522 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE 



The long-eared Notting- 



ranges from '12 to 30 inches. The crops which they 

 succeed are numerous ; usually, however, after Wheat, 

 Barley, Oats, and Clover leas. The crops which succeed 

 them are Wheat, Barley, Oats, Clover, or green crops. 



q, .j,—Ans. Oats are usually sown after roots m 

 England, after lea in Scotland. When two corn crops 

 succeed each other, which, unless under exceptional 

 circumstances, is not considered good farming, Oats 

 come last. They are sown in February, March, and 

 April. From 3 to 5 bushels of seed is sown per acre. 

 The most prolific kinds are the black and white Tarta- 

 rian ; the most valuable kinds, per bushel, are the 

 Scotch Potato Oat, Early Angus, and such as usually 

 have a full kernel and little husk. They are drilled in 

 rows varying from 4 to 8 inches. 



<2 # 6.— Ans. The best months for sowing Barley are 

 usually March and April. The circumstance which 

 determines the time of sowing, on light soils, is the con- 

 sumption of the root crops on the land by sheep. 

 Barley follows roots, as a rule, but sometimes follows 

 Beans, Peas, and even Wheat. Grass and Clover-seeds 

 are usually sown with Barley — in this case Clover and 

 Grass follow, either for turning into hay, or feeding off. 

 The most common" kinds of Barlev sown are the 

 Chevalier and Old English. 



ham, and Potter's, are reckoned good kinds on many 

 soils. From 2 to 3 bushels is a good seeding per acre. 

 The soil and season determine very much what quantity 

 of seed should be used. I 



Q. 7. — Ans. The three most common kinds of Clover ■ 

 and Grasses are the broad or red Clover the white, or 

 Dutch Clover, and Cow- Grass.; they are all of the 

 Trefoil genus. The first, or red Clover, is an annual, 

 the white is perennial, and the Cow-Grass is also peren- 

 nial. Annual Grass and Clover seeds may be sown for 

 one year ; but very frequently perennials are sown also. 

 For one year, 20 lbs. of red Clover seed per acre should 

 be sown ; or 12 lbs. of Clover seed, with 2 pecks of 

 annual or perennial Rye-Grass ; for two years, 6 lbs. of 

 red Clover, G lbs. of white, and from 2 to 4 pecks of 

 Rye-Grass, is a good seeding per acre. 



Q. 8, — Ans. Carrots are sown in good seasons from the 

 middle of March to the middle, or even end, of April. 

 The seed, if drilled with a common machine, should be well 

 rubbed with the hands, to prevent it from sticking 

 together in clusters ; it should then be thoroughly mixc 

 with ashes of some kind, previously dried, to insure its 

 regular delivery from the drill. The quantity of seed sown 

 per acre is from 4 to 6 lbs. ; if covered an inch deep, that 

 is quite sufficient. The general cost of an acre of Carrots 

 runs from %l. to 142., including labour, manure, and 



would keep about 70 or 80 full grown beasts during the 

 summer, or about 400 sheep. 



Q. \&.-m-Ans. If Vetches were cut quite green there 

 would be from 7 to 10 tons per acre, if an average crop. 

 There would be nearly as much weight on an acre of 

 Clover or Grass. Froai all the observations which have 

 been made, and experiments which have been trie 1 on 

 the relative feeding qualities of green Clover and hay 

 cut from the same extent of ground, it appears that 

 well made hay is equally nutritious with the Grass of 

 which it is composed when cut green. Ti >re Grass 



and Clover lose nothing material for feeding purposes 

 when turned into hay, except when destroyed by wet 

 weather, which washes away the saline, saccharine, and 

 other matters which form the most valuable portions of 



good hay. 



Q. 19. — Ans. Too simple to require any notice. 



Q. 20.— Ans. A day-book, ledger, and cash-book, are 

 sufficient to keep the accounts of any farm. 



Q. 21. — A . About 10 men would be necessary to 

 carry and stack 10 acres of Clover in a day. A man to 

 an acre is the usual calculation, when faking after carts, 

 <5ce., is included. lOcl. per square of 100 feet is a 

 common price given for thatching ; that is, 10 linear feet 

 each way, which is of course 100 square feet. 



Q. 22 — Ans. Corn is ripe when the kernels become 

 moderately hard — when the straw has -ceased to afford 

 any nourishment to the corn from the root. The ad- 

 vantages of reaping early are, a better quality of straw 

 invariably ; and, frequently, both corn and straw are 

 improved by early cutting. Another advantage of early 

 reaping is, that, on all ordinary farms, when this is de- 

 layed too long at first, much of the corn afterwards 

 becomes too ripe. When corn of any kind becomes 

 dead ripe, the straw is rendered hard, woody, and un- 

 palatable to all kinds of stock ; wet injures it more also 

 than if cut moderately ripe. Dead-ripe Wheat has 

 generally a'thick husk, and is not so saleable as that cut 

 early ; it also sheds out more readily in harvesting. To 

 Oats the same remarks apply. The average cost of 

 harvesting corn per acre, including cutting, carting, 

 stacking, and thatching, is about 8s. per acre. The 

 usual prices paid for threshing Wheat, Beans, Oats, and 

 Barley, per quarter, by flail, are — Wheat, J-. '. ; 

 Beans, Is. id. ; Oats, Is. 3d. ; and Barley, 2s. The 



the weather, with raised 

 bers he fattens his sheep7a7d 



have flnm'o v.uu . 



these have floors, with o'pen Jj™ he #« 

 and manure all fall through iK ' S ° tht feZl 

 The urine, after passing thtmT^ ^n&5 

 tanks, torn which it £*&£g^+S& 

 matter^ or is taken away. H7has "*^ 



matter, or js taken away. W P hi s eaa ?«n«ni. 

 which the corn is threshed tvL T **»*-<*£ 

 short lengths, and the catfle'fo^SL^S 



* 



He has the most improved imnl« <L 

 cultivation, and to lessen m&2?T mt °<* 

 produce to hest account, so ZuT> Md *«3 

 small amount of labour and the """"' ' 



was 

 general 



strut 



mtt ■+ 



appear^ 



The farm comprises 256 acres of "^iT 88 ° f * 

 Grass land. Th* «*.}#*£ a . ° , ai * ble > and 1 



The cultivated land all li ' 

 cipally in one large field, without !T^» 



an overshadowing tree. ' The .^fo^jR 



1st January and the 1 T&f£* 



( oxen Ron d^.. . , . UU V tOM 



between the 

 amounts to- 



hoffs. 



30 oxen, 800 sheep ifi5J JJJ 



The crops are drilled in rows Mn„ ■ . 

 inches, and the quantity of seed o^ \v,! gW > 



Barley sown, is from 2 to 3 pecks per acTe" 

 speak of the returns per acre ; for although 



* 



I 



rent-charges at 21. 



Q. 9. — Ans. Mangold Wurzel is sown in good seasons 

 from the middle of April to the middle of May. The 

 first week in May is the most usual time of sowing. 

 The Orange, or Yellow Globe, has been found generally 

 superior to any other kinds, especially on shallow soils. 

 From 4 to 6 lbs. of seed is used per acre, planted at a 

 depth of from 1 to 2 inches. The seed is frequently 

 steeped in water for 30 or 40 hours before sowing. 



Q. 10.—^^. The months which Turnip Bowing 

 occupy, are May, June, and July. The tankard kinds 

 are first sown; sometimes hybrids. Skirvin^'s and 

 Laing's Swedes are most usually sown ; and several 

 purple topped sorts are in great favour. From 3 to 

 4 lbs. of seed is sufficient per acre. Twenty tons of 

 farm-yard manure is a good dressing per acre ; 4 cwt. of 

 guano, 16 bushels of bone-dust, 5 cwt. of superphosphate. 

 An acre of Turnips costs generally from 11. to 91. 



Q. 1 1 . — A ns. An acre of Potatoes, when well manured, 

 seed at 2s. per bushel, rent, charges, &c, at 2/., and all 

 labour included, seldom costs less than from 10/. to 121. 

 per acre. 



Q. 12.— Ans. Flax is usually sown from the middle 

 of March to the middle of April. About 3 bushels of 

 seed is sown per acre, when the crop is grown for the 

 fibre. When intended for seed, lj or 2 bushels per 

 acre is sufficient. Flax succeeds root and corn crops. 



4.u Y 13 '. - ^ nSt Ha y- makin g usually commences about 

 tbe beginning of June. Clover on ordinary farmed 

 land comes in first. A ton and a half of Clover hay 

 per acre would be a full average. Wheat, Beans, and 

 Oats follow Clover and Grass. 



Q. 14. — Ans. A sheep would consume about a quarter 

 of its own weight, daily, of roots, with 1 lb. of Oats. A 



average price of threshing, by the College engine, woul 

 be about ftd. per quarter, including manual labour and 

 coals. If the interest of the machine and repairs were 

 included, that would likely more than double the cost 

 per quarter. 



Q. 23. — Ans. Sheep are usually put upon Turnips in 

 the end of September and beginning of .October. 

 100 acres of Swedish should keep 800 sheep for six 

 months ; 100 acres should keep 150 beasts. 



straw 



sheep 



on such feeding would be supposed to cost id. per ween 

 A beast would cost nearly ^ 



Q. U.-Ans. The annual cost of a pair of farm 

 horses allowing them to be worth aw" each, wouM 

 amount to about 80/. That is, including eveVvthm 

 belonging to and necessary to work them! The chi, 

 items of expense are 25/. for manual labour in working 

 them 40/. tor their keep, from U. to 61. for interest of 

 capital employed and annual deterioration of the value 



Ittli ♦ *«« mn» there is a risk of losses by deatli 

 •r accident combs and brushes for grooming a cart or 

 carts, plough, and other implements necessary^ fm the 



▼annua nrwatfatinTae «+ ,.„k:^i_ i «"**•*/ lul me 



It 



he 





various operations at which horses are employed 

 thus appears that it is no light matter in calculating 



It is taken 



FARMING EXAMPLES.-SIR JOHN CONROY'S. 

 The lessons a well-cultivated farm offers to prac- 

 tical farmers are most valuable : they speak at once to 

 every understanding and carry conviction, for there is 

 no questioning of what one sees. It is for this reason 

 that, after years of discussion on thick and thin seed- 

 ing, wide and narrow drilling, horse-hoeing, deep and 

 shallow draining, shed-feeding of stock, trenching as a 

 means of permanently improving shallow land, &c., I 

 would bring to the notice it deserves, the farming of 

 Sir John Conroy, at Arborfield, near Reading, for here 



the practice of thin seeding, wide drilling, deep draining, 



trenching, room-feeding, open-field culture, &C, upon ft 

 poor farm of 326 acres, may at once be seen to have c i- 

 duced to a fertility far surpassing what is u ally 

 found from land naturally greatly superior. I have 



been fortunate in seeing this farm at two different sea- 



sons— in the winter when I witnessed the process of 

 fattening an amount of stock which has realised 4000/. 

 in six months, and in the summer when the growing crops 

 present a promise of an amount of corn which I believe 

 to be equally singular from so small a breadth of land ; 

 and I have no hesitation in saying that the systems by 

 which so much stock is kept and so much corn is grown. 

 are most deserving the attention of farmers ; and they 

 must not be prevented from benefiting bv the practice 

 they may here witness from a feeling that Sir John is a 

 rich man, and may be doing all this without reference to 

 cost and return. Something of this impr. ion I confess 

 to having had before I entered his farm, from what I 

 had heard he had been doing, as related by farmers who 

 had not seen his farm ; but this had long vanished ere I 

 left it. I saw nothing that appeared to me to present the 

 appearance tff an expenditure without a return ; nothiiu 

 that I could bring myself to believe had not thorr dil 

 answered as an outlay to make a profit, but quite the con- 

 trary Sir John is part owner and part tenant of the 



land he occupies ; for the part he rents he pays 42j an 

 tcre. It would be difficult to find land in cultivation 

 naturally of so poor a quality as has been a considerable 

 portion of that which is included in the returns I allude 

 to ; and although they are so great, th< uld have only 

 been gained by the very judicious and spiri d means 

 which were at first taken to bring this inferior soil into 

 high fertility. The first operations have been to eive 

 this shallow land depth, and remove from it the water 

 winch has kent its vegetation weak and hsmL»~i t. ... a 



Oft) 



very large, I did not obtain the exact yield E*S 

 can say, that the growing corn, when I ins^S?- 1 

 June, presented an appearance I have on nV W " 

 more promising ; and the gross sales of stool- *J? 

 off this little farm must be over 6000/. a £ 

 possible to convey the impression which a sight Jt. 2 

 farm creates of the skill and judgment of tlieh*2 

 who at a late period of life, and without anvpi^! 

 a farmer, has entered into agriculture, and has anus? 

 and superintends, and regulates the whole with * 

 science and success. I came away greatlv im'rnnl 

 with the conviction I had been seeing profitable farmm. 

 a conviction that those who know me will m [ 

 generally slow in coming to, upon what is called n* 

 men farming. 6 



This farm also presents a lesson of considerable *fc 

 to landowners, for they may learn from its pros 

 state the condition into which a farm must be laid* 

 for a tenant to make the most of it, with reta* 

 to draining, removal of hedge-rows and timber, k 

 supply of cattle-sheds and conveniences, and their M 

 economical arrangement, which are matters it isalul 

 lord's business to attend to; and Sir John will 

 tell them, although a game-preserver, that lie cam 

 afford to have his corn cropped by hares and rabfeh, 

 This account would be imperfect if I did not fcr 

 observe that Sir John has had two advantages iKi 

 seldom fall to the tenant farmer's lot ; he has bei 

 uncontrolled in laving out his land by any lin& 

 restrictions, and he has had the necessary cspfll 

 and spirt to avail himself of every improvement to 

 advance his profits ; and I must confess, had he Mt 

 been so situated in both these respects, Arborfield rart 

 have continued but little distinguished from its adjojung 

 farms. Hewitt Davis, 3, FndcrkJcs^lac^ Old Jm\ 

 20th July. 







Home Correspondence. 



Beer Drinking.— I regret to see that "A Labos^ 

 cannot write his views of the necessity for beer, it ■ 

 performance of hard work, without suspeen^w 

 motives of your correspondent " Falcon," in into**! 

 the subject of intemperance to the notice «JJ« 

 reader* Any candid mind must give " Falcon o» 

 for the b tin ten tions towards the labouring classe^W 

 in my estimation he would better consult the inW 

 and happiness of that most important class ot 

 community, if, instead of recommending the mew 

 use, he had advocated the abandonment oi all mtowj 

 bev. rages. I could soon prove to him that it « » 

 have these things used at all, we shall W*~ 



equally 



perfence proves it,*ij** 



_,„cf h«Vf Jo* 



equally ciear u we nave ™j«i ■•" — — , jj 



with all the admitted evils of public bw^ ** 

 I will not further illustrate this part ot W b»« 

 as my buamew is merely to support my torm«r^ 

 in opposition to the mere assertion ot a 

 that the most severe labour may be as «i 

 performed without beer than with it ; "> aee k ; 

 tion has now been so extensively tested toi « ^ 

 years, that I am almost surprised that an) »<■ ^ 

 person should doobt the capability ot nw . j, 

 with**, either in the heat of the fire : or ' ; '^ 

 fact is not only confirmed by *e oast,W»tDv. .,. u 

 ex rience 





ms of toi 



_ _ AfsjVfi*^ 



nemMtion that of one of & em >*?.*%L*e* 

 who once laboured under the del*** t» ^ * 



EecessKrv for agricultural labourers 



work with mf ^ 



^ mmKMMM > a wui tu wwercam now many horses 



be necessary to work the farm in question 



mv granted that a man works two horses onlv «n *« Uu ••! ^ r ~~.,.,. 1<r w UK . MllDS0 



y on an these necessary ; an 1 the next was to provide buildin 



stverage. 



Q. i» 



drained 4 feet deep, and trenched with the spade 2 f t 

 wherever the impenetrability of the subsoil rendc 



common 



£ 5/.; a one-horse cart, 1* ; a ^ t of Iron han^? , 

 "■;'• 5_ a two-horse iron roller, 10/. to 141. 



<i- I 



■Ans. A hundred acres of ordinary Grass 



to turn to best account the materials it afforded for 

 ennchmg ,t. Sir John has carefully studied to make 



ms hu-m a factory of manure, at lea c . 1 with 



Jast waste. Ho has enclosed two yards with cattle 



buddings, and covered them in from the inclemency of 



on 



€ C 



V 



n l 



what doe- he drink then I and this jb ^ 



- --- '■ —writ. n»m ^j0 



assures me he can perform his work i j 



bin than when he used bet UHJ" ^ j 



never wish an a'.ricultural labourer i • ^m 

 i ban he m cheerfully performs. J»»t^ ^f^ 



question ; but 1 am ame i« -— - { ba 

 the enauirv some time ago, witnoui ^ ^ 



of 



nig 



an 



sB ni!ii«r 



wh* 



H 



00 



•» 



thermometer stood at : m 



intention at the tiwe . 



On one of the hottest days U» j^ajjjy 



mowing. Knowing he was a »{^* k , •£ 



had thT«miosity to.sk him ^•*J'** t 

 and wneer, 1 * wa» hi* reply. " ""'" 



■ About a table-spoonful of vine-' 



\1* 



