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1851.1 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



665 



PERUVIAN GUANO. 

 AUTION TO AGRICULTURISTS. 



^ It being notorious that extensive adulterations of thia 



mv iTRE are still carried on, 

 IA " ANTONY GIBBS AND SONS. AS THE 



ONLY* IMPORTERS OF PERUVIAN GUANO, 

 r miider it to be their duty to the Peruvian Government and 

 to the Public again to recommend Farmers and all others who 

 tu? to be carefully on their guard. 



the character of the partus from whom they purchase will 

 *•* murae be the best security, and in addition to particular 

 2£ntiun to that point, ANTONY GIBBS and SONS think it 

 well to remind buyers that— 



• ffl* lowest wholesale price at which sound Peruvian 

 Guano has been sold by them during the last two years 

 u 91. 5s. per toneless 2J per cent. 



Kn\ resale! maid* by dealers at t l<>wer price must therefore 

 either leave a losa to them, or the article must be adulter ated. 



nM!E~LONDON "MANURE COMPANY beg to 



X otf«r PERUVIAN GUANO, warranted perfectly genuine ; 

 Saj^iphosphate of Lime, Wheat Manure, Concentrated Urate, 

 Irish Peat Charcoal, Gypsum, Nitrate of Soda, and every arti- 

 ficial Manure, on the best terms. Also a constant supply of 

 Salt for Agricultural purposes, at a low rate. English and 

 Foreign Linseed Cake, Rape Cake, &c. 



Edwar d Purser, Secretary, Bridge-street, Blackfriar*. 



\/f ANURES. — The following Manures are mauu- 



iVl factured at Mr. Lawes's Factory, Deptford Creek : 



Clover Manure, per ton £11 



Turnip Manure, do. ^ 7 



Superphosphate of Lime 7 



Sulphuric Acid and Coprolites 5 



Office, 69, King William-street, City, London. 

 N.fl. Peruvian Guano, guaranteed to contain 16 per cent, of 

 Ammonia, 91. 103. per ton ; and for 5 tons or more, 9t. 5s. per 

 ton, in dock. Sulph ate of Ammonia, <fec. 



PUT. F.C.S.. F.G.S.. Consulting and 



JM 



London.— PKIYATE INSTRUCTIONS in Chemical Analysis, 

 ■nd the most approved methods of making ARTIFICIAL 

 MANURES. Analysis of Soils, Manures, Minerals, «fcc, per- 

 formed as usual, on moderate terms. 



fy I RMINGH AM ~CAT TLE SHOW, 1851. — The 



J3 Certificates of Entry for CATTLE, SHEEP, PIGS, and 

 POULTRY, are now ready, and, with the PRIZE LISTS, may 

 be had on application to Mr. Edwabd Lathbcry, at the Office, 

 So. 2, Insurance Buildings, Union Passage. Intending Exhi- 

 oitors are particularly requested to mention the nature of the 

 Stock for which they require Certificates, as a separate form is 



necessary for each Entry. 



Attention is also requested to the regulations, as set forth 

 in the Prize Sheets, that no entry can be received for Cattle in 

 •Classes 1 to 13 inclusive, or for any of the Classes of Sheep or 

 Pigs, without the Breeder's Certificate, in all cases in which 

 the Exhibitor is not the Breeder also.— The Entries close on 

 SATURDAY, November 15. T. B. Wright, Hon. Sec. 



Birmingham, Oct. 18. 



SMITHFIELD CLUB, 18.51.— CHK1STM AS FAT 

 CATTLE SHOW.— Prize Sheets and Blank printed Forms 

 of Certificates may now be obtained, on application to the 

 Honorary Secretary. 

 The last day for receiving Entries is SATURDAY, the 15th 



NOVEMBER. 1851. 



The Anniversary Dinner of the Club will take place at the 

 Freemasons' Tavern on the Wednesday of the Show Week, 



Instead of the Friday, as heretofore. 



B. T. Brandreth Gibbs, Hon. Sec, 

 ' Corner of Half M«v»n- s treet, Piccadilly. London. 



IJAKER'S FHEASAiNTKY, Beaurort-street, Kings'- 



-D road, Chelsea, by special appointment to her Majesty and 

 H.R. H. Prince Albert.— ORNAMENTAL WATER FOWL, 

 consisting of black and white swans, Egyptian, Canada, China, 

 barnacle, brent, and laughing geese, Bhieldrakes, pintail, 

 widgeon, summer and winter teal, gadwall, Labrador, 

 shovellers, gold-eyed and dun divers, Carolina ducks. «fcc, 

 domesticated and pinioned ; also Spanish, Cochin China, 

 Malay, Poland, Surrey, and Dorking fowls ; white, Japan, pied 

 and common pea-fowl, and pure China pigs ; and at 3, Half- 

 moon-passage, Grace church-street, London. 



STEPHENSON and Co., 61, Gracechurch-street, 

 London, and 17, New Park-street, Southwark, Inventors 

 and Manufacturers of the Improved CONICAL and DOUBLE 

 CYLINDRICAL BOILERS, respectfully solicit the attention of 

 scientific Horticulturists to their much Improved method of 

 applying the Tank System to Pineries, Propagating Houses, 

 &c.,* by which atmospheric heat as well as bottom heat is 

 lecured to any required degree, without the aid of pipes or flues. 

 S. and Co. have also to state that at the request of numerous 

 friends they are now making their Boilers of Iron, as well as 

 Copper, by which the cost is reduced. These Boilers, which 

 are now so well known, scarcely require description ; but to 

 those who have not seen them in operation, prospectuses will 

 be forwarded, as well as references of the highest authority ; or 

 they may be seen at most of the Nobility's seats and principal 

 Nurseries throughout the Kingdom. 



S. and Co. beg to inform the Trade that at their Manufactory, 

 17, New Park-sireet, every article required for. the construction 

 of Horticultural Buildings, as well as for heating them, may 

 be obtained upon the most advantageous terms. 



Conservatories, &c, of Iron or Wood, erected on the most 

 ornamental designs. Balconies, Palisading, Field and Garden 

 Fences, W ire-work, <fcc. 



"" MILK. UilJSfcSK, AlND BUTTER. 



HENRY BAKER, Optician, 90, Hatton Garden, 

 London, advises any one who keeps Cows to send two 

 postage atamps, and obtain a description of his LACTOM B T E K, 

 with its uses, and the results of emperiments with it upon dif- 

 ferent Milks. Lactometers, complete, in a mahogany box, 

 10.*. 6<J. ; Do., with cheaper fittings, 75. 6d. and 5s. ; Hydro- 

 meters for testing sulphuric acid, 5*., 7*., and I0#. No con- 



sumer of acid should be without one, as it is oiten sold highly 

 diluted. Saccharometers for Brewing, with tables, 5s. , 75., and 

 IO5. Pediment Barometers, from H. each. Wheel Barome- 

 ters, from II. Is. each. Packed carefully for the country, there 

 being nothing to fear of them getting out of order, as they are 

 warranted to be properly made and good instruments. 



agricultural iBwttt. 



SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1851. 



MEETINGS FOB THE Tw7fOLLOW1NG wAKS. 

 TaonsoAT. Oct. 23— Agricultural Imp. Soc. of Ireland. 

 Thumdit, — 30— Agricultural Imp. Soc. of Ireland. 



cross the river into Essex and JSutFolk, and they will j of reducing the numbei of hoi 

 see soils not only of the same quality, but much 

 stronger, ploughed well with a pair of horses. The 

 arms of Kent are a white horse, and its motto 

 " InvictaV There is the utmost propriety in bofh : 



X I s 



in 





Actjeon was not more completely devoured by his 

 hounds than Kentish agriculture by its horses ; and 

 the prejudices of the men of Kent in favour of 

 their ancient and cumbrous implement, seem to be 

 all but invincible. They appear to cherish it as one 

 of the Saxon privileges, for the preservation of 

 which they stipulated in their celebrated treaty 

 concluded with the Norman at Swanscombe. 



Some 50 years ago, Marshall remarked on the 

 paucity of live stock kept in Kent ; and speculating 

 as to the quarter in which a market was found for 

 the green crops grown there in such profusion, ar- 

 rived at the conclusion that it was no other than the 

 stables of the farm yards, with their numerous 

 pampered horses, kept always in a state " fit for the 

 butcher ;" and that there the whole of the Oats, 

 Beans, Clover, Sainfoin, and Lucerne, which were 

 ijrown without end, entered a sink which was never 

 closed. A' little relaxation is good for editors as 

 well as other people. We therefore in the course of 

 last spring made a tour into Kent ; and enjoyed the 

 opportunity of seeing, on the farm of a friend, the 

 performances of the turn-wrest plough in preparing 

 a Turnip fallow. The land had been ploughed and 

 manured in the autumn, and wa receiving its second 

 furrow. The soil was a loam with a few dispersed 

 flints,— strong enough for Wheat, not too strong for 

 Barley or Turnips, or for feeding off the latter on 

 the land. We had cultivated a soil as strong in an 

 adjoining county, where three horses were the order 

 of the day, with two-horse ploughs ; and our regular 

 day's work, under the same circumstances, would 

 have been an acre and a quarter to each plough, 

 ploughed in furrows 7 inches deep. The field 

 which we saw ploughed in Kent, contained by 

 estimation 10 



employed _ 

 Kentish farmii , and were told it was impossible 

 u on our soils." • Th are more difficult to plough 

 than they seem. Your little kickety plon is have 

 been tried, but they won't d. ' A marvellous change 

 had now come over our friend. We remarked to 



by actual measurement, we 

 found it rather more than nine acres and three 

 quarters. Four teams were brought to bear on it 

 during two days, and three during one day ; each 

 team consisting of four horses, which we were told 

 were worth GO/, each ; and beautiful horses they 

 certainly were, short, compact, clean-legged, and by 

 nature active. Any two of them would have been 

 capable, if not so fat, of doing more work than was 

 performed by the lour. The keep of our horses 

 consisted of two bushels of Oats each, weekly ; to 

 which was added, in seed time, half a bushel of 

 Beans. They had no hay in the racks, but received 

 it all in the manger, cut into chaff, one-third by 

 weight of Wheat straw, to two-thirds of hay. 

 With this food they were always in good working 

 condition ; so good, as frequently to draw from our 

 neighbours inquiries as to how they were fed, that 

 they looked so much better than their own. We 

 never learned how the horses of our Kentish friend 



Wi would advise those who think that ploughing 

 ^'ith a pair of horses has been adopted in all 

 districts in the south of England which are capable 

 of being so ploughed, to visit the county of Kent. 

 I hey will there see the turn-wrest plough with its 

 four, and even six horses flourishing in full vigour, 

 ** *n the days of the Heptarchy. Let them then 1 10 years. 



were fed ; and we question whether in this respect 

 he had much the advantage of us ; his men helping 

 themselves to hay, and thinking it no robbery to steal 

 corn from their master's barn for his own horses. 

 However they were fed, they were fit for the butcher ; 

 each team was attended by two men; for the drivers 

 were quite old and strong enough to have held the 

 plough themselves. The force thus employed in 

 ploughing these ten acres with furrows not more 

 than four inches deep, was, as we have said, equal 

 to eleven days' work of one four-horse team. With 

 the same number of men and horses we should have 

 ploughed, with two-horse ploughs, not less than 

 27 acres. Our friend carries his produce to market 

 in the same expensive style, with four of these 

 horses to a waggon ; and So not their bells jingle 



merrily as they enter the town of on a market - 



day ? We should add, that he complains bitterly 

 of the times, and is confident every farmer in 

 the land will be obliged to take refuge in the 

 gaol or the workhouse, unless the price of Wheat 

 can, by hook or by crook, be raised Si, a quarter. 

 He wanted an additional 5s. when he was plough- 

 ing his Turnip fallow in April, and the averages 

 1 were something above 39$. ; and we found him still 

 wanting 5s. at the meeting of the Royal Agricultural 

 Society at Windsor when they had risen to 42s. 6a 1 . 



But there is progress even in Kent. We travelled 

 on the North Kent Railway, with a party of Kentish 

 farmers, by whom the usual round of agricultural 

 topics was discussed. To our surprise we found 

 one of them maintaining, against the others, the 

 practicability of ploughing the Kentish soils with 

 two horses. For the sake of argument, we espoused 

 the opposite side of the question ; and were referred 

 by him to a farm of good stiff land, which, however, 

 we had not time to visit, where he said we might 

 see the two-h^rse ploughs in successful operation 

 Before w6 left the county we visited another Kentish 

 farmer whom we had not seen for more than 

 1 10 vears. We had then hinted at the practicability 



him that we had seen some iron ploughs, not at 

 work, however, in one of his fields which appeared 

 designed for two horses. " No," he replied, " for three. 

 We have knocked off two ; if we had not, we 

 should not be able to keep our heads above water 

 in«these times." In other respects, 10 years had 

 wrought a wonderful alteration in our friend. He 

 would then hear of no manure but good rotten dung ; 

 and desDised light manures as much as he despised 



At our recent visit he entered into 



if London dune were 



6 





I 



light ploughs. At our 

 calculations to prove that 



given to him for nothing, delivered at the water 

 side, within six miles of a hilly farm— tl carriage, 

 with the filling and spreading, would cost more than 

 the purchase, carriage, and distribution of as much 

 uano and bone-dust as would product crops equally 

 good. In another 10 years, we have no doubt, he 

 will have adopted two-horse ploughs. Time is an 

 important element in agricultural improvement. 

 We know by experience the annoyances attending 

 their introduction in a new district: ising from the 

 prejudices of the men. The difficulty of overcoming 

 these, causes many farmers to adhere to the old 

 system of three and four horses, who are convinced 

 in their own minds that their land might be 

 ploughed with two. There is a silver key, how- 

 ever, which will open the most in ite lock more 

 effectually than the celebrated American lock- 

 in ith. An extra shilling or two of wages for 

 the man who works a pair of hor soon re- 

 conciles the ploughmen to the innovation, which 

 would be cheaply purchased by giving him all the 

 wages paid to the driver, and saving only in the 

 article of horse keep. When we undertook to 

 cultivate a farm in a neighbouring county to Kent, 

 with two horses, the agricultural oracles of the 

 neighbourhood gave us three years to drag the 

 plough along the surface ; and instances were 

 adduced, to the great terror of the landlord, who 

 imagined we should spoil his land, in which the 

 same thing had been attempted and failed. We 

 persevered, however, for 14 years. It was admitted 

 by that time by the more candid of our neighbours, 

 that our ploughing was as good as theirs ; and some 

 of them even began to use two horses occasionally, 

 when giving a second or third -plot. hing. 



A regular hob-nail farmer from another three- 

 horse coutity, who succeeded us, adopted the two 

 horse ploughs without a moment's hesitation, as a 

 great improvement ; and has persevered in the use 

 of them for 20 years. There has been in the interval 

 an Agricultural Society established in the district. 

 At the ploughing matches of this Society there are 

 now prizes given for ploughing with two as well 

 three-horse ploughs; and at those matches quite as 

 many of the former start as of the latter. It will 

 be the same in Kent some 30 years hence, as well 

 as in some other districts, which ill rejoice in their 

 three and four-horse teams, and which we are told 

 cannot be ploug hed with less strength. 



Erratum : The word printed •■ write" in the 42d line of last 

 wfek'i leading article wai written "wUn." Head therefor* 

 " ' Lonj? lire Prince Albert/ say all who with for the advance- 

 ment," Ac. ' ' I 



THE STEAM PLOUGH. 



I ought not to have required your renewed invitation 

 to * develop a little further my ideas of Steam-cultiva- 

 tion/ But if I were to begin making excuses for silence, 

 you and the readers of the Gazette, who got their eyes 

 once entangled in my letter, would soon find yourselves 

 in a labyrinth of explanation which I would rather try 

 to cut short with the old Persian motto that " Speech 

 may be silvern, but silence is golden." In other, and 

 short, words, — I have been purposely silent ; because I 

 would rather the subject developed itself ; as I am sure 

 \ will. I have received several private communications, 

 of most interesting reference to my last letter, but which 

 I have found it impossible to answer personally . Life is 

 not long enough for an extra-daily correspondence, i£ 

 its ordinary duties are to be fulfilled ; at least as the 

 penny postage has bequeathed them. 



But besides this, I have a sort of mysterious inde- 

 scribable faith in slowness. Everything great and true 

 in its time, has been hard at the birth. And I have a 

 heavy troublesome leaden conviction on my mind, that 

 won't give way, by day or night, that my idea on thia 

 same subject of steam-engine agriculture is utterly true. 



But it is one thing to see a matter as plain as a pike- 

 staff befor your own eyes, and to put it into language 

 very simple to your own mind prepared to understand 

 it, and a very different thing to make it intelligible to 

 those who have never given any express attention to it 

 before. The fault may be just as much in the writer aa 

 the reader : and with this assurance I have blamed 

 myself, in self defence against the loss of patience that 

 has sometimes threatened me, when I see the unaccount- 

 able misinterpretation of my meaning, which some o£ 

 my correspondents have disclosed. I have had towads 



