41 



1851.1 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



food for cows, ana is very graeauy ewwa uy uiu aumiai 

 eh !o well upon the food in all respects. The steame 

 yoots are best prepared for swine in being mashed and 



in 



meals, and given to the anini: 

 ■arm condition. Haw Parsn 



nutritious to store pigs in the open yards. 



The cultivation of Parsnips is mostly confined to the 

 Channel Islands, aud some favourable spots in Kent. 



~ " * ___ a 1 Z warm climate, 



wmm # _ ; of the first oualitv of sane 



average prod 



are compared, 



weight of Potatoes in 8 tons 



The plant indispensably requires an early, 

 and dry soils of the first quality of sandy loam. The 

 ige produce of an acre of Parsnips is 12 tons, which 



as below, with the average acreable 



Y2 tons (?<5, 

 contain : 





lbs.) Parsnips | 3 tons (17 920 lbs.) Potatoes 



contain : 



• • • 



Water 



Organic unazotic 



protein compounds 



Ashes 



. - . 



• • f 



• • • 



i • 



• • • 



• ■ t 



lbs. 

 21,54 

 4,Gi2 

 561 

 333 



t i * 



Water 



Organic unazotic 



Tf^rein compounds 



Asnea 



• • * 



- - . 



• •« 



« * 4 



• • • 



• ■ • 



lbs. 



14,228 



3,054 



4H 



294 



This statement may be too favourable to the Par 

 it it is confirmed by the following particulars : — 



l Potatoes, 





« • • 



Water 



Starch and fibre 



Gum 



Sugar 



Albumen 



In 100 parts of Parscips. 



• i • 



■ 



• • > 



• . . 



• •• 



• . • 



» • • 



• • • 



• • • 



• ■ ■ 



* - • 



• • • 



• • ■ 



• . . 



fit 



. . . 



73.4 

 6.9 

 G I 



2.1 



75.5 



19.0 



JfJfW 



1.4 freshening. 



eninff 



Z The fattening quality of sugar is well known, and 

 generally acknowledged. Bullocks fresh in condition 

 from the summer's feeding on Clover or good Grass, ar 

 put in the feeding stalls about the 1st of October, where 

 they have three meals, daily, of roots, sliced lengthwise, 

 and hay is given between cacli meal of Parsnips. An 

 ordinary ox will eat one hundred weight, daily, of the 

 roots, when first put to be fattened. Water* is given 

 once in a day, and Cabbages or Potatoes are given occa- 

 sionally, in order to change the food, and prevent cloying 

 on the Parsnips. Three tons of Parsnips and one ton 

 of hay aw required to fatten, by Christmas, an ox of 

 about JO to 80 stones of dead weight. Young cattle 

 thrive very well on raw Parsnips given them in the cribs 

 during winter. Pigs are beginning to feed on Parsnips, 

 with the tops and roots during the month of September, 

 and soon l^rn to refuse the tops, and are treated wit) 

 the roots only, which are best given in a boiled state. 

 No grain is employed as food during the fattening 

 process. It is found that boiling the roots increases the 

 quantity of pork, but the quality is rendered flabby. 

 Pigs of *20 months old reach the large weight of 24 to 82 

 imperial stones by this treatment. Parsnips increase 

 the quantity of butter, but not the milk, in the case of 

 milch cows— while Turnips increase the milk, and not 

 the butter, which shows the fat-producing quality of 

 Parsnips. The pulpy quality of Parsnips renders the 

 food not comfortable to the human taste, but it 

 may be corrected by eating with it some drier articles, 

 as stale bread, or hardened crusts. One part of Par- 

 snips to two of flour makes good bread, and grated 

 Parsnips with flour in one-third part are boiled in a 

 cloth as dumplings, or baked by the heat of the oven in 

 a pie-dish, constitutes a substantial mess, and may be 

 flavoured to please the palate. 



Parsnips contain much saccharine juice, are sweeter 

 than Carrots, and are brewed instead of malt with hops, 

 and fermented with yeast. The liquor is very agree- 

 able to the taste. Parsnips contain in 1000 parts 99 

 of soluble matter. 



Chemical analysis gives more soluble nutritious mat- 

 ter to the Carrot and Parsnip than to the Turnip ; yet 

 the general utility of the latter plant is quite indisput- 

 able. For every use of the root, the Turnip is best in 

 the raw state — Parsnips are best when boiled, in every 

 case -Carrots raw for horses, and steamed for swine — 

 Potatoes steamed for horses and pigs, and raw for 

 cattle ; and these preparations, being attended with 



some expense, add to the ready superiority of the 

 Turnip. J.D, J 





u 



EMIGRATION. 



National prosperity is just the aggregate of the 



prosperity of individuals. We do not believe that a 



society with a more patriotic object could be formed 



than one to promote emigration." Agricultural G. te, 

 P. 588, 1851. 



Is this a true exponent in political economy ? Is it 

 not rather a sophistical putting forth ? Does it not con- 

 vey the impression that national prosperity is, as it ought 

 f *i?' an a 2Sregate of the prosperity of every individual 

 ?i the state, or at least of the far greater number of 

 Jjwmduals ! Yet is this strictly true, and may not the 

 national prosperity be very great, while the individual 

 Prosperity may be limited to very few, the mass being in 

 some miserable state of existence I Wealth is the 

 jynonyme of prosperity ; England is held rich and 

 Prosperous, yet may her state at any moment become 

 f*o*rupt that her creditors may choose to compel her 

 ™ Pay her debt ; fortunately for her, her own children 

 are ho P creditors ; but is not her wealth too much con- 

 entrated for her general happiness, or is it like the 

 aters of the ocean, but gathered in vast reservoirs 



°m thence to be again-dispersed over mountain, plain, 

 ■M vallev. 



Y^t us suppose two nations, each with a population of 



8"t millions, that in the one the whole of the people, 



su 'h ^ ,giuni ; for example, live in much comfort, that 



ind^'T S -° ^^ use< i * s tne general prosperity that each 



iMdual is able to realise ten shillings a year over his 



ttatl ex P enf liture ; the national wealth then, the aggre- 



form Weal lh -° f theSe illdividual8 > W K in their content, 



iava/i a na ^ ona * guard and security which none dare 



*«>, amounts to four millions. In the other country 



two millions ot the population amass by tl labour of 

 the other six millions, who are wretchedly lodged, 

 clothed, and fed like— like— Irishmen — over all costs of 

 realisation six pounds each annually, and the national 

 wealth of this country amounts to twelve millions; but 

 the mass of the people in their discontent are ready to 

 be led a way by any one who holds out any hope of 

 amelioration. The national prosperity or ' i is 



evidently in favour of the latter nation, but the indi 

 vidual happiness, another term for prosperity, is as 

 certainly in favour of the former. 



America is prosperous, but the creators of the 

 prosperityof her southern States are slaves— are these 

 happy. Their numerous attempts to escape from their 



say they are not. In the same condition were o\i 

 West India Islands in the time of their prosperity. 



The Irish, before the loss of the Potato/ exported 

 a surplus produce of 13 millions, every individual 

 was a capitalist to the amount of his year's provision — 

 yet was Ireland prosperous or 'her people happy ! 

 And yet each contributed to the national wealth. 



Nature, in the hive of the indu-rious bee, seems to 

 ive us a good lesson on political economy ; the greater 

 the number of working bees, the greater the produce of 

 honey, the more powerful to resist aggression. It 

 appears then a strange corollary that of the lessening 

 the number of creators of national wealth, the working 

 bees, by emigration. 



It is said, *Wby lament that tl y are going when 

 they will be better off?'' I am not one of those qaernlous 

 Irishmen who carp at everything — who, right or wrong, 

 lay all our evils on the shoulders of England, or think 

 that a Government is fully equal to the task of warding 

 off those ills which are the consequences of our own 

 misdeeds, our negligences, or our selfishnesses. I am 

 of those who think; that a Government can [indeed do 

 very little towards the prosperity of a people, yet that it 

 can do more than it generally does, and that it ought to 

 <To it. I do not look upon the pr ospe ri ty of Jreland, or 

 to the excessive emigration which is now depopulating 

 her as a pure Irish question, but as on its bearing with 

 the prosperity of the United Kin lom. 1 lament 

 not that any man should avail himself of any honest 

 means of bettering his condition, t but I grieve that 

 circumstances should have arisen to make Ireland no 



taxes, and with markets but a shade lower, we shou 

 not be able to pay more remunerative wages to our 

 labourers.^ There is, certainly, in this some want of 

 liberality in the employers, but then general] exist* 

 much poverty ; there is very great ficitney of real 

 agricultural capital, and there is no obtaining ar idal 

 capital ; the monied man feels no security in the agricul- 

 turist, and will rather be content with the small interest 

 the public fun Is afford, than incur the chance of «s in 

 the high one the farmer would be coutent to give, and 

 which he could turn to good account Our banks in 

 tl ir issues at tliree months, are pnly available to men 

 in i^liop trades ; and even had we baiika established suit- 

 able to the farmer, [under our present circumstances, I 

 fear there are very few that would be trusted* 1 do 

 not say that they are unworthy of confidence, or that 

 much would be ffcked, but that tl v could not cive that 



for 



ould be reasonal 



mer in Ireland i 



the richer men are almost invariably irraziers. that 



as to 



longer regarded by Irishmen n their home ; I regret 



that they should have been forced by the ignorance, the 

 neglect, the supineness, or the inability to meet a great 

 exingency, in those who govern us, to look to Amcri 





to a people jealous of on r power — as their only refnge from 

 wretchedness, their only resource, save Che poor-house, 

 from starvation. I am pained that all these ties of affinity 

 and friendship which constitute ftie charms of home have 

 been transferred from the Irish soil to the American, 

 and I make these observations with the more heartfelt 

 sorrow, as I am assured it is now too late to check the 

 tide of emigration — the Irishman has ceased to look 

 on Ireland as the home of the Irishman ; all hi 

 affections, all the ties that bind him, are in America; 

 there is, perhaps, scarcely a family in Ireland that has 

 not one of its members in America, who, with the zeal 

 of a proselyte, will exert every means to gain over the 

 rest of his family. 



National prosperity, truly, is just the aggregate of 

 the prosperity of its population, and is in proportion to 

 the extent, and to the profitable employment of that 

 population; and on these also its strength and security 

 proportionally depend. How emigration to a foreign 

 State can tend to these ends I am at a loss to conjecture. 

 Had we, indeed, an excessive population, and an emigra- 

 tion from it peopled a well regulated colony of our own, 

 generally received opinion would be in favour of such 

 an emigration being serviceable to the parent Statf 

 But without capital to occupy farms of sufficient extent 

 to employ machinery, the loss of labourers will throw 

 our land out of tillage, we shall cease to be the granary 

 of England, we may become her stock farm; and I 

 should think it a serious question of how far it be good 

 economy to trust a nation's bread to foreign supply. It 

 is well known that in the late war half our troops were I 



the land is scarcely ever so laboured or manured 



ive the return it is naturally capable of. 1 1 appear* 

 that when the value of the produce of an acre of land 



ir Great Britain averap I 42, 7s. 7</., that of an sere- 

 in Ireland only averaged 2/. i)s. id. With a population 



of over eight millions, the exports from In land in i^rain, 

 Hour,' and meal, in] the years 1JI38,' 1«39, and 1840* 

 amounted in money value to 13,804,311/. Willi a 

 population deereased to six millions and a half in tli#- 

 v rs 18 Id, 1849, and 18o0, these exports did not 

 reach one-half of that amount, /.c, to only G,130,217£, 

 nor does this convey a just idea of this decrease in our 

 national wealth ; for in these three last years the humbler 

 classes of our people have be. n dieted almoet exclu- 

 sively on Am rican Maize, at a cost equal u>, if not 

 exec ling, the [amount of these exports. Our exports 

 in cattle and In cattle produce have perhaps decreased 

 proportionally, while hi swine, poultry, and eggs, they 

 have held no proportion whatever j thej had, indeed, 

 almost ceased altogether. 



When our population amounted to eight millions it 

 was calculated that the aggregate of unemployed 

 amounted, in the 12 months, to two millions, or nearly 

 400,000 virile adults ; it must not, however, be under- 

 stood that these were all able labourers, at least one- 

 half of them were persons who from a e or infirmity 

 would not be employed. In the deaths by famine and 

 disease, consequent on starvation, the proportions- 

 between the al bodied men and the intirm persons and 

 hildrcn, perhaps, welt as nearly preserved as in ordi- 

 nary times ; and if we reckon these deaths at one million, 

 able-bodied men to the amount of 200,000 ha \ <hed. 

 In emigration the great mass has been in adults ; and 

 reckoning it to have amounted to 600,000, we may set 



down the loss in able-bodied labourers to at least 2 .000. 

 Setting then the 200,000 deaths by famine and disease 

 against the 200,000 unemployed previous to the famine, 

 we have 250,000 labourers lees th i were then found 

 requisite to our agricultural labours. And it is to bo 

 recollected that ( en then none were employed but ia 

 the hand-to-mouth operations of cropping and securing 

 crops. No railways, no draiuings, made a demand on 

 our labour market. 



The agricultural, indeed the general prosperity oi 

 Ireland, is to be Bought for, not in emigration, not in 

 getting rid of her industrious bees— for her hive is not 

 too crowded, she does not want to throw off a swarm — 

 but in the discovery of some way of supplying her 

 agriculturists with the means of working up the raw 



Home Correspondence. 



Oa, . — I have read many valuable articles of my 

 friend Cuthill's ; but I should flatter him too much were 

 I not in limine to inform him that I neither agree with; 

 the opinions he has come to against game ml game 

 preservers, nor do I like the arguments he has made 

 use of to enforce them ; and I add my own opinion that 



w W ni »«vw« — . >» «« >~* t~ »«. *-,- ._«, - - information 



Irish; what has been may be again, and in the event of a completely deceived him. For one example a 



future war, to the desolate hills and plains of Ireland we 

 may in vain look for the recruiting of our armies. It 

 may not be better economy to find our soldiers in a 

 foreign clime than to look there for our bread. 



The diminished population has already been felt in 



former 

 game-preservers, on becoming farmers themselves, did 



not give up preserving game! 1 ' To which question I 

 replied that my expe nee, and it had been rattier con- 

 siderable, was iust the reverse to this conclusion ; fory 





Ireland; this harvest it was difficult to procure reapers | out of all the game preservers I knew, and I add now r 

 for twenty pence a day, while in years when our grain out of all that I now know, with one solitary exception, 

 brought in the market half as much more than we are all of them farm a portion of their estates, and some of 



° " rare them farm extensively. In his present letter my friend 



and opponent, seemingly better to recollect himself, 



thing. 



It is true, and there is much reason to grieve that it 



asks if four gentlemen whom he names did not do 90» 



is so, the wages 

 circumstances of 



farmers are also so low that they prove I Nothing whatever, but that out of a populatio 



of 28,000,000 of souls, 



himsical 



will be the consequences, when, from the decreased 

 amount of labour in the market, its value shall have 

 increased beyond the means of the farmer to employ 

 even enough for the very sordid tillage he can now afford ? 

 It has been the labour of my life to devise profitable 



employment for a large, though I will not admit, ex- repeat, that I am not a ^™^™3 , 

 cessive peculation : iHias been labour in vain, for now [seldom partake of game when it is placed b 



cessive population ; it has been labour in vain, for now 

 it has become necessary to leftk to such simple and 

 cheap machinery as will supply the want of hands, and 

 meet the abilities of our farmers and the extent of their 



farms 



them probably— ceased to be game-preservers. 1 grant 

 that they did so, but what then ? I repeat, nothing ; and 

 ex nihil nihil fit. I therefore leave my friend's other 

 arguments, and come at once to the subject ; but before 

 1 do so, let me, to prevent misrepresentation, again 

 repeat, that I am not a sportsman, and that I but very 



and am "more of a vegetarian than a sh ater ; but 

 that I take up this subject purely on public grounds, 

 believing, as I sincerely do, that the bent fit derived by 

 farmer 



J? must appear matter of some wonder, that with ' sates for the exaggerated mischief said to be done to 





* 



