

362 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE 



this machine is made moveable at both ends, to suit the 

 varied intervals between the rows of cropping : so that 



«» 



it may be also worked on ridges as well as the flat. 



W. Smith, of Kettering, Northamptonshire, has in- 

 vented an admirable implement of the same kind, very 

 simple in its construction, and calculated to be of service 

 to those who hesitate to purchase the more expensive 

 one of Messrs. Garrett. The hoes are fastened upon 



one before the other— indented or 



two cross-bars - 



toothed so as to hold the hoes firmly in a certain place 

 and position. These bars can be easily lifted by a couple 

 of handles. A seed-box is fixed upon the wheels in 



front of the machine. 



Busby's horse-hoe, for use on the ridge, is an excel- 

 lent implement, from the form of the cutters ; the front 

 or middle hoe being in shape something like a letter D, 

 which is better calculated to cut weeds and roots than 

 the triangular share. A hoe invented by D. Harkes, of 

 Mere, near Knutsford, seemed to us to possess consi- 

 derable merit. Tiie beam has a wheel at each end, the 

 fore one being steered by the hook holding the w r hippie- 

 tree. The side knives resemble small single winged 

 shares facing each other, and preceded by coulters ; they 

 are set upon two bars held parallel to the beam by two 

 levers, attached to the beam by joints at their middle 

 points. As these levers are set more or less obliquely 

 to the beam, the hoes are more in or out ; and yet while 

 thus fitting a narrower or wider row, the hoes never ap- 

 proach nearer to each other, so as to impede their action. 

 A lever on the right hand plough-handle alters the width 

 by a connecting rod, without the plough being stopped for 

 the purpose. A parallel expanding horse-hoe, by J. 

 Barker, of Duimington, near York, has also the same 

 kind of action, but regulated by screw and crank 

 between the plough handles ; this is, perhaps, a neater 

 arrangement. E. Hill, of Brierly Hill, Staffordshire, 

 exhibits his prize horse-hoe, which has a remarkably 

 good method of expansion and contraction, the width 

 being altered at pleasure, when in motion, by a scissor- 

 like action given to the handles. E. H. Bentall, of Hey- 

 bridge, Essex, shows a patent mangle or ridge hoe, 

 which, like his broad-share and subsoiler, has a narrow 

 plough frame carrying a chisel point in front, and a 

 forked share (of shape something like a mackerel's tail 

 fin) at its heel, the two blades being turned up a little 

 at their tips. A short crossbeam carries common bent 

 cutting knives, which can be shifted along it. 



There are likewise other implements of the horse-hoe 

 Species, intended either for cutting up weeds, stirring, 

 agitating, and loosening the soil about the roots of the 

 young growing crop, harrowing and pulverising the 

 surface, or earthing up the plants in ridges. Ransomes 

 exhibited an implement capable of performing all these 

 different operations of ridge culture. It was invented 

 by John Clarke, of Long Sutton, Lincolnshire, and is 

 called the universal plough. By an easy transition of 

 shape, effected in a simple manner, it becomes : 1st, a 

 double torn, or ridge plough, for opening or closing the 

 soil in ridge work, for setting out lands for common 

 ploughing, or opening surface drains ; 2d, a moulding 

 plough, to be used in moulding up root crops, Peas, or 

 Beans ; 3d, a horse hoe, or cleaning plough, with curved 

 coulters for cleaning the sides of ridges, or with flat 

 hoes for broad work ; 4th, a skeleton, or broad-share 

 plough, to which shares of different breadths and with 



plicity of instruments, and enable them to extract weeds 

 between closely planted flowers without the necessity of 

 treading on the beds, or stooping to pull up weeds with 

 their hand. I. A. (7. 



i 



THE TULLIAN SYSTEM. 



If the principles upon which the Tullian system is 

 founded are true — if the opinions of Liebig and other 

 professors of agricultural chemistry are just — if the 

 practical results of our working our naked fallows are to 

 be relied on — crop after crop may be produced, im- 

 proving with each successive production, by the soil 

 being kept so continually open and broken up, as to 

 admit the constant inflow of the atmosphere, of rains, 

 and of dews, and all other natural operating causes of 

 fertility, so as to supersede the necessity for the intro- 

 duction of all other organic elements, as manures, and — 

 with the exception of those of which there may be a 

 deficiency in the natural composition of the soil — of all 

 inorganic matters. I do not, however, infer from these 

 premises that greater fertility will not be produced by 

 such additions. 



As the recovery of fertility in our exhausted lands in 

 Ireland has always been left to the slow operations of 

 unassisted Nature, in un worked fallows, or, in Irish 

 parlance, " waste," I have endeavoured, since the failure 

 of the Potato crop, and consequently of the intermission 

 of an only worked fallow, to impress upon the farmers 

 the probable advantage of availing themselves of the 

 fertilising effects of natural causes, aided by mechani- 

 cal operations, while they produce disposable crops ; and 

 this by adopting grain as a fallow crop on their exhausted 

 lands, thus rendering those lands, which they leave for 

 years in an unprofitable state, and indeed in a state of 

 loss to them ; for the rent of these lands must be paid 

 from the produce of the cultivable grounds, productive 

 of an ample sufficiency of home grown food for their 

 consumption, enabling to keep up that export of grain, 

 which, while they fed on Potatoes was — and indeed, 

 is— our main source of income. Indeed, I saw not then, 

 nor do I yet find, rife as the time is in inventions, any 

 other way of meeting effectually the exigencies of our 

 case. Our poverty must prevent us availing ourselves 

 of the usual fallow crops ; we could only grow Turnips, 

 &c, for the market ; we could not feed, nor consequently 

 could we obtain manure for any great extension of their 

 tillage. We must have grain fallow crops, or unworked 

 fallows, a naked fallow is all unthought for. 



Nearly one half our land is in this unprofitable natural 

 state of recovery from exhaustion, left after the last grain 

 crop to its natural products — a many years' accumulation 

 of weeds ; tins herbage is picked up by some miserable 

 pinched cattle ; at first, perhaps, it will require half a 

 dozen acres to give even this sort of support to a thing 

 called a cow, worth from two to four pounds. Sir John 

 Young, in his reponfc on the Balieborough Union, county 

 of Cavan, says that in 1847, in the union there were 



33,014 acres. 



... ... OyOj'i ,j 



46,088 ,, 



} iv : Wi »k>ns says, there are in^n wh^T^^ 

 by its width, not its closeness of observlS* ****** 



Another objeetion which in I&L 



and indeed where, from the cheapness n ff f^*** 



east excuse for existing, lay inTSSfi?' *E 



heavy expense of handlabour,althou*h E ! ^ of % 



necessarilyinvolvedintheseoperSs-tu^^S 

 I trust I shall r™™ i,„ ..f„ °. U ?' bu »h«ob " 



cropping 



1 trust I shall remove by the S T " ; T th * 

 the expense hitherto incurred ^CSJlT* * 

 acres of land, which I believe will be fS ^ * * 



heexpence that would ha ve been Lc^re I * *+ 

 the labourers and their families, for the W 1 6Uf ** 

 employed, in the poor-house. *"* th< * *» 



These 3 acres are part of two small f a «« « 

 the poverty of their Sate occupier^ 

 crom.no, winch their poverty and 'the ^7Z 

 _-, ..itailed upon them, have been reduced nl* 

 lowasland could well be. For more than iTyfj^ 1 

 m one instance, no manure has been laid on t\££* 



he hay, the straw, and even the house manurf 

 been sold off ; ejectment and a sponge bavin* 

 them also of their tenants, and two or three vearV ^ 

 of rent. J **** 



Field of 34 acres, very long in tillage, in ^^ 

 crops of Oats, no manure for several vears imT 

 ploughing in 1848-9 with the intention of sowS SL 

 but occupier not able to purchase seed, and thenS 

 abandoned to its natural products, loaded with uZ 

 Grass and other weeds. Turned by spade in J«T 

 18ol, 8 or 9 inches deep, in flat ridges, 11 feet wide Jk 



2 feet trenches ; harrowed, and a good deal of Coucfc 

 Grass gathered off ; Oats sown by hand, in rows aboat 

 23 inches apart, 6 rows in a ridge, and covered from the 

 trenches, the trenches being dug so deep as to raise two 

 or 3 inches of subsoil ; the seed sown, about 6 stones to 

 the acre. This field, under ordinary treittme^Mt 

 supposed capable of yielding a crop, certainly not mm 

 than 60 or 70 stones to the acre. Du^ between 7tk 

 January and 1st February, 1851 ; sown between & 

 and 14 th April 



Turning with spade £2to.ld. 



Harrowing 6 J 



Gathering Couch Grass o 6 



Digging trencher, and shovelling clay onrid fe t3 1 . 



{Seed, '21 stones ai lvs the barrel at 14 stones... 15 



Allow for sowing (done by myself) 5 



• »■ 





 3 



Or, 11. 10s. an acre. 



£5 5 I 



one 



G 



Under crops ... 

 Bog and waste 

 Untropped and not meadow 



• t A 



» ft t 



• • ■ 



• • 



• • • 



■ • • 



87,b92 



rising prongs may be attached, for the purpose of 

 clearing land from weeds and rubbish. And the price 

 is low, considering its general utility. 



The double ridge-plough is used in seed-time for 

 opening the furrows ; and we observe that A. Low, of 

 Dundee, has made an improvement for this purpose in 

 his double water-furrow roller plough. The double 

 breast, which can be expanded by a screw, is followed 

 by a small roller of peculiar form, resembling, in fact, a 

 double longitudinal section of the Crystal Palace,— the 

 circular protuberance in the middle pressing the furrow 

 into a neat and even trough. From North Britain, we 

 of course expect to see various appliances for perfecting 

 ridge husbandry ; and among the less important im°- 

 provements is one from G. Ponton, of Gron^foot, by 

 Linlithgow,— being a double-winged or ridding plough 

 famished with a « marker,"— that is, a sort of small 

 anchor attached by a hinge to the beam, the fluke draw- 

 ing a line on the unploughed land at any requisite width, 

 to guide the ploughman in his next furrow. 

 ■ Of hand-hoes and spuds there are no doubt all varie- 

 ties, to be found on searching in the proper departments • 

 among the implements in Class : we noticed only two 

 that seemed very remarkable. One is a double hoe 

 invented by Dr. Spurgin. The blade, which is sharp all 

 round, is in figure somewhat like two musical brackets 

 set together, ,-^a^^ only rather broader in pro- 

 portion to v^v^w» the length, and from the centre 

 rise up two long shafts or handles, making a wide an^le 

 with each other, like the two sides of a letter V> and 

 slanting in the direction of the hoe's length. ' We 

 suppose it is to be worked by two persons at once • but 

 the cutting blade is not large enough to do the work of 

 more than one. Perhaps it may be designed for some 

 peculiar operation in gardening, as certainly no farmer 

 would venture to go into the field with a tool like this 



SL* ITt' a ie ° th ? r c ?*trivance that we saw is 

 called A Ladv^s Garden Implement, combining hoe, 

 spud, and rake al in one." It consists of an iron hand- 

 rake, having a blade at each end of the row of teeth 

 one pointing nearly in the direction of the handle, th 

 ether the opposite way. It * * ' « - - 

 9, Lower-road, Islington ; __ 



xnent will hnd in this tcol what can save them a multi- friend 



is designed by B. Ebb*, of hitherto been disregarded: 

 and our farmers* wives * 



Thus more than one-half of the union (46,086 acres) is 

 not under crop ; and Sir John asks " Now what becomes 

 of all this land and what does it produce 1 " and he 

 replies " It passes under the denomination of pasture, 

 but it is in reality fields utterly uncared for ; and though 

 subject to every burthen of rent, tithes, county cess, and 

 poor-rate, producing nothing but noxious weeds, Sedge or 

 Coarse Grass. These fields, exhausted by several crops 

 of grain, taken in succession until the land would yield 

 no more, have been cast out to rest, as it is called, or 

 recruit their powers through time and the influence of 

 the elements, without any help from man." The 

 Commissioners of Poor-law Enquiry, Ireland, Appendix 

 F., state, * In Cavan agriculture is in the most wretched 

 state imaginable. The rotation is— 1st, Potatoes from 

 lea ; 2d, Potatoes, repeated with some manure ; 3d 

 Wheat, Flax, Barley, or Oats ; 4th, Oats ; 5th, Oats ; 

 6th, Oats ; and so on, as long as they can. Not much 

 Wheat is grown. If they have a field in lea, likely to 

 yield a better crop, on which to exercise this scourging 

 system, they leave the land, which they have deprived 

 of its productive powers, to come round by time for a 

 repetition of their former operations. * And this is the 

 general prevailing system of Ireland, with some varia- 

 tions, such as omitting the manure altogether on the 

 richer lands, burning the poorer lands ; and, since th 

 failure of the Potato crop, laying what little manure 



they have on the Oat stubbie, to obtain vet another crop 

 of Oats. 



I believe, under the faith of Tullian principles, that 

 this land might be turned to better account, and afford 

 the employment so much required in the country ; that 

 the first year's crop would pay all expenses, including 

 rent and taxes, and even leave some small profit, while 

 in succeeding years the returns ought to be so much 

 larger, with reduction in labour, that indeed so lar^e a 

 surplus over the cost of production would be obtained 

 as to enable the cultivator to supply himself with stock 

 to consume the green crops which he might then pro- 

 fitably cultivate, and for the small seeds, for which the 

 ground would then be so well prepared. 



But preaching was vain ; and though I had charmed 

 ever so wisely, the voice of the charmer w*b not listened 

 to. I now hope to speak more forcibly, by putting into 

 wider practice those suggestions which liav. po ibly 

 hitherto been disregarded, as sqgpq 1 only to exist in 

 theory, or little esteemed, as supported only by limited 

 xperunents and the deductions of reason ; for as my 

 , if he will permit to me tiiis familiarity, the Be* 



Field of five acres much exhausted upland meadow, not 

 having been manured from time immemorial, ploughed, 

 and two crops of Oats taken in succession, left to Istfm 

 year, covered with coarse weeds and some Coach 

 Turned with spade in February and March, 

 1851, 8 or 9 inches deep, in flat, ridges 9 feet wide, with 

 2 feet trendies ; Oats sown by hand, in rows about 

 inches apart, 5 rows in a ridge, and covered from tk 

 trenches ; the trenches dug deep, so as to raise 2 op 3 

 inches of the subsoil, the seed %bout 1\ stoiu ) tie 

 acre. This field, under ordinary treatment, not con- 

 sidered able to give a remunerative crop, supposed equal 

 to about 70 stones to the acre. Dug between 3dFebruary 

 and 29th March, 1851 ; sown between 8th March ml 

 4th April. 



;;; ::: o -» 



Turning with fpado 



Harrowing 



Prtfttting ridge- with spade, digging trenches 



and shovelling c.y in ridges 



Setd, 08 stones 1 lb., at 105. a barrel of U stones 



JS owing 



113 8 



6 



. ■ • 



• ■ ■ 



• « • 



•>• 



i> 



- 



Or, nearly If. 9s. an acre. 



A field of 7* acres, well manured six J****** 

 Potato crop taken, and two successive crops ot w , 

 they would have taken a third, but could not, ana 

 " waste ; " very weedv, but considered in better as^ 

 and well capable of yielding a crop, much more so 



anu wen capauie oiyieiumg » uu^, ".— - iniinr lid 



ither of the others ; supposed equal to give iw « l 



'-hed in February, and*" 



broadcast, under the harrow, and trenched from «P 



stones to the acre ; was ploughed in 



furrows in the middle of April. It is projxw» » 

 pare the produce of this field with those ot »j 

 hand worked and sowed in wide rows. It nase 

 the advantage of them in condition, and it » ^ 

 whether the .after labour of the latter will con r 

 for their inferiority. /. M. Goodiff, Granard, MJ 



I 



CULTURE OF SAINFOIN- 



_>- a former paper, we introduced tins P" 1 "^ k 

 ing of more exteix d culture upon «"«»»* ^ 

 its growth. We then promised at a future ume^ 



as cflJ 



its growtn. vve men pi """=— — " - „„.,,.■ en de(W" 

 more minutely into its details, and we shall iov ^ 



to fulfil that promise, by describing as *■*>*# 



delights in all dry, calcareous soils ; and e ^ 



gravelly loams, having a calcareous subsoi^ ^ ^ 



vourable to it. To ensure a nne crop, f ^^^ 

 will continue good for a term ot year*, & ^) tar 

 that the laud should be clean and in gooa ^ ^ 

 to the neglect of these principles oi good a g + 



I ,e attributed the very generally recen e r ^ * 

 south-country farmers, that to™** ^ ^ 

 Sainfoin is much inferior to the after ones , ^ 

 highly cultivated soils the first year s crop 

 found to be the heaviest. . , ■ nma ybef#t ,x Z* 



However, the cultivation of S^gnS^^ 

 into two divisions, which, for couvemen ^ » 



i>e — the 



The 1 »t is practised in th e som - 

 ously Mentioned by us as the head quart 



55 











