THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE 



, to seenmnlat and then, with the proceeds of a 

 !!Zmt crop, will run awav to the land of free m. 



ll in ~~ *° form a J a ^ T e8tmmte of 0l,r ai>tlial 



«*&***> whether progressing to improvement, or : 

 ^ttrtoe from hand to mouth, it may be requisite to 

 IT i^ o our state previous to the Potato loss, with 

 ^jtir to ascertain in what condition it has left us — 



whether it has left us a leg to advance with. 

 Tlie I n farmer of evtdrJJ irrade, at least in tl 

 Irr, :hs south, and the west of Inland, has ever 

 v*J deficient in capital ; and I believe in this 

 ^•nrv'l must iin-hide far more than half of the 

 BlgST aod east. Indeed, for high farming:, except 

 is *<* few instances, it does not ex t any- 

 where. 'Even he little capital he has he grudges to 



on labour. So far, indeed, does this feeling go, 

 Mb rarely talks of expending money in labour, but 

 of long it* A distant return from outlay is not thought 

 of: in truth, it rarely can be waited for. The buildings 

 lit* requires on his farm he has been habituated to erect ; 

 bf will therefor build ; but draining and subsoiling are 

 dttas;andif his landlord will not do these things, 

 the land may require them to be done, they 

 remain undone ; he cannot do them ; and if he 

 ottW, he 1 uld not be so very a simpleton, — such an 

 u <»ma«lhaun"' — as to lay out his money on another man's 



ground, althoi h he and his children have every 

 prospect of remaining tenants on it as long as they 

 i*y the rent, and perhaps for two or three years after- 

 wards. 1 he land was therefore never any more than 

 1m farmers pocket, in a state of repletion, and when 

 Po&to loss occurred, both were found unequal to 



iM struggle that ensued. 



from this general want of capital, the farmer was 



compelled to deal on credit for everythu . oven his 



stsek and seed, &c, were rarely bought by i dy money ; 



for the labour of his farm, including bla< nths' and 

 carpenters* work, he always, with few exceptions, de- 

 pended on credit ; and this he was enabled to obtain, by 



these persons I ng capitalists, to at least the amount of 



t r year's pr faons. The system nctly was this: 

 •My labourer-, my smith, and my carpenter, upon a pretty 

 JOB* calculation of what their several earnings would 

 amount to in the year, rented from me such a tan ti ty 

 of land to grow Potatoes on, as at the end of the year 

 would mutually discharge tm. n If the land was manured. 

 orotiierwU m a state to yield a crop of Potatoes, th- 

 reat was from . to bl. an acre. Where manure was of 

 anal! value, as in localites in which bog was convenient, 

 or where the manure was rather a stimulant than a food 



greater good. We have been taught the value of this 



deservedly favourite bread-fruit of the Irish, and the 

 folly of expecting to derive any benefit in the deprivation 

 of it. /. M. Ooodiff, Granard, Jnne 3. 



Home Correspondence. 



Thatch v. Perm<>< t Shelter. — The letter of Ci C. L* 

 has induced me to send you a rude drawing (No 1) 

 of a permanent covering to a Wheat stack I saw in the 

 neighbourhood of Southampton ; it consists of a light 

 biped framing of wood, and a covering of canvass made 

 to fit it. A pole was placed in the ground at each 

 corner, provided with pulleys at the top, over which 

 passed ropes attached to each corner of the frame, and 

 by this means the covering was raised or lowered as 

 required, either at harvest, or when housing the Wheat. 



No. 2. 



No. 1. 





The canvass was painted occasionally, and when my 

 informant told me that it had been inMse 1 4 years. I 

 am unable to state now what it cost ; but if it has been 

 in use so long, I think there can be little doubt but tha 

 it is cheaper than thatch, to say nothing of its superior 





may be emj I for this purpose. Let Dfl take a hint 



from animals. We endeavour to feed and train them 

 according to their destination. We do not stint the 

 young animal of bone-producing food, or th< growth of 

 our young s >ck, by pinching them up, as & Chinaman 

 does his feet, lest they should grow as large at they were 

 designed to be ; neither should we pinch «»ur vegetables? 

 of the room they require, sideways and downwards— up- 

 wards we cannot — to bring them to the full perfection 

 which tliey are capable of attaining. They would 

 probably pay for much more liberty both sideways and 

 downwards, particularly downwards, than even the best 

 farmers have allowed them. The number of Turnip, 

 Bean, Wheat, or other plants, that ought to grow on a 

 given surface must vary to some extent, according to the 

 nature of the land and climate ; but numerous and 

 repeated experiments are required on this subject. If 

 agricultural societies would expend less money in pre- 

 miums for live stock, and more in experimental and prac- 

 tical cultivation, tiny would become more useful than they 

 now are. With respect to thin sowing, 1 would observe 



that the trial has been unfairly made, from the subsoil 

 not having been sufficiently cultivated, and the plants 

 being crowded, instead of being placed singly in rows, 

 though those rows may have had wide intervals between 

 them. More attention ought to be paid to the cultivation 



both of the alleys and the subsoil, so as to tempt the 

 delicate fibres to'seok far and wide for the deeply hidden 

 treasure. Wi trout strict attention to these matters, the 

 excellent system* so long sin. successfully ad <«|t<d by 

 Tull is net fairly tested. Thus many good practices are 

 condemned, because they are not fully and fairly carried 

 out. Labour is the source of wealth, and by labour 

 alone the soil may be enriched ; labour is, in some 

 measure, a substitute for manure. What is the Turnip 

 crop when the hoeing is neglected ? Even if the land 

 be well manured it is a miserable affair. But to hint at 

 something new ; for we must try to discover new 

 improvements, as well as to practise recent and older 

 established ones more fully. I would ask, how can 

 steam-h« i air or vapour be gem rated or infused in 

 the soil ? And can we not make it the storehouse for 

 all those precious ga ous and aqueous virtues which 

 scape from our farm-yards and manure heaps? Hov 



advantages in other respects. Such coverings would wastefiilly are the atmosphere and the water-course 

 have been no small boon in the harvest of 184m : and I polluted with those essences so essential to the fertility 



to the land, as sea-weed, or in the burning the surface, 

 the operations of paring and burning being performed 

 by the temporary tenant at a r< t of from 25s. to 50s. 

 To the labourer constantly employed, I perhaps let a 

 cabin and patch of ground* for a Cabbage garden at ,)0s. 

 ; -ear ; the summer grazing of a sort of a cow, if he 

 happened to have the good luck to have one, at two 

 g«ieas, and hay for wintering her at 305. a ton. In 

 some cases the labourer would have a couple of ewes, 

 whose milk he shared with their Iambi, and forwdiich the 

 summer grazing was a guinea ; or he rented from me, 

 during pleasure, an acre and a half of land, which he 

 cropped one-half in Potatoes and 4he other half in 

 gram ; hut in whatever way it was managed, I got his 



labour without possibly giving him more than 10s. in 

 hard cash during the 12 months. This was the general 

 rule in Ireland. 



The loss of the Potato, on which esculent this whole 

 'em rested, brought a change which no one was 

 prepared to meet, and which there was not energy or 

 wisdom in the Government to smooth down. At once, 

 with one fell s^ »p, the whole capital of the country, on 

 which alone hung our labour, and which enabled us to 



see no reason why the same covering may not be applied 

 to oblong, as well as square or round stacks, only the 

 covering should be in two parts, and if the rick be long, 

 a pole in the middle will be necessary, and rings that 

 would slide easily on the cross poles should be fixed to 

 the bottom of the framing, by means of a piece of stent 



of the soil. I would also ask our scientific men to conr 



Bider how we can convert an enemy — superfluous or 

 stagnant water— into a friend, after filtering it through 

 the earth ? Can we not bring it back as a useful servant 1 

 Can we not convert it into a profitable kind of liquid 

 manure ? Treasures untold may be extracted from 



expect some 13,000,0007. of produce, was swept away. 

 It virtually left us nothing but the land, and deprived us 

 altogether of the mean f using it. As yet, no change 

 from this state, in which this loss has thrown us, has 

 taken place ; nor without some extraordinary provision 

 of the Government, attended perhaps with some ex- 

 tension of grain culture, in the way I have suggested, or 

 the recovery of the Potato, can any arrive. We are 

 still without capital, as we were in 1846", and so we must 

 remain. We have no means wherewith to pay labour ; 

 our land is therefore laboured at the smallest expense of 

 tillage, and Oat crop after Oat crop is dragged from it 

 as long as it will give it, with only a spring ploughing, 

 perhaps with asses, 3 or 4 inches deep ; the only 

 labourers employed being the occupier and his family, 

 frequently young children, in an occupation of 30 or 

 40 acres. 



There is, however, I doubt not, much less of physical 

 suffering, both as respects numbers and intensity ; the 

 broken-down are in the grave, in the poor-house, or in 

 America, or in somewhat more comfort from the assist- 

 ance they derive from relatives or friends who have 

 emigrated, and who, when they can remit, rarely neglect 

 their friends at home. The first intent of the emigrant 

 is to defray the cost of emigration of some one from the 

 mother country ; when his means do not reach to this, to 

 ■end them small sums for their silpport at home. 



These small sums, in the aggregate, come to a very 

 considerable amount, for it is wonderful how much they 

 ■end over ; yet they tend not to enrich the country ; they 

 r ??7 1 l witn ver y serious additions to America for Maize, 

 £nich has becomsrthe common food of the poorer classes. 

 Ine recovery of the Potato will keep this money 

 home, and the hope of the people, which rests solely uu 

 H* recovery, is well founded ; it will gradually lead to 

 tne re-establishing that order of things which existed 

 previous to the disease in it, and we can expect no 



hoop-iron bent through the rings, and screwed to the | the elements, and we want information on the means of 

 frame-work ; this would form a joint that would admit applying them to the service of agriculture, as science 

 each half of the covering being drawn up close to the « has arrested them, and applied even the terrific lightning 

 poles, whilst the roof of the stack is being made, and to the service of the world, and as the miller long since 

 when finished to be lowered until the parts meet. A employed the wind and the water as his servants. When 

 ridge cover might be made by nailing two wide boards 

 together, which would make all safe, but I have sent a 

 rough sketch (No. 2) of what I mean, and if you think 

 this will at st in promoting the discussion desired by 

 " C. L.," perhaps you will give this a place in the Gazette. 

 E. Out i w, Ke ' ish oft, Han is. 



Turnip Cutters. — As I observe you are "pointing out 

 the characteristics of the different .agricultural imple- 

 ments in the Exhibition, I beg leave to add to the 

 description of my new patent Turnip cutter, recently 

 sent to you, that it still maintains the distinguishing 

 features of Gardner's patent— the crank step by step 

 knife — which is the only one that has hitherto success- 

 fully withstood J;he test of hard-frozen Swedes. 



at 

 on 



B. muelson. 



Agricultural Improvement. — As this ought to be the 



great lever for lifting the incubus that depresses agricul- 

 ture, I may perhaps be permitted to make a few remarks 

 on the subject. Though I may not be able to do more, 

 in the way of new discoveries, than merely to throw 

 out hints for others to improve upon, yet. if they should 

 tend to the consideration of the subject by landlords, 

 stewards, tenants, gardeners, m hanics, chemists, geo- 

 logists, botanists, and others, wdio may be able to throw 

 light upon it, the effort will not be useless. Although 

 very great improvement has been recently made, there 

 is still a wide field open for further investigation. A few 

 minerals have been discovered, and some precious metals 

 have been extracted ; but the mine has not been profit- 

 ably worked, not because of its poverty, for it is 

 undoubtedly rich, but because the proper means of 

 penetrating to a far greater depth have not yet been hit 

 upon. Recent advances prove that the "deeper we 

 penetrate, the richer the store is found. Poets and 

 fabulists, may, in some cases, be considered as prophets. 

 Thus when the old farmer in the fable told his sons to 

 dig deep for the hidden treasure, he seemed propheti- 

 cally to tell us of the food of plants which has been, and 

 may probably be much more largely discovered in the 

 subsoil. So, when the poet sang about every rood of 

 land maintaining its man, he intimated the amazing 

 power of production which the soil possesses — a power, 

 the extent of which has not, even to this day, been 

 discovered. " Stop ! " says an old brother farmer, « You 

 are going too fast ; I have tried high cultivation and I 

 have found that my land could not he forced beyond a 

 certain production.** As another old farmer, who has 

 tried it, I grant you are right, according to the pr nt 

 practices of high cultivators, at least with respect to corn 

 crops. But we know not what future discoveries may 

 do. Can nothing be done to prevent corn from being 

 laid ? May not the straw be strei t\v , and the root- 

 hold be increased ? Both chemical and local means 



we think of the wonderful improvements effected else- 

 where, we must be convinced that very much still 



remains to be done for agriculture, and we must 

 endeavour to make the discoveries. Chemical combi- 

 nation is a very important subject for investigation. How 

 greatly has the practical farmer suffered by his ignorance 

 of it ! How sadly has good manure been wasted by 

 suffering quicklime to come in contact with it ! And 

 how have vegetable soil and quicklime been w T asted by 

 being mixed together in compost ; whereas if lime and 

 salt had been judiciously mixed, a far better dressing 

 would have been obtained at less cost ; and the vegetable 

 soil might have been advantageously mixed with liquid 

 manure, or with farm-yard manure, and covered over it. 

 But I must conclude by saying that our general practice 

 is by no means up to the example exhibited by a few 

 first-rate cultivators, and even their cultivation is capable 

 of being carried to still greater perfection. Therefore 

 let us not sit down in despair, but go forward. O. F. 



Hie removal of Smith field, and the want of two 

 Markets, north and south of the Thames^ in its place.- 

 Now that the market atSmithfield is decided to be done 

 away, permit me to call attention to the occasion there is 

 for two markets, and the inconvenience to the farmers, 

 butchers, and landowners, if the present intention be car- 

 ried out of having only one market on the north side of 

 London in fls place. 1 would direct attention to the extra 

 loss to the graziers of the districts south of the Thames 

 in having to drive their stock so much further through 

 London and back, to those butchers, who, living south, 

 must be buyers at the northern market. The loss of 

 weight, from the driving of cattle, is very considerable, 

 even with the best care ; but who can say to what this 

 amounts, when animals, after long confinement iii stalls or 

 yards, and loaded with fat, have been urged beyond their 

 strength through the bustle of London. It has often been a 

 subject of reflection to me, both as to what is the amount 

 of the loss, and who is the loser ? and I am satisfied 

 that the difference between the weight of the animal 

 when he quits the farmer and when he falls at the 

 London butcher's, is never less than 3 per cent., and 

 mu eh often er 6 per cent. ; and that this loss falls 

 entirely on the feeder, for the butcher, in buying, ever 

 judges the animal by his experience of the weight 'he 

 realizes in his slaughter-house ; and in this w r ay the 

 feeders of stock sent'. to Smithfield lose 3 to 6 per cent, 

 on the ten millions per annum of stock sold there, with- 

 out benefiting anyone a farthing. Now, in considering the 

 subject of cattle markets for London, two points are most 

 important. The first is the economy of those who 

 supply the market ; and, secondly, the public conve- 

 nience. It is easy to show that all this can only be 

 attended to by giving two markets, one north and 



