30, and in another 38 out of 40, slipping their 

 calves, in consequence of their having h I salt admin- 

 istered to them ; some animals, too, in the same h ^ e > 

 experiencing similar effects, on having salt given them, 

 while the rest, to which no salt had been gi?*% pro- 

 ceeded to maturity in their gestation, without injury or 





