GAZETTE. 



- -^Sf difficult part of Flax preparation is the prepara- 

 tion of the fibre after being steeped ; the steeping of Flax 

 mif he disagreeable and troublesome, but is by no means 

 difficult, the subsequent processes requisite to make the 

 article marketable, are, however, of a rather complex 

 character, and can never b2 learned properly but by example 

 and experience. Respecting any published or patented 

 methods of preparing Flax, none are singly of a character to 

 aid the farmer, whilst many are utterly delusive. That 

 improvements can be made, 1 am quite prepared to admit, 

 and I am further confirmed in this opinion, by witnessing 

 the sample produced at the last meeting of the Council; by 

 Baron Mertens. But I wish here particularly to remind 

 farmers that if the roost perfect system of management was 

 devised to-morrow, enlisting the most refined aids of 

 chemical and mechanical science, it would not the less 

 prevent the necesti y of care, thought, and trouble, on 

 the part of the farmer ; for of any system of Flax manage- 

 ment which mav be adoptfd, the farmer cannot derive 

 the utmost amount of benefit from the crop, uuless the major 

 part of the labour connected with its preparation is done at 

 the farmstead. The commonest calculation ought to con. 

 rince any one of the above fact ; for, taking the value of Flax 

 straw to be \l. per ton, and the produce two tons per acre, 

 this straw could not be carted and forwarded by sea, 400 to 

 500 miles, at a less cost than 21. per ton ; add to which, there 

 are so many chances against the succtss of any mode of pre- 

 paring the fibre of FJax for general manufacture, other than 

 some modification of the newest mode. It is certainly sur- 

 prising that so many persons have thrown the Flax straw 

 away, seeing, that under the worst management of steeping, 

 it will always be of value for making sacking, bags, and other 

 coarse kinds of textile fabrics, in common use for husbandry 

 purposes. Reviewing the whole case of Flax culture, so far 

 as it relates to the experimental attempts made by various 

 parties this year, I am induced to recommend the following 

 course, viz , to scu'ch out the seed, which may be done by 

 knocking the head3 against a board or barrel, on a cloth, and 

 lubsequently carefully stacking the straw, for a spring ret ; 

 care mu*t, however, be taken that the Flax straw is well 

 thatched ■ it is not necessary even to thrash out the seed at 

 the cropping time, as it may be stacked and thatched down, 

 for spring threshing and retting. In the latter case, how- 

 ever, the greatest care must be taken that the Flax is quite 

 dry when placed in the stack ; and also that not the smallest 

 particle of rain can obtain access to it, otherwise it will be 

 utterly ruiued. The stacking for spring threshing is a 

 gjstem, however, not to be recommended, except in 

 cases where the quantity of Flax grown is large. 

 In the course of last year I published an account of pre- 

 paring flax in the Illustrated London News ; and in the 

 months of January and February of the present year a 

 series of 10 letters on the subject appeared in the Morning 

 Post, in which the most approved methods known up to the 

 pr n< time were fully derailed. Notwithstanding the above 

 remarks, I am strongly of opinion that further improvement 

 can be made on Fiax preparation; but I wish to be em- 

 phatically understood, that these would not be of any mate- 

 rial btnf fit to the farmer, unless he attends to and executes 

 them him* elf; and for this purpose he must undergo a 

 couree of attentive special self-education ; even under the 

 worst 



of F 



greater sum of money than 81. per acre. Let, therefore, 

 experimenters on Flax growing proceed first to secure the 

 seed, then carefully stack the straw as they would any other 

 cro;>, and during the leisure of the inclement season of 

 winter make themselves as practically acquainted with the 

 mode of steeping and dressing this crop as their circum- 

 atan es will permit them. Th's is the most cautious, and, 

 under all the circumstances, the best advice which I can 

 giye them ; ultimately, the suc:es ful Flax grower must 

 rely on stlf-dependence and personal skill— the latter only 

 to be practically acquit ed. 



11 (Signed) T. Rowlandson." 



Mr. Thomas, of Glan-mor, near Swansea, informed 

 the Council that the mountain farmers in South Wales 

 were in the habit of growing coarse Flax, the fibre of 

 which was made by Carmarthenshire workmen into sacks, 

 and it was used for that and tfther farm purposes. A 

 friend of his grew three acres of Flax, and found it 

 answer well, as a market was found for it among the 

 workmen connected with the great iron foundries of that 

 district. But generally the difficulty was to know what 



at i th the Flax fibre when the cro P had been g rown - 

 Mr. Rowlandson recommended stacking it, after taking 



ott the seed. The seed was in the greatest quantity 



*nen the crop was grown on strong land ; but the fibre, 



on the contrary, was the most inferior in such cases. It 



was, at all events, always worth Hemp price. 





anr-h T ,*11 hi t/ d the T™ ** Which these locus " l«" 



such I call them) trespass bevond their proper bounds. To 

 prevent this, and at the same time to facilitate the means 



t hi7SfA^ my fa "? 7^ ea8e and WCttrit J. X contrived 

 general, out to fen farm rg in particular. With me these 

 bridges are made out of Larch poles 5 inches square, and of 

 suffi lent length to span the ditch they are intendep to 

 cross ; and after being squared, they are sawn corned wW 



*>LM ?w G tW u trian & u , lar Ptecei. which are fastened 

 together with two, three, or four common iron butt hinges 

 according to the length of the bridges; and at each endure 

 two handles, for the purpose of opening and shutting as vou 

 pass over. This simple contrivance offers, when open a foot 

 bridge of about H inches wide, and when shut up prevents 

 all animals from crossing ; even a dog will find the greatest 

 difficulty in doing so, and at the same time the one rail forms 

 a protection to the other from the weather, by means of its 

 sharp edge being uppermost. If these bridges should be 

 adopted in England, I shou'd say the five-inch 'Norway die' 

 is the best material to make them from. In designating my 

 humble contrivance as a 'portable bridge,' I do not mean 

 that a man is to carry it under his arm from ditch to ditch 

 but that it might be removed with ease from place to place 

 without being taken to pieces ; and as they can be made for 

 a mere trifle, I should recommend a number to be laid down 

 where they are most likely to be required. 



" (Signed) 



The Council accepted this 

 thanks to Mr. Mathew, for his 

 forwarding it to them. 



Nathaniil Mathew." 



present, with their best 

 attention and trouble in 



possible management of steeping, &c, a crop of 2 tons 

 lax straw will realise, for common manufactures, a 



CATTLE PROBANG AND TROCAR. 



Mr. D. Hunting, of Loddon, in Norfolk, transmitted 

 to the Council his hollow probang, for relieving the con- 

 traction of the oesophagus, or gullet, without injuring 

 the passage, and for relieving a hoven bullock, by allow- 

 ing the air to escape from the stomach of the animal," 

 which, along with the trocar accompanying it, was re- 

 ferred to Professor Simonds, for the favour of his report 

 on these instruments. 



The Council then adjourned to the 6th of August. 



Yorkshire Agricultural — H. S. Thompson, Esq., 

 opened the discussion for the evening, the subject being 

 the Management of Manure. 



He said: The subject naturally divides itself into tbree parts • 

 the making, the preserving:, and the applying of manure to the 

 land. ^ In considering the first I have no hesitation in stating 

 my opinion that one of the best modes of making manure is 

 in boxes, and that such manure is both well made and easily 

 preserved. The great solidity produced by the trampling of a 

 heavy animal in a small space, and the preservation from rain 

 water, at the same time that the manure is always kept moist, 

 form a combination of circumstances highly favourable to the 

 making of first-rate manure. Where boxes are well littered, 

 there is no unpleasant smell perceptible ; but if a fork full or 



that ii thiL 6W h V b " uid »«>*" °* *■"«* *«> m«nu7e 



..I!!? 7y ° Qt , 0f * tabIe8 » <>°"bouses F &*., thorourhU 



J r " d ft °! er * e yard, instead of being thrown out careless J 



strli £om tL h K aP ,"" 8h ° uld ali0 ^quently bave^hY dry 

 straw from the barn door, and from under the racks or otbe? 



foddering places spread over the yard, which will enable the 

 cattle to tread the manure more evenly, and therefore more 

 farmly. These hints are the result of observation and p?ac?ice? 

 and confirmed by theory. I . m DO w come to the second 

 division of my subject, v z., the best mode of keeping manure, 

 and the principal quesion that arises is regiuXg the com- 

 parative advantages of having covered or open manure pi™ . 

 No one can be more alive than I am to the great loss arising 

 from manure being wasted by rain, but I am nevertheless quite 

 opposed to covered manure pits under ordinary circumstances 

 because I am persuaded that great solidity is indispensable to 

 the preservation of manure. A heap of manure contains a 

 large amount of carbonate of ammonia, or, technical!? 

 speaking, the hyd rated tesquicarbonate of ammonia, which is 

 the exact substance sold in the shops as smelling salt*. Every 

 one knows how rapidly it escapes from an uncorked bottle 

 and if nothing but hay or straw could be found to cork it with* 

 it would be necessary to twist it up as tightly as possible A 

 m inure heap must be treated like a gigantic smelling bottle 

 without a cork, and it must be trodden as firm as possible, or 

 i m the held, covered with soil to keep the ammonia in. No 

 tins firmness would not, in ordinary cases, be obtained in 



M T . APRIL WHEAT. 



Sm f I w °i mas inc l mred whether a Wheat introduced into 

 thATO i TV*' fr ° m Scotland > and grown with success on 

 ant ffi Mountains of that principality, was known to 

 c2t ft ™ embers *en present. He had sown it broad- 

 ^ atter I urmps, in the first week of May, on three 



had !u - Ve 7 poor gra^lly soil in good condition, and 

 naa obtained 86 marketable Winchester bushels. The 

 au could not blow the grain out of the straw (which 

 be tht m u °f t0 that of % e )> and it was difficult to 

 for Ch °™ by the flaiL Jt was an «celleiit nurse 

 Barlov YeT A * grain became ripe in August, as soon as 

 kinds ni ed <as hi S h a P rice in the market as other 

 snaalilT: J* was a red-bearded Wheat, with a 

 had e v T ' ? 18 Wheat made the best bread Mr. Thomas 

 flavonr- u- l d > of that H 8 ht moist texture and branny 



r il° h , Were generally so much liked, " 



Fish 



. M *. Matt 



therefore, that even in boxes a certain amount of waste takes 

 place, as ammonia flies off abundantly directly the manure is 

 stirred, and if ammonia escapes even from glass bottles, 

 unless well corked, it is clear that though much checked by 

 the solidity of the manure, it cannot be altogether prevented. 

 With a view to diminish this loss, I beg to suggest the use of 

 salt. I have not tried it sufficiently to be able to speak with 

 any certainty of its effects, nor of the quantity that would pro- 

 duce the beat result. I have ascertained, however, without a 

 doubt, that salt has a very decided effect in checking the 

 decomposition of nitrogenous compounds, of which I wUI say 

 more when I come to speak of liquid manure ; and I have also 

 found that after disturbing the manure in a box until the smell 

 of ammonia was most pungent, strewing- a couple of stones o 

 salt on the surface had an immediate effect in diminishing the 

 smell. Considerable doubt exists whether the application of 

 salt as a manure has much effect in increasing the produce of 

 corn, but the majority of those who have used it say that it 

 makes the straw brighter and stiffer, and this is an undoubted 

 advantage to those who farm highly, and are consequently 

 liable to heavy loss from their crops being laid. Now box- 

 feeders generally farm highly, so that I do not hesitate to 

 recommend them to make experiments on the use of salt as a 

 preservative of manure. The next mode of making manure 

 that I will mention is where cattle are fed in stalls. The 

 ordinary mode of treating the manure in such a ca«e is to 

 remove it daily into some adjoining fold-yard, where it is ex- 

 posed to the wea'her and doubtless suffers loss. I have for 

 the last three winters adopted a plan which I can safely recom- 

 mend. The animals are littered with cut straw, and the soiled 

 part is wheeled away daily to a compost heap, where it is im- 

 mediately mixed with so ; I. In this way the manure is per. 

 fectly preserved, which cannot be said of any other method of 



managing manure that I am acquainted with. This soil and 

 manure is thrown up in a ridged form till a few weeks before it 

 is wanted, when it is turned over, and has been found very 

 useful for drilling in with the Turnip seed. If guano, bones, 

 or other hand tillage is used for Turnips, it can be conveni- 

 ently mixed with this compost at the time it is turned ; and 

 from the manure being mixed with chopped straw, it is always 

 in a state to be evenly distributed by any good Turnip-drill. 

 The soil for mixing at any spare time during the year 

 consists of road-scrapings, cleaning of ditches, charred earth, 

 decayed Couch, and if a sufficient quantity is not obtained 

 from these sources, soil from any field that is in fallow may be 

 t;«ken here and there without injury, as it is restored to the 

 different fields when under root crop. The ordinary mode of 

 making manure in yards must now be considered. The im- 

 portance of having all buildings spouted that dip into a fold- 

 yard has been so often insisted on, that I should not think of 

 repeating it here, did I not observe that this unpardonable 

 waste is still, in too many instances, allowed to go on ; and I 

 do not hesitate to Bay that any man who thus allows his 

 manure to be spoilt, rather than incur the small expense of 

 spouting his buildings, is quite unfit to be trusted with the 

 management of a farm. The next most important point to 

 attend to in fold-yards, is to gain the utmost solidity that is 

 practicable. Every farmer knows that he may walk across 

 a m'dden in dry weather and perceive no smell, but that if he 

 takes a fork and lightens it up, a most pungent and offensive 

 vapour is immediately given off ; it was previously confined by 

 the pressure of the manure. The vapour contains a certain 

 amount of ammoniacal gas : it is also charged with sul- 

 phuretted and carburetted hydrogen, but is chiefly deprived of 

 its oxygen, and thus the decomposition of the manure, which 

 cannot go on without a continual supply of oxygen, is checked. 

 On disturbing the heap, the gas»es above-mentioned are 

 suffered to escape, and fresh air, containing oxygen, lakes treir 

 place, which causes decomposition to go on more rapicly. 

 Water passing through the heap has a similar and still more 

 prejudicial «ffeet, as it displaces in its descent the foul ar 

 which occupied the interstices of the manure, and if suffered 

 to escape it leaves room for a fresh supply of air, which follows 

 the water down, and occupies its place, thus giving fresh 

 activity to the combustion. It also robs the heap, by carrying 



[with it the ammonia and other salts produced by decompo- 

 sition. To make the manure keep solid and to keep it undis- 

 turbed, should, therefore, be the great objects of the farmer, 





to bv \fJ°Sf fre quently grown the Wheat referred 

 it would n \ ° maS ' When the season was favourable, but 

 dry J!\r ° n a n8wep in Essex when the summers were 

 this' lain!.* V unne > J 11 "-, was also well acquainted with 



*ft t\h #2* Wh eat, which was grown in Shrop- 

 e ' as th e BarUy croD. 



y crop 



MOVEABLE BRIDGE. 



mitted t*i\ Ul V*' ° f Wern > in Carmarthenshire, trans- 

 contrivan r U the model of a sim P le and ingenious 



communW crossin g wide itches, with the following 

 advantage ex P lanator y of its construction and 



N I have takon ♦* ui. " Wern, July 9, 1851. 

 1 ^arsh land K • lbr , rty of forwarding to you a model of my 

 mi °e, and whi.L A 6, Thi * U a littl * 8im P ,e contrivance of 

 m y low mea<W S Ve found most usefuI and convenient in 

 Articular »!!' u are aware that in this district, in 

 **<* to fence »••• e ™* lch annoyed by the mountain sheep, 

 10 wide as tn £«? 8 • th , em H is necessary to have the ditches 

 «<* fromU?d^ofi e tI 1 t 5 difficQltf,,r,h ' 1 """ ™ ^'° "" 



falls as with u§, it becomes a choice of difficulties, and the 

 only way of escaping them appear* to me to be by bavin* fold- 

 yards entirely roofed over ; and I feel persuaded that those *ho 

 live ten years longer will see buildings of this kind men 

 numerous than It now thought profitable. A yard of this kind 

 would bo protected from rain, and have the solidity arising 

 from the treading of cattle, and if thoroughly well ventiUted 

 would. I doubt not be of advantage to the. cattle as well 

 as the manure. 1 hoped to hare been able to introduce to 

 the meeting to-day a IVuesian friend who has acted as a 

 brother juror at the Crystal Palace, and who would have 

 desenhed to you how, during the severe winters of Central 

 Germany, their flocks of pheep are kept in huge barns, from 

 which the manure is never removed, and accumulates to suck 

 a height, that in a late spring the sheep are sometimes nearly 

 up to the roof. Until, however, we have got these covered 

 yards, we must make the best use of the means at our dis- 

 posal, and a jrreat deal may be done bv carefully covering our 

 heaps in the field and keeping that in our yards as solid at 

 possible. I have not yet *aid anything on the subject of tanks, 

 but I cannot agree with those who think tanks unnecessary. 

 No precautions short of covering in the whole yard will prevent 

 the necessity for providing an outlet for superfluous water in a 

 wet season, and the more care we take to prevent any unneces- 

 sary water from entering the yard, and to allow the manure 

 to accumulate to such a thickness as to absorb any moderate 

 quantity of rain. The more precautions, in short, that we 

 take to prevent any escape of drainage from the yard, the more 

 valuable does the drainage become, and the more necesiary it 

 it to prevent its being wasted. Several substances have been 

 usei in tanks as fixers of ammonia. I have myself tried 

 several, but I believe that the one which may be used with 

 moat advantage is common salt. The first time I ever heard 

 of its beiner used in this way was from Sir Tatton Sykes, who 

 told me several years ago that he had put a quantity of salt 

 into his liquid manure tanks, and that he was convinced that 

 the practice had been attended with good results. I could not 

 at that time understand how salt in a tank could produce 

 any beneficial effect, as the chemical affinities were decidedly 

 opposed to the supposition of anj^ decomposition of the salt 

 taking place, and I therefore supposed that it would come out 

 of the tanks unchanged. Some facts, however, that have lately 

 come under my notice induced me to request Mr. s pence, the 

 Society's analysing chemist, to try some experiments to deter- 

 mine this point, and the results have been most conclusively 

 in favour of the use of salt in tanks. He mixed salt with one 

 portion of uiine, and set aside a similar portion without salt, 

 and found, whilst the unsalted urine became unbearable in a 

 few days, that mixed with salt had scarcely any smell at all, 

 and, on analysis, it was found that a very considerable 

 quantity of muriate of ammonia had been formed, v*hich not 

 heing a volatile salt, would safely remain in the tank for any 

 length of time. I consider this a very valuable fact, of 

 which all owners of tanks would do well to avail themselves. 

 The third division of the subject is the application of the 

 manure to the land, and the most important question con- 

 nected with this part of the subject is the state of decompo- 

 sition in which it is most desirable to use it. Science and 

 practice both agree that old rotten manure is in the best state 

 for affording nourishment for plants, and if we could Keep 

 manure for a length of time without loss, there would no 

 longer be any doubt on the subject, and old short manure 

 would be universally used. As, however, all ordinary methods 

 of keeping manure are subject to more or lest lots, the wisest 

 way seems to be to apply the manure to land in a moderately 

 fresh sta*e, but to supply the young Turnips with ready pre- 

 pared food for its early growth, either by the use of guano or 

 dissolved bones, or in the form of compost, such as I have ■ 

 already described, where manure is mixed with soil from day 



time 

 of old 

 and fresh manure last year in a field of Swedes, where 

 the manure which had been heaped some months previous fell 

 'hort, and two or three acres were treat' d with manure 

 fresh from the yards and boxes. No guano or bones was 

 used, and for about eight or ten weeks the fresh manure could 

 easily be detected by the want of vigour in the Turnip plant. 

 Before Christmas, however, no difference could be perceived, 

 and ultimately the Turnips grown with fresh manure were con- 

 sidered the best in the field, though the same number of loads 

 of each kind of manure was used per acre, and the Turnips ia 

 all other respects were treated exactly alike. This result 

 might have been reversed had not the autumn and winter been 

 remarkably favourable for Turnips that had got a bad start ; 

 and it is undoubtedly desirable, where fresh manure is used, 

 to supply some other tillage to force forward the young plant. 

 I will not now trespass longer on your patience, but I wish 

 before I sit down to say that though the management of 

 manure has been discussed and written upon oftener than any 

 other farming question, it is far from being an exhausted sub- 

 ject, or one in which our practice has been brought into a 

 satisfactory etate. We boast of our British agriculture, and 

 in some departments, especially that of agricultural imple- 

 ments and some other matters, we have reason to be proud of 

 our position amongst the farmers of the world, but honesty 

 compels us to state that, as a nation, our management vt 

 manure is worse than that of any continental nation I have 

 visited, and it is for this reason that I have paid a good deal of 

 attention to the least inviting of farming topics. I am address- 

 ing those whose leading position as landlords or leading 

 irmers, gives them considerable influence in their respeciive 

 n ighbourhoods ; and If we wish to he of use to our brother 

 farmers at a time when they certainly want all the si i that can 

 be given them, we must not be deterred from giving a word of 

 advice even upon an unpleasant subject, and I am confident 

 there is no one point on which there is so much to be done and 

 so much that lies in every man's own power as by paying greater 

 attention to the management of his manure.— Sir Tatton 

 Stkes, Bart., of Sledmere, was received with loud cheering. 

 The worthy baronet observed that Mr. Thompson, in his intro- 

 ductory remarks, had done bim the honour to allude to him. 





mm m T~*mi*j w ^ *,^, * *V«- V»j (TUVIV I1K41MAI t 10 UllAt^ TV 1 V AS OVU 1 A \J I J 



to day, and may then be safely kept for any length of 

 I had a good illustration of the comparative effects < 





I 



