♦ 



634 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



ith the 



ne88 of politicking adds .to the ^^^^ £, ^i^ «^^^ iUpce, 



difficulty; for it operates like a passion distorting mate 



or exaggerating things which, contemplated with a 



calmer eye, would gradually resolve themselves into 



more intelligible attitudes of cause and effect, ana 



become clear, at least, to those who had no object to 



serve in keeping the dust flying, and no aim but to 



arrive at practical truth. . 



How long the present depressed state of trade in 

 France may go on, or how soon its cycle of abundant 

 harvests may come to an end, it is impossible to say ; 

 but one thing is evident, that her close proximity to 

 our shores, and her hand-to-mouth system, arising 

 both from the total want of corn speculators m that 

 country, and the small-scale farming which is car- 

 ried on, render her a neighbour whose influence 

 upon our corn market will become more and more 

 important, and whose character in that regard it is 

 very desirable to understand. A country in which 

 the subdivision of the soil is such that the number 

 of its landowners verges upon six millions ; while 

 in this they scarcely amount to two hundred thou- 

 sand,— a country in which the principles of com- 

 merce are so little understood, that to this day a 

 corn merchant is looked upon as a public enemy, 



first years as to be all 

 thrown out of culture 





a country nearer to 



six-and-thirty 

 much 



larger 



and liable to popular outrage- 

 ns than Ireland, and containing 

 millions of inhabitants, of whom a 

 proportion are engaged in agriculture than in this, 

 and are, both for this cause and many others, 

 liable to much greater fluctuations of cereal produce, 

 and, consequently, of price, than ourselves— must 

 exercise an influence upon our markets, under an 

 open trade, which throws upon us a double reason- 

 as it is difficult to speculate very far-sightedly upon 

 her resources — for ascertaining something about our 



own. 



Never was this necessity more impressive than in 



the present season. Our harvest weather, and our 

 harvest itself, have been such as to produce all the 

 temporary appearance and effects of a glut. Needy 

 sellers are, as usual, rushing to market, and rushing 

 back again with pale faces, scared at the prices they 

 have themselves produced. They come home bleating 

 out the dismal figures at which corn was offered, as if 

 there was a harvest every month in the year, and the 

 country growing more than it could consume. 



t the corn trade has everything yet to learn ; the 

 enormous consumption of this country, augmented 

 by a severe winter, may make matters look very 

 different a month or two the other side of Christ- 



a visitor would desire to know what is the best 

 April spring Wheat that England can furnish, he 

 will see it in the sample furnished by Mr. Rowland, 

 of Coulsdon; in like manner the Golden Drop 

 Wheat from Mr. John Killxck, of Cranley ; the 

 Chidham from Mr. Henry Currie ; the Red Kent 

 Oats, the Fullard's Tick Beans from Mr. Fullard, of 

 Thorney Fen, demonstrate, each for itself, what the 

 peculiarities are of every separate kind. 



There can be no doubt that this collection, if 

 produced in time, would have met with the most 

 favourable consideration of the jury. As it is, we 

 can only record the names of the articles, of which 

 the following is, we believe, a correct list. j 



1. Winter Russian Beans, grown in Surrey. ; 



2. Fullard's Tick Bean, grown by Mr. Fullard, Thorney ten. 



3. Dun, or clay Peas, by J. Lewin, jun., Hollesiey, Suffolk. \ 



4. Early Haysell grey Peas, grown by the same. j 



5. Old English Beans. j 



6. Early Mazagan Beans, grown in Kent. * ■ 



7. Large grey field Peas. 



8. Maple, or Partridge Peas. m | 



9. Sandy Oats, by A. Murray, Esq., Kirktoa Bovndne. 



10. Potato Oats, jtrown by Alex. Murray, Hap, Banff. 



11. Early Birley Oats, by Jas. Lonvrmore, Esq., Hilton, Banff. 



12. Black Tartarian Oits, from Perth. 



13. Red Kent Oats, bvT. Knight, Esq. Bobbing, Sittingbourne. 



14. Poland Oats, from Lincolnshire. 



15. Hopetown Oats, by A. Longmore, Esq., Rettie, Banff. 



16. Winter Oats. t _ 

 17.:' Chevalier Barley, by Wynn Ellis, Esq., St. Ann's Farm. 

 18.' Naked Barley, by Sam. Newcome, Esq , Orsett, Essex. 



19. Black Barley, from Surrey. 



20. Rye, grown in Kent. 



21. Old Kent Wheat, red Burwell, grown by M. Stigwoou, 



Esq., Exnimr, near Burwell, Cambridge. 



22. Wellington white Wheat, by Mr. Fullard, Thorney Fen. 



23. Talavera Wheat, by Mr. S. Mitchell, Raynham, Essex. 



24. Hoary rough-chaffed, or velvet Wheat, grown by Mr. 

 Goodwin, Coalwood Farm, Heme, Kent. 



25. Breton Wheat, grown in Berks. 



26. Chiddam Wheat, by H. Currie, Esq., M.P., near Horsley- 



park. 



27. Taunton Dean Wheat, by Mr. D. Knapping, Shoebury. 



28. Hunter's Wheat, by Mr. E. Campion, Barking side. 



29. April Spring Wheat, by H. Rowland, E&q.. Coulsdon. 



30. Ciovei'a Wheat, by T. Gardener, Esq., Moulton, Cam- 

 bridgeshire. 



31. White Chaff Red Wheat, grown by Mr. W. Challen, 



Wisboro 1 Green, near Horsham. 



32. Red Lammas Wheat. 



33. Golden Dmp Wheat, grown by Mr. John Killick, Cranley. 



34. SpaldiDg Wheat, by Mr. Thomas Nicholas, Mountnessing. 



35. Rape — 36. Canary grown in Isle of Sheppy.— 37. Flax 

 grown in Yorkshire.— 38. Trifolium incarnatum.— Id. Trefoil. 

 40. Red Clover.— 41. White Clover.— 42. Large grey Field Peas. 

 — i3. Maple or Partridge Peas. 



LIJ^**?. 





and ill-flavoured Potato, if ever so slicrhtl 

 the air after being stored, were so little J****** 

 disease as to have become the common USCep * 11 4 

 country. In Longford the Cup, a fine hi3 P d* * 

 has suffered so severely in the last two or X °^ 

 that it has nearly gone out of cultivation andL^ 

 aud this has been very much superseded bt I? 



mown here, called Scotch Downs \k ** 



hitherto not 1 



*ns,the 



being obtained from Connaught, in which pr ' "^ 

 appeal's to have obtained some little timo *S °*^ * 



ttle time 



T astoifc,^ 

 Indeed 



mas. The late harvests of the north have yet to be 

 reported, and the effects of another diseased Potato- 

 crop yet to be experienced, more severely on the 

 Continent, it appears, than even here. A ' deficient 

 Rye-Crop' is a phrase of portentous meaning, upon 

 that vast area of central Europe w T hich English 

 talkers, but no other, call c Germany ;' and which 

 English dreamers, who dream at home, picture as a 

 Wheai~grovring soil like their own. 



Black- Sea cargoes, freighted for England, have 

 already been turned off, while afloat, for Hamburg, 

 and the Dutch and Belgian Ports. It is pleasant to 

 see how independent our own good harvest has 

 made ns, before September is. well out, and the 

 winter months began. But the sickle is a tool that 

 requires twelve months' rest, whilst the nether-jaws 

 of our well- employed millions have a way of wagging 

 daily through the year with unabated zeal. The 

 September sellers of new-grown Wheat are scarcely 

 the best appointers of a market-price, or the trust- 

 worthiest interpreters or exponents of the future. 

 There may be yet a further lesson for those two- 

 tooth prophets who, forgetful, or never having heard, 

 of the experience of the last century, have set it 

 down impregnably for certain, that ' Free-trade ■ and 

 the * curse of over-plenty ' are convertible terms. 



a rr. it. 



Among the articles sent to the Crystal Palace, too 

 late to be brought under the notice of the jurors 

 was a set of samples of agricultural produce, to 

 which we would draw the attention of our readers. 

 It must have been obvious to all country visitors 

 that the Agriculture of Great Britain is scarcely 



THE POTATO CROP. 



as an 

 fatal 



Whatever the case may be in other places, here cer- 

 tainly the disease in the tuber has progressed with a 

 rapidity and to an extent much exceeding that of the 

 last three or four years ; and from a fact I shall pre- 

 sently state, I fear there is some reason to apprehend, 

 after they shall be stored, as great a destruction to the 

 tubers as in the first year of the disease, if they do not, 

 as in the second year, become very generally diseased 

 before they are dug. It is true I have only an isolated 

 fact to state ; but the mention of it will draw attention, 

 and may lead to examinations, which, if they corrobo- 

 rate my observation, will give us very serious cause of 

 alarm for the Potatoes that on the digging appear sound. 

 At all events it is one of those curious facts which 

 "Falcon 15 so judiciously calls for, in page 566 of the 

 Gardeners' Clironicle, of this year's volume. 



We, who here see the crop perishing before our eyes, 

 find it very difficult to credit the favourable accounts 

 given in other places ; and, indeed, are disposed to give 

 them very limited credence. The provincial accounts 

 are most conflicting, but they have always been very 

 much so, which very possibly, and in the end it has 

 generally so proved, arise more from other causes than 

 really from the facts being various. Many take upon 



them to write from the appearance of the Potatoes at the sap must, before the fungus ^ _ 



market, from which, as they would injure the sale, the stalks, have carried the infection tbr ^ u ° t j ]e e $t!* 

 diseased ones have been picked out ; and as the people plant and into the tuber ; unless, m *? ee , '. ^ \ && 

 have now a great many more swine than in the earlier * — ^- ^^^^a^a ♦!«> disease, and w . y ^^ 



which as yet has been so very little affected v^th dSL? 

 indeed, this was so much the case, that while t^Jv! 

 seed sold in our markets last sprint for id. ■ - ^ 

 Scotch Downs fetched from 7cZ. to 9d. 1U ^ m 

 report said (the first time I heard of them) that ST 11 

 the Scotch Downs had escaped the disease, while '** 

 suffered severely by having grown Cups! 1 1 ^9 

 posed to regard rather too lightly this report, « bm 

 the Cup being a late Potato, I considered tie fag? 

 have arisen from their immature state at the m£ 

 when the disease came on. I am now perfectly J5? 

 that their loss is to be attributed to their presently 

 susceptibility ; for not only is it every where said tfatfc 

 Cups are suffering to an extent equal to the worst 

 of the disease, but I have positive proof in my onTh 

 the same field, manured in the same way, and in a cm. 

 tinuous cropping, I have half an acre of Scotch Dot* 

 and half an acre of Cups ; the withering of the Icnq 

 commenced at the same time, about five weeks kL 

 but the stems of the Scotch Downs are still grea uj 

 free from spots ; they are also a full crop, while thogtf 

 the Cups are completely mildewed. Of the tubersrf h 

 former very few, if any, are diseased, while of &oee tf 

 the Cups not one-half are sound ; this I have repttiv 

 ascertained, by separation of the sound and unsown 

 they were daily dug for use ; at the same time Am i 

 not of sound and unsound more than half a crop of Cop 

 in the ground. I learn this is very generally the cue, 

 and that the Lumper is also very severely diseased. (K 

 my Ash-leaved Kidneys about one-third are diseased. 



The very general withering of the leaves may with 

 plausibility be attributed to the absence of terrestrial tte- 

 tricity, or to the greater or less activity of any uniYenl 

 principle which in its excessive or diminished action, m 

 affect the vital principle, which prevents or delays chemial 

 decompositions ; but how Dr. Turley (p. 566 (krimi 

 Chronicle) can reconcile the various and apparently cor 

 tradictory phenomena, local and particular, that ttod 

 the disease, to the unity of action and of effect which # 

 universal a pervading fluid as electricity— the mm 

 raundi — must produce, unless he also give it thatpropatj 

 which we usually ascribe to pure spiritual ema, « 

 electing by the will, I know not. 



In my ignorance, I cannot understand an ato* ot 

 terrestrial electricity, material or unmaterial ; it v* 

 subtle and all pervading a fluid, so necessarily pm 

 i agent of all life, &c, that its absence w*P* 

 ,»«*., not only to the Potato, but to everything «JJ 

 In my younger days 1 was taught that it migbUie «** 

 mant, as in the galvanic battery, but its absence L » 

 not comprehend, while our telegraphic lines convey m 

 notices, and the magnetic needle guides the m*"* 

 We must indeed advance very far in German mj*»j 

 ere we abandon the material deductions i *W» 

 Bacon and Newton on to truth, for more sublime v~ 

 of inquiry into the disease of the Potato or W *- 



of mortality. . u -u^f 



Hardy and Sons, I see, again recommend cuw 

 the shaws or tops as soon as they are mtectea, 

 view of saving the tubers." This has been W 

 doubtful effect by many ; and although J^£ JJ^ 



convinces us of the utility of tins practice,- yd. 



years, they find a more beneficial use for them than they 

 did in those years, and when they were consequently 

 glad to sell them at any price in the markets ; others 

 give their opinion from having confined their observa- 

 tions to certain sorts of Potatoes and certain descriptions 

 of soils ; and this, from the limited location which falls 

 under the observation of each, must necessarily very 

 often occur ; and others, again, colour their reports with 

 the temperaments of their authorities. The only facts 

 to be relied on are those founded on the narrow limits 

 of ocular observation, and the still narrower of actual 

 possession. There can be no dispute that in some soils 

 and localities the crop is far safer than in others, so far 

 as the tuber is concerned, or the plague spots on the 



4;«*, ~* _ £ t • .' ~ r stems, or in the latter retaining more or less verdure • 



SSJ? ??™J™ f* 8 £° m h ^. R °y al Ei Shne SS yet neither the same soils nor the same sorts of ToUtoes 



that have escaped in one year are to be trusted to in 

 another with unlimited confidence ; for in the second 

 year of the disease the bog or peat soils were compara- 

 tively safe, in the third year these soils did not so gene- 

 rally escape. In after years they were more commonly 

 free, but this year the first instance I heard of some 

 extensive disease was in the neighbouring bog land, and 

 I am told this is not very uncommon in other localities. 

 So in the Potatoes themselves, some kinds are much 

 more seriously affected than others ; thus in Donegal a 

 very delicious and universally planted Potato called 

 1 Cuffs (not Cups) and Downs suffered so much in the 



and ought to think rightly, that " Every years j 

 convinces us of the utility of this practice, yei 

 it questionable. When it was first P r0 P°^\^- ^ 

 an opinion that it was too late to cut off ^^rf 

 the disease became visible in them, as the circ ^ 

 *u^ ««~ ™«c* viofni-tt +h* fundus showed k»j ^ 



appearance preceded the disease, 



of the** 



very unlikely, since, m the very fars f^ atioII ot* 



the tops showed none, or very little ^ ^ . 



disease, it was not observed, and almost in ^ 



hole «? 



represented in this gTeat industrial meeting, except 

 by implements. Messrs. Lawson's admirable exhi- 

 bition of Scotch produce is a curious and instructive 

 museum ; of Messrs. Gibbs' wooden bowls, the less 

 said the better ; and there's an end, with the excep- 

 tion of some fine samples from his Royal Highness 

 Prince A lbekt, and a few other exhibitors, and some 

 most curious hybrid productions from Mr. Maund 

 and Mr. Ratnbirj>. We are therefore justified in 

 repeating that our own field crops are hardly reDre- 

 sented. J * 



Messrs. Wrench have, however, in part supplied 

 the deficiency, by placing on the tables some very 

 beautiful samples of the kinds of Corn, Puke &c 

 which are most important to English growers'. Ag 

 a representation of British wants and capabilities 

 this leaves little to be desired, the samples showing 



perished from it after being stored. A + 



just now occurred confirms very much tn» v ^ 

 leads me to dread that we shall sutler w ^ 

 extent this year when we come to store tne • ^, 

 of last December I planted, for an eany ^r ^ 

 -„/^i „t — - •* „,;*i» Tvnitrli Kemps. x 1&ra iite* 



extent this year when we come 



* 'tau t 



[emps. 

 about half of them before there was any fPP^'rf * 



rood of ground with rough Kemps. 



aoout nan 01 mem Deiorc wi«" ■ — h;iiitsoBi eul I l 

 disease ; when the leaves began to exmu ^ 

 usual withering, 1 continued to dig for a* j f ^g 

 dug the whole with scarcely any * n ™»*Z tuber s. j 

 the stems, and with only three disetf ^ 

 levelling a part of the ground, on the ii»« ~ ^g* 

 tubers were found (three or four P oun ^ on » p** 

 than half were badly diseased ; these w ^ ^ 

 the ground which was not dug out ou ^ ^und^ 



had begun to wither. 



In the part rf,*Lj£iB*ff 



had been previously dug out, before lu. ^ 

 *£ u+t*>~*t~~ fU^kwa fmind were p ei -j #ill g»* £ 



of infection, the tubers found 



have more of this rood of ground to levt , 



future result hereafter. J 



Pis." In" m"y~ paper of the 29th A««gw ^ el eg 

 the amount of this year's poor-ra u. ^ in w* 



division of Scrably, was 1 Is- in " ie P° of Urd^ 

 horan 9s. ; at a subsequent ineetul ° ^ uC ed. 

 rate has been revised and very mucn 







