2f>8 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE 



Jam* * 



prise of our merchants found for us in lbUo. m 

 Caird, Baldom.N. B. [There is no one for whose opinion 

 we entertain ""more sincere respect than Mr. Cairo- 

 Nevertheless, he must permit us to remark, that in all 



things exactness is important, and in nothing more so 

 than in such a question as has been raised upon the 

 guano trade. Inaccuracies in an ascertained point, lead 



of such information. The people ot the United Stales applies to the Governmei 

 are loud in demanding State agricultural schools. 



English and Scotch Universities, the Queen's College?, 

 all communicate the same kind of knowledge. Would 

 that some of our landlords had graduated in agricultural 

 science, then we might have been spared the recital 

 of those unhappy differences between landlord and 

 5 uouuu»u C . *.«*v,^^— "~;t"" , t0 ; ofsteht- tenant, and had a more exalted adjustment of a 



SJ^&SSSEK." SSSmSS*^- tenant's right, In Ireland the h„»nUr *_. have 



that would secure its stability, should lRff«* 

 fostering hand for the encouragement of L ldg «* 

 enterprise, but without meddW in* ° ? dll *7N 



have been reduced from 51. to 31 we must doubt that tact. 

 What we want to show is, that the importers are not the 

 persons to blame for the price of guano ; and that they 

 are not monopolists. The monopoly is in the hands of 

 the Peruvian Government : and their agents, who sell 

 it on their account, have nothing to do with it. If Lord 

 Palmerston can succeed in inducing the Peruvian Go- 

 vemment to direct the price to be reduced, no one will 





Having observed an 



rejoice more than ourselves.] 



Preparation of Peat Charcoal, 



inquiry in a late Number of your Paper, respecting the 



l>est method of preparing this manure, I have great 



pleasure in informing you, that some years ago I had 



several hundred loads prepared by an Irish family, at 



9d. per square yard. The plan followed was simple 



enough. Sods were cut out of the bog early in spring, 



and set on edge to dry ; after remaining for several 



weeks a cart load of brush-wood and a few coals were 



put down, and the dried sods carefully built over them, 



in a conical shape, holes being left at top and bottom to 



facilitate the draught of air. The fire was drawn out 



at the bottom holes, and a fresh layer of sods piled all 



round and over the top of the first mound. In this 



way the work proceeded, until I had sometimes as much 



as 700 square yards in a heap. The men earned 18s. 



week, but I do not consider them over paid, as the 



work required great attention, especially in windy 



weather, when there was a danger of the fire burning 



too fast. The peat should only be charred, and it 



made an excellent manure when applied at the rate of 



25 to 30 carts to the acre. C. E. L. T. 



Expei-ienee in Land Draining. — So little has the right 

 draining of clay land been understood, that at the pre- 

 sent day we find land drainers disputing as to the depths, 

 distances, directions, and materials for the drains. We 

 cannot, therefore, be surprised to find conflicting 

 opinions given, based on experience, as to the results of 

 draining. I must confess, with very few exceptions, I 

 cannot recal instances of draining done four years ago that 

 I would point to as having been sufficiently well done to 

 be effectual ; and even of the draining doing at the pre- 

 sent day, by far the greater part is being badly done, and 

 will be found to be but partially effective. Were the 

 yiews of the land drainers rightly limited to the mere 

 prevention of mischief, from standing water (and I fear 

 much of the draining that has been done has been laid out 

 with none other), then the question of assisting the draining 

 by ridging would be unimportant. But the prevention of 

 mischief is by far too narrow a boundary to limit the utility 

 pf draining to. The descent, of rain h$$ been clearly shown 

 to carry both armth and .nutriment into the soil, whilst 



not been forgotten in sharing in the advantages of in- 

 dustrial knowledge. The National Board have wisely 

 considered the agricultural education of the people a 

 primary concomitant to the success| of their system. 

 They have established an extensive Model Farm, at 

 Glasnevin, near Dublin, where instruction in the theory 

 and improved practice of agriculture is given by a 

 highly qualified master. They have annexed small 

 farms to many of the village national schools dispersed 

 over the country, from which the most deserving pupils 

 are drafted to the Glasnevin Model Farm, and there, 

 by a higher course of instruction, and a more ex- 

 tensive field of practice, are fitted for the various situ- 



" " Thus a 



cramp the efforts of those who should beS.V * 

 possible And what more agreeable and gen er Siw ^ 

 facial subjects can engage the attention otJ?!£S* 

 other legislators than such as tend to promote iu * 

 ductiveness of our own land, and the comfort a ^ 

 being of its inhabitants, particularly its hJ!rJ* 

 classes. Mr. Davis and Mr. Smith's plan for^!? 

 digging the wide intervals between growing c^T 

 much to be recommended. Let science guide uvoLS 

 of industry, and success will crown their efforts 9 



4 



J a,uo »■'• * Fy* vx fcicu....^ yaras are l pole or r*~x 

 „ are 40 poles or 1 rood.... 19«0 „ at e 40 poles or uS 

 „ are 160 „ orlacre....7840 ,; arelfiO , £}2 



the 





ations as agriculturists, land-stewards, &c. 

 number of young men are interspersed over 

 country — they settle down and become agents in the 

 march of industrial happiness — disseminating the seeds 

 of practical intelligence by the steadiness of their own 

 examples. What system of education so cheap -so 

 practically useful, can elevate the lower and middle 

 classes of the community from that moral, social, and 

 rural ignorance to which they are enslaved? How are we 

 to attack the strong-holds of prejudice and error in 

 husbandry except by thus practically elucidating solid 

 and material improvements on model farms, however 

 small : for a farmer who knows how to farm, will have 

 his farm in good condition and productive, be it large 

 or small ; a farmer who is idle and ignorant will farm 

 badly were he to have a county in his holding. To 

 raise the depressed condition of Irelaud, I see no means 

 so surely, so safely, or so permanently calculated to 

 effect the purpose as.education— literary and agricultural 

 combined ; to impart intelligence with industry — to 

 create a prosperous and a happy people. The desire of 

 knowledge well directed and wisely applied is likely to 

 produce healthful impressions. Libra. 



Agricultural Education. — In your Paper of the 29th 

 of March you made some judicious remarks on the 

 management of small farms ; and as the subject is 

 » important, I beg to call still more attention to it. Some 

 people regret that the free admission of foreign corn 

 must of necessity sweep away our small occupiers, and 

 drive them into the labourer's ranks, or compel them to 

 emigrate. This would indeed be a deplorable alternative, 

 but I conceive there is no necessity for it. And as the 

 safety, happiness, and prosperity of a nation depends 

 more on the comfortable condition of the industrious 

 classes than on the wealth of the affluent, I Will try to 

 point out means by which the labourers and little 

 farmers, aye, and great ones too,' may be benefited. 

 There is more need of improvement in small farms than 



The 



its passage over the surface takes both away. The large ones, though it is greatly needed on both 

 extent to which land is fertilised by the passage of rain occupiers of both may take many valuable hints from 

 through the ground, has, I conceive, as yet been far too labourer's allotments and market gardens. If they 



The A cre.~ Permit me to offer, for the ania, 



\ n • • y tuc m "MTU 



several of your inquiring correspondents and tbei. 

 in general, the difference of an English and Iri*^ 

 of land. The difference is 300 square yards • *** 



Engli'h Square Measure. Irian Square Meum. 



30£ yard 8 are 1 pole or perch.... 4 9 yards are 1 

 1210 



#840 



English statute measure is reckoned by GunterVfi 

 of 100 links, of which 10 square chains constitute!! 

 acre. Hardy and Son, Maldon, Essex. [Can you gi** 

 the Cunningham and plantation acre, the Con** 

 Cheshire, Scotch, and others, to complete the table 1 



Skylarks. —The skylarks were destroying and coma* 

 to destroy my spring crops of Wheat, Rye, Barb 

 Oats, Beans, Peas, and Vetches, and the fact of their » 

 doing will produce another fact, that I must discontn* 

 such spring sowings if I can devise no means of arrofe 

 their deadly depredations. And another fact will be the 

 result, that very many able-bodied labourers and their 

 families will be denied that employment which raid 

 keep them out of the poor-houses here, or perbu 

 swamping your labour market in England, or yow 

 pauper markets, if I may use the expression, towiri 

 the large cities and towns throughout "happy" Engly^ 

 where " unhappy " Irishmen are wont to congregife. 

 How on earth could Mr. Kidd, even with his u nimble 

 pen," fertile brain, facetious turn, and elegant stjfe, 

 combat all these whilst he, with a humanity wink 

 all must admire, denies me the reasonable advice 

 which I respectfully sought of him. I look for- 

 ward with much interest to the letter which will 

 contain the natural history of the lark, and am glad, 

 for the sake of natural history itself, that I hw 

 broached this subject. Few people outside of this count, 

 nor did I whilst in my early days in this my natire 

 county, think the dear lark to be so deadly a depredator 

 on such crops as I have enumerated ; so thatjf Mr. 

 Kidd cannot on principle, a principle which i admit, 

 assist me, I will presume to assist him in thenatoil 

 history of the lark, whose principal food in this con- 

 growing county, at least, is the pulpy part of the ger- 

 minated grain, discovered and ferreted out on sea* 

 the young shoot over ground. No other bird that 1 aa 

 aware of seeks the grain in this stage so voraciously, ex- 

 cept the rooks, whose depredations are nothing m 

 pared to those of the larks. The larks will occmwmJ 

 extract from the husk or bran the Wheat, Barty 

 Oats before vegetation --♦« - ' but rt ■ 



little considered. The action of rain in its descent is to 

 dissolve and carry both organic and inorganic matter 

 into the soil, and I imagine the earth owes its continuous 

 power of supporting vegetation mainly to the supplies of 

 nutriment which are thus brought to the roots of vegeta- 

 tion, and which, but for this solving and carrying action 

 of rain, would soon be exhausted. It is from a want of 

 understanding this use of rain that the practice of 

 laying up of wet ground into high ridges, so that the 

 rain shall rapidly pass into the furrows and away, has 

 prevailed ; and farmers, in their anxiety to preserve 

 their crops from injury from standing water, have been 

 guarding their land from rain, as if it were poison, and 

 they have been discharging it into their ditches, un- 

 mindful of the loss of manure, and of the good its 

 descent would do their land. This being so, we should 

 not readily trust to any one's experience as to the occa- 

 sion for continuing the old 8 feet ridges, after the land 

 has been well drained. I can only say that mine leads 

 me to believe that the strongest clays may be laid suffi- 

 ciently dry by drains of 4 feet depth, and at 25 feet 

 distance, and without the assistance of ridging, which, 

 for reasons I have given, I think very objectionable. 

 Hewitt Davis, 3, Frederick's place, Old Jewry. 



The Present State of Irish Agriculture.— A nation 

 whose agriculture is feeble and imperfect, cannot be 

 really prosperous, no matter -how advanced its progress 

 be in the other arts. Agricultural education be- 

 comes, therefore, a subject of paramount importance in 

 Ireland, where agriculture not only constitutes the chief 

 -employment of the people, but an occupation pursued 

 with a total disregard to every scientific fact, and a 

 reckless abandonment of all order and routine. The 

 effects of such indifference may be clearly found in the 

 periodical calamities which have overspread the country. 

 .This indifference must be resolutely grappled with, and 

 made to surrender to a more enlightened exposition of 

 husbandry. Ihe prepossessions of centuries require to 

 be treated with a gentle hand, by consolidating a sound 

 wholesome system of education, which time aided by 

 reflection will show the errors into which our people 



Agricultural education is daily becoming 

 more immediately required as an elementary branch of 

 instruction, towards the accomplishment of a useful 

 member of society. Agricultural literature is taught in 

 the elementary schools of Switzerland, Prussia, Ger- 

 «iany ; and the Russian capital acknowledges the* value 





were rightly trained from youth, those small occupiers 

 and allotment labourers would be able to thrive better 

 with low prices than the great farmers, the small cul- 

 tivators being consumers of a considerable portion of 

 their produce, for which they have always a certain 

 ready home market in their own family. Since many 

 old people will not abandon their old prejudices and old 

 practice*, we must attend particularly to the training of 

 the young. Let us begin with the education of the 

 labourer's children, who ought to become good cultivators 

 of their own gardens, and some of them ought to be 

 able to rise by their own industry, skill, and economy, 

 to the rank of little farmers, and from their offspring 

 others ought, by similar means, to have a chance of 

 becoming farmers on a larger scale. To effect this, 

 let the excellent plan adopted by the Commissioners 

 of Education in Ireland be extended throughout 

 the kingdom, but more especially in Ireland, Wales, 

 and the Highlands of Scotland ; vide Agricultural 

 Gazette, page 203. Let us have a good agricultural 

 school with a small school farm established in every 

 agricultural parish, and two or three model farms 

 in each county, together with a few agricultural 

 colleges dispersed throughout the length and breadth of 

 the land. And, in addition to the model farms, let the 

 principal schools hire a field, or a portion of one, of a 

 neighbouring farmer, for experimental ground. This 

 should be a separate concern from the model farm, which 

 ought to be conducted on more regularly fixed prin- 

 ciples. It would be desirable that the experimental 

 field should be of an equal quality, and that the field 

 should be changed as often as requisite. For this pur- 



or 

 only 



sets in 



the stage which I 



have attempted to 



only m tne stage wmcu * *»«- - -r, 

 describe they do the irreparable mischief a tfaoua* 



aescnoe tney uu uie incj»w»^ „..--— ^, 



fold worse than that done by crows, who ^J^ JjJ 



th a de 

 « Shilmalier," or « Queen Anne," in his hand, cool 



^ 11 lilt 1 L11UV V»V"~ ~J • / 



or shot, without any extraordinary cost ; 

 believe, a man, on every rood of _ land, with a d«g 



save the crops last March, at least, from the larks 

 what makes the matter worse, if possible, tte«" 

 tilth, the more readily they effect their P^F* ' 

 leave to inclose a card for Mr Kidd, that he *j£ 

 my whereabouts, should he be disposed to »vo 

 with a visit. I will certainly, if I can ^J£rf 

 Great Fair next summer, avail myself of the p^ 

 waiting on him. In the meantime, I must rem ^ 

 fulforhis polite attention, in admira tion( *J ^ - j, 

 fully written and highly interesting } e ™ v *>7 i 

 devotion to his humane principles. ^""V Kidd'* 



Larls.-I see by a note appended to 

 letter in reference to the lark question, tn ^ m 

 whether larks eat grain at all. _ I can a&fl ^ m 

 the larks here are similar to their Irisn v ^ 



I once had complete faith in i the-r^ ^ 

 but>owing suspicious I observed theni m 



and even committed the sacrilegious act 01 ^ 

 or five. A post nwrtem exaroma ion coroP ^ m 

 nounce them guilty of eating Wheat, Bar , 

 when sown, and even after the plant J » ^ ^ 

 through the ground, the latter, P^ 1 ™!*"^ roU ch oj 

 I am Istonished that Mr. Kidd, Pf 8 ?^^ Pa- 

 thological lore, should be ignorant ot Wis ^ 

 the wide difference which he WW^^ 

 his Richmond lark 



respect. 



ldbe** 



J8 and the Irish ones « « , * 

 d if on some bnght m ^ 









pose some neighbouring farmer migl 



liberal tempting offer, to part with » a uiu*ui C aujacem not wim a uiuiuwuua 6 - v - tplescope. ** v ^ 



field, with the concert of the landlord or agent, who by such a request), but with a gooa i ^^ % m 



would hardly object, since the plan is calculated to im- then perhaps see that his faV0Urlt . , ser vicefl, { ^ 

 prove the cultivation of his estate, even if it should be " ~ xU "" 



injurious to that individual field. 



are plunged. 



Such proceedings 

 would tend greatly to improve the condition not only of 

 the labourers and small farmers, but of the great ones 

 too, and the community at large. Present difficulties 



handsome per centage for their musiea rf ^ 



more at this season in the shape o « ^ ^ 

 worms and insects I fear. The son e 



-•Softi8bislayandlouci V 



is no doubt very 



powerfully call the attention of landowners and agents 

 to these matters; and it is to be hoped they will 

 zealously promote such means of improvement, and that 

 in benefiting others they will actually promote their own 

 interest, for we can hardly do good to others without 

 sharing more or less in the benefit. This remark I Montrose, N. B. 



beautiful,, and come *p ^ 

 ft P r a winter of Lon u ^ tf 



additional relish, after a wime i « t d ^ 



is a question, on both sides <***;*& d«.»*fi 



may be said 

 too much for 



whether after all the ^ 

 r his whistle. J. *" n 



&0* 



