Some of the Agricultural Lessons of ISCS. 
05 
30W Willi peas for a cto]i, and tares for feed, the rest to be sown witli early 
rape fed oif again ; the rape being led off for wheat. 
"In addition to the preparation I have made by sowing rape, turnip.^, and 
mustard on my ne.Kt year's fallows, I have the great satisfaction of having 
three barns, instead of being full of corn, filled with straw chaff well salted 
and fermented, which smells as sweet as hay. I believe I have the j'l'oduce 
of straw cut into chaff off about 150 acres of wheat, oats, and barley, 
and this enables me to use corn, cake, bran, and malt-combs for feuding 
to a much larger extent — and thus supply the manure lost by failure of 
root crops. 
"As to cattle in yards — with the prospect, through the folly of Parliament, 
of a rei)etition of that frightful plague, the cattle murrain, I had decided not 
to winter any this year ; but I have been foolish enough to run the risk, and 
I am now feeding beasts in my boxes and yards by boiling the cake and meal, 
which I grind with my American mill. I have two coppers hung in my 
mixing place ; we put the meal and cake-meal into these coppers, and boil 
them well, keeping the whole constantly well stirred. Near the cojipers are two 
boarded bins, which are filled with my old chaff ; the boiled mixture is poured 
on the chaff, \Anch is well stirred over and well mixed up. The beasts are fed 
with it in a milk-\varm state, and are doing well with it; tliey will not have 
a root to eat. Yet I shall thus be able to make them good fat beasts. Some 
neighbours of mine, until prevented by the Excise, germinated both wheat 
and barley, feeding both sheep and cattle on this undried malt, and in this 
state it may be given in unlimited quantity, and fatten at a far less cost than 
that of any other kind of food. 
" Much is said about the farmer's friends ; surely if such a class existed in 
Parliament, we should no louger be subject to such injustice and oppression as 
not to be permitted to use the produce of our farms in that state which alone 
will give us this advantage. Surely the government will yet be induced to 
grant us the liberty of germinating corn for feeding purposes, which could be 
done wdthout any loss to the revenue. — I consider the storing and fermenting 
straw chaff to be invaluable. I believe v.-e do it in this locality to an extent 
unequalled elsewhere. It is done by us at little expense. Our engines are 
from 10 to 12-horse power : and by the aid of a rigger attached to our thrashing 
machine, which drives one of Maynard's chaff-cutters, we cut the strav>- as fast 
as it is thrashed. I can do this at fi'om id. to Gd. per acre (see ' Journal Ilo3'al 
Agricultural Society of England,' vol. xxi. p. 172). It will this year be the 
salvation of our herds and flocks." 
With this valuable report from Mr. Jonas I conclude. — I 
have not thought it worth while to quote the reports of cor- 
respondents on the value of acorns, horse chesnuts, tree leaves, 
gorse, &c., as contributions to the food store of the season. The 
wholesomeness and usefulness of gorse, when crushed as food for 
sheep and cattle, is unquestionable. Acorns, too, crushed or 
ground, and given with other food, have helped to eke out the 
more costly supplies of meal in mixtures with roots and fodder. 
Mr. .1. J. Rowley, referring to the practice of Mr. John Woods, 
the Duke of Portland's agent, says, that after being passed through 
a close linseedrcake mill, they were given to sheep with advantage, 
at the rate of J lb. a-piece daily, along with cut hay and chaff, 
and other dry food. And "a Suffolk farmer,'' writing to the 
^ Times,' in October last, said that he was then giving forty-two 
VOL. v.- — S.S. F 
