588 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE 



being made 



Wheat -rowing lands in Ireland at least, and have said 

 nothing of the millions of acres now waste in Ireland 

 that never could be made to grow a good or fair sample 

 of even Irish Wheat as it is, but quite capable of growing 

 sugar B-et,and other crops of a suitable kind in succession, 

 of better quality than could be grown on the best Wheat 

 land in the kingdom. You will please observe I 

 am speaking now from practical experience, not as a 

 mere theorising philosopher. I am « trusting to industry 

 and perseverance in the ordinary means" of our country, 

 « for which her climate fits her— not to that fitful energy 

 which seeks a sudden fortune in doubtful matters," but 

 in « the right policy for Ireland if," not as you say, 

 * she could be led into it," but as I say, if she would 

 be let into it. You talk very calmly, as you are wont to 

 do, of " patient continuance in well-doing," as if you 

 believed what no other man, if he knows Ireland, can 

 believe, that as things are going on, that any man outside 

 the Government officials can be said to be " well-doing." 

 Will you please turn to our census reports, to our even 

 cushioned poor-house reports, to our emigration reports, 

 to our commercial reports, and have a sharp look-out 

 for the exaggerated agricultural statistical reports, now 



le out by our constabulary, look to our poor- 

 rates, look to the "ration aid," now levied off the indus- 

 trious, for the support of the idle and profligate in high 

 and low quarters, and then ask yourself, are we " well- 

 doing," or likely to do well 1 Come over amongst us, 

 and judge of us as we are ; and trust not to the mis- 

 representations of interested parties, who would picture 

 us as we are not, and then judge for yourself impartially 

 of what we ought, can, and will be, if even-handed justice 

 be but doled out to us ; and such laws given by our 

 governors as will compel us to do justice to one another ; 

 for mind, in my enthusiasm, as an Irishman, I am 

 very far from thinking we are more infallible than the 

 other sons of Adam all over the world. All we want is 

 fair play; and if I am not much mistaken in you, you at 

 least will give us that in as far as you are personally 

 concerned. Do us justice, and you will find us good and 

 faithful allies; but if you deny it us, you will, in the end, 



have ample cause to regret it Edward Carroll^ Aug. 27. 



[Does Mr. Carroll mean to say that it will pay to grow 



Irish Tobacco for 3d. or even Qd. a lb., which is its outside 



value, if not protected 1 Or does he mean that it ought 



to be protected, in order that the Irish may inundate 



our markets with a bad article at 10 times its real 

 value ?] 



Poultry. — On reading the article by " E. F. W,," on 

 Poultry, I was much struck with the similarity to my 

 own birds ; and perhaps it may bring to light some facts 

 respecting the breed, if persons of experience will state 

 what they know on the subject. I bought a white 

 Cochin China cock and a grey cock, and let them run 

 with some buff-coloured hens and grey hens ; and 1 find 

 all the chickens from the grey and white cocks, with 

 buff hens, are of the different colours quite pure ; for 

 instance, the buff chickens have not a white feather ; 

 neither have the ^rey birds a red feather, which I think, 

 with " E. F. W.," is very unusual, as out of 50 chickens 

 some would have shown mixed colours. W. Turner. 



Draining.- I have not forgotten that I owe each of 

 two of your highly respectable correspondents a letter, 

 namely, Mr. Cuthill on Game, and "Inquirer * on Drain- 

 ing,and I have decided to give the latter the precedence; 

 and in order that your readers who take an interest in this 

 discussion may understand the subject, I must beg them 



Mr Parkes, I also have for years made many experi- 1 given accordin 



point of view I cannot see that it 



Warnes'ly^temTT^ 



»!<** 



many 



el *;iy 



more heavily on the farmer than on any one • ** 

 indeed, in some cases, not so much so as on mi 

 The alteration of the present tithe system alth 

 important, is not so much a subject for the conoid 

 of the tenant as the landlord- : *- L -' • - 



*, 



between the landlord and the tithe owner ^ JJ 

 any steps taken to alter the assessment so & to mfc^ 

 the tithe, the tenant would, in all probability m5 

 shortly afterwards his rent proportionately ' 



The subject of tenant right, as I have stated above »<f 

 all things most important ; and I firmly believe thaufe* 

 parts, if not more, of the tenant farmers' difficS 

 might be traced to the want of it ; for what cmHL 

 plainer than this— that if you prevent a man frm 

 making improvements in his business, you materiA 

 interfere with his prospering in it. And do not luL 

 owners hinder their tenants from making improvenMik 

 by refusing to grant leases, and by refusing tomj 

 a fair remuneration for permanent improveme^ 



justly entitled ? I W y m* 

 assuredly they do ; and I hope the time has arrived whet 

 landlords will see the need of this, and of the important 

 of giving every facility for a better system of formiif, 



to which a tenant is justly entitled? 



to farm badly. T. R. 



Potatoes in Ireland. — Since my last, of the 4th hat, 

 the disease in the haulm has not only made its appear- 

 ance here, but has spread with much rapidity, so wtk 

 so, as to give the fields a blackened appearance, and to 

 be smelt as they are passed by ; but the tubers are not 

 as yet much touched, possibly not more than oot 

 or two in a thousand. I think it probable that b ' 

 the middle of next month there will not be a green 

 left. Yet some kinds of Potatoes, and some places, w 

 worse than others. Under our present expectatiat, 

 and if the tubers do not become more affected by tb 

 disease than has been usual since the first two years of 

 its appearance, we may reckon on two fifths of a cap. 

 The alarm, however, has been so strongly excited, M 

 a very great impetus has already been given to emigra- 

 tion, as is evidenced in the rise in the amount of tb 



ments to test the inBuence which the internal tempera- 

 ture of the earth has on vegetable nature ; and I beg 

 to state, that the results have been to me so conclusive, 

 that they have formed the ground-work of many of 

 those articles with which I am aware I have pestered 

 net a few of the readers of the Agricultural Gazette. 

 From time to time I placed on boards and on deep and 

 thoroughly drained land, and on land half drained, and 

 on land not drained at all, pots containing Pelargoniums. 

 All the plants were of the same age, and nearly of the 

 same size, and all the pots of the same make and size. 

 The plants placed in the pots on the boards flourished 

 very fast ; those on the Avell-drained land were the next 

 best : those on the ground half drained were the next, 

 and those on the undrained land remained nearly sta- 

 tionary, and some of them actually died. At another 



time I placed pots of flowers on slates in juxta-position 



with others on boards, and again those on the boards 



flourished perceptibly the most. The scientific reader 



will perceive that Mr. Parkes' experiments with the 



thermometer confirmed the truths of those of myself ; 



and he will excuse me if I observe to him, that ii he be 



a cultivator of the soil, he is merely groping in the dark 



if he be not in some measure guided by the truths which ^ . - , . ^ 



these experiments have developed. Cold and wet by introducing liberal covenants, instead of the fetteriij 



ground rapidly conducts the caloric from the earth's conditions which now disgrace their leases and force mm 



surface to the colder regions below the surface, and the 



more stagnant water there is in the ground the more 



rapidly will the caloric leave the surface to keep up the 



equilibrium below it. Now, as all vegetation is on the 



earth's surface, and as the greater the amount of caloric 



there, the more rapid and luxuriant will be the growth 



of all kinds of vegetables ; it is quite clear that the. 



object of the farmer in draining his land ought to be, 



and it would be, if he knew what he was doingjjto get 



rid of as much of the cold stagnant water below the 



earth's surface as he possibly can. But can he do this 



by shallow draining ? No, he cannot ; shallow drains 



can take off the water only which falls on the land from 



the clouds of heaven, which every wise man would do 



his utmost to retain. In order to raise the temperature 



of the ground, and get rid of the cold and"noxious water 



out of it, you must drain deep and well,* or your money 



will be thrown away, and your labour will be in vain ; 



but do this, and you will soon learn to rejoice that you 



wrote anonymously when you told the world that the 



top or rain water alone hurt you. I have more to write, 



but must not occupy too much just now, but trouble you 



again. I must, however, ask permission to refer again, 



and without offence, I hope, to your readers, to what in 



modern phraseology, is called box feeding, as the above 



reasoning I have made use of is equally as applicable to 



animal as it is to vegetable physiology. . It will be 



remembered that I have condemned, and in language as 



strong as I could use, the monstrous novelty in cattle 



treatment called box-feeding. I still consider it to be a 



satire upon the age in which we live. But in applying 



what I have said above to animal physiology, I observe, 



that in feeding any animal — the ox, or sheep, or pig, for 



exan pie — the animal should be kept as nearly as pos- 

 sible at a certain temperature ; he must be neither too 



hot nor too cold. If he be too hot he is prevented from 



fattening by evaporation ; if he be too cold, he requires 



much more food than at a proper temperature, because 



a part of it, according to the degree of his coldness, is 



required to keep up the heat of the body. Geo. Wilkins. 

 Windsor Cattle Show. — Though our remarks upon this 



show of stock are offered late, yet we cannot refrain 



from observing that there were many lots which might 



have been kept at home by their owners, and only 



tended to destroy the general character of the mass of 



superior stock exhibited. These objectionable animals 



might have remained in their stalls or yards ; upon the 



same grounds many aldermen of the city of London, 



according to the Times, might have refrained from 



attending the fetes in Paris. There were also numerous 



pigs, which came from afar, which had nothing to 



recommend observation, save their ugliness and obesity. 



We must say that we think no pig, boar, or sow, ought 



to be candidates for a premium after the age of 18 



months ; the Society's aim and object being to extend 



and promote a profitable race of animals — that they 



should * increase and multiply," not return home 



to be slaughtered and, in the shape of flitches, be 



seen at Christmas adorning a bacon rack. Hamp- 

 shire connoisseur^ do not relish bacon of hogs two years 



old — but then this, tough bacon is prize bacon — the 



carefully to call to mind what has already been said 



about it, both by " Inquirer " and myself. They will 



remember that I myself commenced the discussion by 



an article condemnatory of open furrows, which I 



showed could only be tolerated as the less of two great 



evils, namely, where land, from some cause or other, 



could not be drained, or where it had already been 



drained imperfectly, or, I might add, injuriously. I 



also stated that shallow draining was of more injury 



than benefit to land, and I now Btate that by shallow 



drains I mean all drains which are madf not to exceed 



8 feet in depth ; or all such drains as gained the late 



Mr. Smith, of Deanston, the high reputation he held 



among farmers, both landowners and tenants, as the 



king of drainers. Three preliminaries, or I might write 



four,are necessary preparatives for men to understand why 



they should drain land, and how to drain it ; namely, the 



mature of caloric, or what chemists call the matter of 



heat, and the sciences of hydraulics, hydrostatics, and 



geology. If men m general understood these four 



branches of the sciences, we should hear no more advo- 



passage money to America, which, I believe fau 

 within the last fortnight from 2t 5s. to 21. 17s. ftf. fl» 

 whole hope of the country rested, and with muchjastw, 

 on the soundness of the Potato crop •, it is the odr 

 anchor that can bring up our labouring vessel and l&dMj 

 parted, and all will be wreck and ruin. No WBH 

 man, no small farmer, no woman of the humbler eta* 

 that can obtain the price of passage to Atom »u 

 remain, and England will long rue the day (whrfefutoe 

 Governments curse the negligence of the present), m 

 so fine, so intelligent, a labouring people has wenanw 

 to expatriate. [ National prosperity is just the aggrepw 

 of the prosperity of individuals. We do w* Iff "J 

 a society with a more patriotic object could be tej» 

 than one to promote emigration.] Famed? tbe w 

 and the cottier would, at harvest time, make <wa ■ f 

 over to England, or to the eastern side of' to ^ J ' 

 earn high wages, to pay the conacre Potato >m% 

 of the little farm ; now it is to make out the mm i 

 quitting, as they call it, " this poor unW^^ 

 The great object is to send some one ot u» i . fe 

 is likely to acquire in America the means oi kbi s^ 

 other members of it, and the expedient is w/ 

 successful The father leaves his wife ana w^ 

 mother her children, the maiden her over,m 

 expectation of acquiring, by their labour, ,* ^ 

 a-head country, within a few months, tow ^ {(g . 

 enable them to rejoin them ; and the mos , ^ 

 nothing here is sure to do well there. ,i ^ ^ 

 lament that they are going where they ^ fr 

 off!] It is not more than two y^^, «ji rf 

 broken-down, indolent, lame, and weakly r^ 

 part of the land I hold, left his wife m ^ 

 boys for this El Dorado of the west, a ^ ^ 



time, remitted small sums to w j 



111. to defray the^V 



It is expected by 



lished in a pamphlet, and which was 



fields those insults to our understandings— open fur- 

 rows ; and as for that twaddle about water not being 

 able to get down into deep drains through stiff clays, 

 which we hear so much of, why that would be anni- 

 hilated for ever. Some years since Mr. Parkes pub- 



which was the only article I 

 ever saw on draining worth reading, some valuable ex- 

 periments he made with the thermometer by placing it 

 at different depths in drained and undrained ground 5 , to 

 find the different temperatures of it, and to prove the 

 advantages of deep, and the uselessncss of shallow 

 draining. The experiments showed Mr. Parkes to have 

 been a philosopher ; and I had no sooner read them, 

 than I said to myself, " Here is a wise man, many years in 

 advance of the age in which he lives ; his pamphlet 

 imparts sound wisdom, but few or none but the wise 

 will regard it." The wise and great, however, did regard 

 it, for we soon afterwards heard that Mr. Parkes °was 

 draining the estates of the Duke of Wellington, and of 

 Sir Robert Peel, two of the most illustrious men that 

 tfce world ever produced at one time. But, as well as 



in that 



has now sent over 



sending out his two eldest sons, it »s <j*K~^ e &fr 



joint labours they will be able to send IW : ^ 



and the other children at an early penou ^rf* 



And what is the remark of the poor man « {9t p* 



matter t « If Paddy is able to this, who ^M 



to America V Twelve months ago, am ^ ^j. 







more palateable and sweet. We do not object to see 

 any boar or sow of superior shape being exhibited at all 

 after the age of two years, but they might be shown as 

 " extra stock ; " yet they should be handsome, and thus 

 add to the character of the show. The Society cannot 

 divine what creatures are coming. X. Y> Z., Hants. 



Relief to Tenant Farmers. — It is with a considerable 

 degree of satisfaction I read, in a paragraph in your 

 newspaper, the proceedings of an association, formed in 

 the neighbourhood of Ipswich, to obtain relief for the 

 tenant farmer, under the depressed state of agriculture * 

 not by protection, but by a removal of the abuses which 

 exist nearer home. I congratulate my brother farmers 

 that they have at last taken a step in the right road. 

 The live subjects which the association proposes to 

 consider are all highly important, but that of tenant 

 right is as much, if not more so, in my opinion, tiian any 

 of the others. The repeal of the malt tax would be 

 beneficial, principally by enabling the farmer to use malt 

 as food for stock— a better article than which he cannot 

 obtain for fattening cattle, except i^Jbe linseed-meal, 



4 



to America previously, and left his two c 

 brother, one of which afterwards died m r 



sent money to his brother to W™*-^** m 

 of his remaining child, and his brother swn ^ ^ 



was not more than six months away ^^^ 

 mitted sufficient money to take over n h pft>< 



her child. These persons were in ™? ^ fr* » 

 and thus of six men and youths l « f ^ * tj 

 twelve months have emigrated, w the \&* 

 Potato ; much as the country ^f£f on accot^JJ 

 the culture of it is not to beabandonea ^ ^w 

 liability to disease. It is a quest. ^ ^ ket grojj, 

 be solved in the affirmative, that tl w n b)e ^ 

 suffer no loss by the disease. "*? f the 4J£ 

 year s crop was, from the early app*£ waS hig^u 

 half lost, yet the price of the re^**^ in CgJ 

 munerative ; it ranged through tlie^ cflIcU ]ated^ 



market from 6d. to M. a stone. It 



titvP 1 ^ 



the disease came on 

 Potatoes would be got for 





however, very~dffferVnt to the poorer taj™* J^'J 

 »i *„_ u:„ i — „™«mmntion alone , » » wb^» 



them for his own consumption ^ „» 

 he is compelled to consume tneb price »p« 

 depended for paying his rent. m e " 



