AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



anoint BouUl ot me river, Surely it must be ev 



to veryone considering the question, that the re- 

 moval of Smithfield from a centre to an outside 

 will not, in the least, relieve London of the present 

 nuisance of cattle passing through ; for the saving of 

 driving from the one side will be counter-balanced 

 bv the farther distance the stock must go the otner. 

 The farmers of Kent, Surrey, and Sussex must still 

 drive their stock through London, and the butchers 

 scuth of the Thames will have to drive back again ; but 

 if the market were divided and held on alternate days 

 most of the driving and hubbub of a single market would 

 be done away. The butchers south would soon be taught 

 to draw their supplies from their own market, as those 

 north would from their side, and in this way there 

 would be but little cattle traffic through London ; and 

 the sufferings of the animals would be lessened m pro- 

 portion ; and I can see no legitimate interest that would 

 not be the better for it. I am sure the farmers and 



I should then look forward to 



Consumers would, and 



seeing all stock coming by railways, and London relieved 



of its cattle droves, and farmers getting the better 



prices London should afford them by the higher prices # # 



the consumers pay ; but which is now all lost by the has been tolerably successful 111^ England, but . m J^ot- 



wav. If the South Western Railway would take this up, * ■«-— * 5-1.1-1. m_~j«j *u a ^^^^ m ^* 



appear 

 3 pecks more. In one point all the speakers agree, and 

 it is the necessity for increasing the quantity of seed as 

 the season advances, a practice which appears to me to be 

 intelligible on physiological grounds. The probability 

 is, that all the grains of Wheat are not equally readily 

 germinated, some requiring a longer time to commence 

 their growth, and when they are later sown less time is 

 allowed them for this purpose, and a larger number 

 never come to'maturity, and to provide for this a larger 

 quantity of the grain must be sown. The same expla- 

 nation will serve as the reason why some of our 

 speakers employ habitually a larger quantity of seed 

 than others. Mr. Finaie, for instance, employs a much 

 larger quantity ; now his farm is a high lying and 

 exposed one, and on it the germination of the Wheat is 

 more likely to be slow and imperfect than on those 

 farms which have a superior climate. Should this 

 explanation be correct, it may serve to indicate to those 

 cultivating in high and backward districts the necessity 

 of giving a liberal supply of seed. And it may also 

 explain the different experience of Scotch and English 

 farmers on the subject of thin sowing, a practice which 



stand, that there 



practice, 

 are 



A can * 



efc% 



adopt a particular practice, and 



*4 



special circumstances mav hav„ fT"" ' 



plete comparison with other "Z2! * * m ^ ^ 

 determine whether it is r^li^u. t° e aable L 



E^JSSSxr-yt 5*57!£ ?Si 



can be employed. 



« r eally the most 



K| 



, T he empi^T ff** * 



other 



^ 



and appropriate some of its waste land in the York-road 

 to the making a market and abattoir, such as the late 

 Mr. Perkins formed at Islington, wha^a public ad- 

 vantage would it be! We should hav#the breeders 

 in the west sending up their stocks, anlfr London, with 

 eatly reduced inconvenience to its inhabitants, would 

 come the emporium for meat and stock to all the 

 principal towns down the line ; for all parties would 

 soon become sensible of the saving and utility of such a 

 market aside such a highway. Hewitt Davis, 3, 

 Frcderick's-place, Old Jewry. 



gmtittit& 



ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND. 



Professor Way delivered before the members, on 

 Wednesday last, a lecture on the Agricultural Employ- 

 ment of Gypsum ; a report of which, and the discussion 

 which followed it, we shall give in our next publication. 



HronLAN'D and Agricultural, April 16. — A 

 Monthly Meeting of the Society was held in the Museum, 

 when Dr. Anderson delivered an Address on the Dis- 

 cussions which have taken place during the Session. 

 Professor Low occupied the chair. — The subjects of our 

 discussions during the past winter have been four in 

 number. 



1st. The best varieties of Wheat to sow : quantities 

 of each, and comparative advantages of drilling, dibbling, 

 and sowing broadcast. 



2d. The substances which can be most profitably em- 

 ployed as an auxiliary for Turnips, for fattening cattle 

 and sheep. 



3d. The best mode of preparing and applying the 

 different manures produced upon the farm. 



4th. The most suitable proportions and quantities of 

 Grass and Clover Seeds to sow for Hay, soiling, and 

 pasturage ; the substances most profitable for top- 

 dressing, and the proper time for applying them. 



The subject of the first discussion, that of the best 

 varieties of Wheat to sow, is one of a purely practical 

 character, on which I shall not venture to offer any 

 opinion, but shall endeavour as succinctly as I can, to 

 review the opinions of the different speakers. The 

 subject, however, is unquestionably one of great and 

 increasing importance to the farmers in Scotland, as it 

 appears from Mr. Finnie's statement, that within the last 

 1U years the cultivation of Wheat has extended so 

 greatly m Scotland, that the quantity of land under that 

 crop now exceeds the quantity under Barley, while pre- 

 viously to that period exactly the reverse was the case 

 It appears that close attention must be paid to the 



*l?^ e ?? T\Z { T h farm > and that certain Wheats 

 are adapted to the climate of different districts. It is 



252? SS^* M? ™™?* Simony of the 



land has invariably been attended with disappointment. 

 The superior climate of the Wheat districts of England 

 enables nearly all the grains to germinate, while here, 

 unless in favourable seasons, this cannot be expected. 

 On the subject of the different methods of sowing, the 

 experience of the speakers appears to vary more than on any 

 other point, and on one method, that of dibbling, we have 

 very little information. The only experiments referred to 

 being those of Mr. Hay, of Whiterigg, who found that 

 a larger produce of Wheat was obtained from dibbling 

 than from that sown broadcast ; but that the quality 

 was decidedly inferior, the former containing a larger 

 proportion of light grain, and the good weighing only 

 59 lbs., while the broadcast weighed 62 lbs. Opinions 

 seem to be pretty equally divided between broadcast 

 and drilling, and Mr. Paterson and Mr. Hope state that 

 no difference is to be observed between these two 

 methods of sowing. That this should be the case in 

 some instances I can easily imagine, but I should for 

 my own part, and on theoretical grounds, be inclined to 

 go in favour of drilling. My reason for it is the facility 

 which it affords for employing the hoe, a practice which 

 I think is consistent with theory, and which I believe 

 has been found advantageous on most farms. As far as 

 the mere sowing goes, however, I cannot see what advan- 

 tages the one can possess over the other. Provided the 

 grain be pretty equally distributed and properly covered, 

 I should imagine it immaterial whether it be arranged 



stances along with Turnip is a pract - . ^ 

 consistent with our knowledge of u M «^ 

 digestion. In order that that process iT th #*Sl 



ronef. nonfa A f ™« i± - F "LESS ^V ni^-J?* * 



*4k 



; -—*«« «*" muuMMm, Dut the obiectnfVkT** 



to cause his cattle to consume a LZ* be f *W* 



this, sn a.s tn ™v^,i«« ,„U«i. ____ , I<M ger CiUantl^a. 



a certain quantity of food for the L* the 

 the health of an animal, but the owX^ 



In order that digestion may be complete 

 the food must, by what are called 



this, so as to produce what may be JZ qUaDti * <W 

 accumulation of flesh and fat. Bui w *"*** 

 amount which can be consumed is limit a- incte *4 

 the Turnip, by its excessive bulk, 3? * *«*5 

 stomach and prevents the process of <W? ""* * 

 with that regularity and completenesswhi^-' 80 ^* 



Ver y pw 4 



be brought in contact with the " abiffijwrf Zlft 

 intestines ; but when the quantity of food ■ * 

 this takes place imperfectly, and the intestines^!? 

 tended in such a way as to retard the wowT /? * 

 --. The feeder must therefore «K£? J^ 

 rge quantity of nutriment in a smaller bolt !3t 

 that purpose he is compelled to select some autiK 

 his Turnips, by which he gains not merely in Z** 

 provement of his stock, but also in the productSj 



lectiom 



fanner dm 



tion. 

 a lar 



larger quantity of valuable manure. Intheselectionofll 

 particular auxiliary to be employed, then, the farmer* 



lookforthatwhichcontainsthelargestamountofautriZ 

 matters at the smallest price, and in doing this wew«Z 



to consider two points ; firstly, the chemical corapoS! 

 of the substances by which we determine the amomtrf 

 nutritious matters contained in them, and second]? ti! 

 proportion of these matters which may become aviaZ 

 to .the nutrition of the animal. The first of these iu 

 matter on which, by extended chemical analysis, nm* 

 light may be thrown, but the latter is a question k 

 experiment on cattle themselves. It is not a chemid 

 but a physiological question, and its importance wibe 

 understood, when we bear in mind that even wh« 

 digestion is complete, a certain proportion of the nt 

 able matters always escapes assimilation, and that the 

 proportion which does so may vary in different specks 

 of domestic animals, and even in the same animalji 

 different periods of its life. To take an illustration i 

 this point, suppose we supply a lot of sheep and a lot 

 in straight lines or dotted over the land. It is the I of cattle with the same quantities of food, it bj u 

 facility of cleaning the land which gives drilling its means follows that the increase in weight of the ti9 

 superiority. Mr. Hope has touched in his observations . shall be equally great ; in other words, the same quantity 

 on the prevalent idea that Wheat is a more exhausting of food supplied in the two cases does not produce tie 

 crop than any of the other cereals, as Oats for instance, same amount of fat and flesh 

 and has expressed the opinion, in which I agree with 

 him, that this can scarcely be considered to be correct. 

 Weight for weight — no doubt Wheat is so ; but in order 



speakers, that few if any of the English varieties of er the ,° ld s >' 8tem of agriculture, when 



f heat are adapted for cultivation in Scotland M anv m0T *. , t0 th / unassisted efforts of Nature 

 have been tri^H «rr.™„ „',u:~l m ... ^ " * " ?. considered either nnidentnr nrnfitoW. 



been tried among which faunton~Dean* S 



J heat, sand the qnahty, though at first occasionallv 

 fine, appears soon to have utw^y™J« \ occasi0I ) aI { i 

 Of the ordinary Scotch Wh^tt^JSS?™' 

 rated do not exceed four or five, and 'these haTaLinld 



to arrive at a fair result we must not compare equal 

 weight, but determine the total amount of valuable 

 matters removed by a crop of each, and we shall then 

 find that an Oat crop ought to be decidedly more ex- 

 hausting than Wheat, as it removes from an acre a much 

 larger quantity of those substances than the latter. The 

 grain of Wheat and Oats contain very nearly the same 

 per centage of nitrogen, but the amount of mineral 

 matters is twice as great in the latter as in the former, 

 and if we further take into account that a Wheat crop 

 may be from 4 to 5 quarters, and an Oat crop from 8 to 

 10 quarters, it seems tolerably clear tliat the exhausting 

 effect of the latter must be decidedly greater than that of 

 the former. I confess, however, that I do not think we 

 ought to discuss too minutely the comparative exhausting 

 effects of different crops, a question which really appears 

 to me a less important consideration at the present time 

 than it was in a less advanced state of the science and prac- 

 tice of agriculture. It was of paramount importance, 



we trusted much 



e than it would be 



considered either prudent or profitable to do at the pre- 

 sent day. The system of high farming now prevalent, 

 however, is characterised by the continual addition to 

 the land of a much larger quantity of those matters 

 than the crops remove from it, so that when that sys- 

 tem is fully and effectually carried out, no deterioration, 

 but rather an improvement of the land takes place. 

 a lie second discussion on the substances which can be 



yet, in both cases, tb 

 amount of nutritious matters is the same, and the caw 

 of the difference is in the physiological peculiarities tf 

 the different species of animals. Now, ehemistrj an 

 supply the requisite information as to the amount of 

 nutriment which any food contains, but experiment « 

 animals must determine how far that food is captUe 

 of increasing the weight of the animal. The inveshgi- 

 tions of different chemists have thrown much light « 

 the nutritious value of different foods, and at the & 

 cussion I referred to experiments on progress in mj 

 laboratory, the object of which was, to f orm a complete 

 and extended table of the nutritive value o/aH w 

 most important cattle foods. In these experiment the 

 proportions of nitrogen and soil, which are mtimteW 

 the most important of the nutritious elements, to tea 

 selected as the means of comparison, and I have M 

 formed a table, as yet however incomplete, which w 

 enable us to timate the comparative advantages ol» 

 foods employed. Of that table, the following g»^» 

 view of the results. It shows the number of ]» 

 nitrogen and oil contained in the ™^ l°J 

 deduced principally from analysis made in a? • 

 laboratory, partly from the results of other chemists. 







n 



thesnnnS e ^/ our or five > ™d "these have attained £?f P rofita Wy employed, as auxiliary to Turnips in the 

 custr cts ot bcotland. The varieties areFenton HoDetoun sul) J ects > w «>ch the Drosress nf »«,.i..,n.,^ i,«- ,„:„.j .. 



there nf \rsf^ - 7 r — & * vnticjauu one or 

 )T^^T° V lm P or ^nce. Of these, the first ap- 



pears to be most generally preferred, and' it 

 the important adv 



ap 

 possesses 



subjects, which the progress of agriculture has raised to 

 a high degree of prominence and importance. Mr. 



i?i SM ti b - I MainS ' Wh ° °P ened discussion, ha. 

 illustrated this by a number of very interesting devils 



He informs us that some farrn 



Tn a ton of 

 Linseed, Fn.lish 

 M Foreign 



Oil-cake; 

 Poppy- cake 

 Rape cake 

 Bean 9 

 Peat 

 Oats 

 Barley 

 Oat dust 

 Turnips 

 Distillery 



No. of lbs. Nitrogea 



« • • 



» • 



• t « 



• • • 



• a a 



• - • 



■ . • 



• • • 



• • • 



• •• 



■ 



• • • 



• • • 



• • • 



• •I 



• - ■ 



• »• 



• •• 



• • • 



• • • 



• •» 



■ 



ft* 





- • 



• a • 



• •• 



• • • 



. • » 



t # V 



• •• 



• t • 



... 



t •• 



97 



76 

 103 

 110 

 105 



85 



77 



60 



42 



27 



5Jox 



• ■• 



#•• 



• *• 



• •• 



• •• 



• •• 



* •• 



i.» 



... 



• it 



.«« 



• •a 



I • • 



• t» 



• $• 



• ■■ 



..« 



«•• 



lit 



f »• 



»#♦ 



.<• 



I" 



01 

 is 







B3 



«L 



*nrf c P . ^vantage of having a short, thick ♦? • ? t S US ; hat SOme farmers «™P>oy extra keep for 



KLr„»^- t* SK 



SfthS.^ ■*• *• ~»»'o- - 1«^, 



S^^Sa, ^^"» tubs S 



en 

 varieties. 



K. M early the same proportions 



m spring 

 Mr. Scoff \nA M"^. r r rvit ' ,71ia , arerecommen( iedbY 

 besi adapted f o 1 r th ?- 80n ' " ^ the ^ We ^ 



on the 

 ,. the m.af;nitude of 



evew f a ^,„ u , e ,nclined *o anticipate that 



every farmer would have endeavoured, by careful 

 expenment to determine the pl an of feedin? be" 

 adapted to h* farm. Mr. Brodie.'however, T^tll 



withstanding the extent to which the use of the extri 

 food, has reached, many farmers have adopted their 

 special systems, without that - "uof.tea tneir 



Now by comparing these results it will, I ^j^ - t 

 ficiffltlr clear, that no substance is equal » ^ 

 point of nutritive value at the ^.^ suffl W 

 oil- cake may be bought for 81., and foi tW ^ j 

 are obtained 10S1N. of nitrogen and -"^^bae 

 ton of Turnips, on the other hand, is w*» ^ 

 ab„ut 8.. ; 20 tons will, therefore, b ear ^ ^ 

 value as 1 ton oil-cake, but they wJl a % oibs .of«l 

 of nutriment only 8o lbs. of n i tr ogeii, ana ^ ^ 

 So, by comparing the other «Jf£E2*«u*£ 



what may of . «- ;:; nuaflt i{t 



oo, Dy comparing uit? jw-~ — «„trini€ntat»^ ^ 

 thatFPoppv and Rape cakes supply nutr.m ^ 

 mte. All these are what may be ; c»i U 



to think that this is not generally the no^ «„ i + i, A * 



- are recommended by t**^ *Z ^ t0 ^ * 

 3 those they have found Z • i i reache ^» man y formers hi 



Ploys from 19 T„ UT f"'^ 8 ; but Mr - Fl ™* em- *Z SyS em ?' w,thout *** a™ 

 Foysirom 12 to 16 pecks, and in Stirlingshire from 8 ' ' an minUte "SWfrMion of 



amount of careful experi- 

 .are required for a full estimated "Z™*' whi ° h ! Such are the c 



rate. All these are wn»» — y , . , the qiw- -. , 



foods, but we have also others, in « '^ abundai ce * 



oil is deficient, but in w iich «* featters. 



nitrogen and of starchy and sact harm f ^ 



and Peas are the most important and f* ^^ 



$(& 



n d the otherg 



conclusions ^ e r^^jt» 

 advantages | draw ; and their general correctness. 



and after them follow Oats, Bade) , an ^ ^p 



• - onclusions which chem> /_„„ ^fifflP 





