720 
On  the  Farming  of  Somerset. 
pounds  at  Is.  or  ]s.  6c?.  per  dozen:  twenty  dozen  make  a pack; 
and  two  packs  with  ten  bushels  of  seed  are  considered  a good 
crop.  A pack  of  240  lbs.  was  once  worth  nearly  20?. ; and 
within  a few  years,  71.  and  8 1.  : now  it  will  not  sell  for  more  than 
4?.  or  51. 
Turnips  are  drilled  on  the  flat  with  ashes  and  soot,  hoed  and 
singled  by  hand  : no  horse-hoeing  practised  : no  bones  or  super- 
phosphate of  lime  used  in  the  whole  district,  as  far  as  I could 
learn. 
There  is  certainly,  even  among  good  farmers,  a short-coming 
in  the  matter  of  couch  ; and  I observed  that  in  some  places,  where 
it  was  taken  out  of  the  land,  it  was  carelessly  thrown  into  the 
hedges,  instead  of  being  burned  to  ashes  and  put  to  rot  under  the 
dung-heap.  Again,  there  is  a general  prejudice  against  the  use 
of  superphosphate  of  lime ; for  I could  not  make  out  that  it 
had  ever  been  fairly  tested.  Mr.  Burchell  Peren,  a very  good 
farmer  in  South  Petherton,  says  he  goes  down  18  inches  for  his 
manure  when  he  wants  it.  He  is  in  the  habit  of  employing 
spade-labour,  and  turning  over  his  fields  occasionally,  at  a cost 
of  30s.  per  acre.  One  of  his  neighbours,  however,  remarked, 
“ that  he  did  not  believe  he  could  turn  up  guineas  with  a spade 
any  more  than  he  could  with  a plough.”*  It  is  difficult  to 
believe,  if  phosphorus  be  an  inorganic  element,  as  the  chemists 
tell  us,  that  a lanye  number  of  animals  can  be  reared  and  sent 
off  to  a distance,  besides  the  corn  yearly  taken  off  the  land,  and 
that  the  green  crops  can  be  maintained  in  full  fertility  without  a 
return  of  phosphates  from  some  source.  It  will  be  found  that 
more  than  half  a ton  of  bone  walks  off  one  of  these  farms  annually 
for  every  hundred  acres.  | 
* Professor  Way  has  analyzed  a specimen  of  the  subsoil  of  a field  of  Mr.  Peren’s.  The 
result  shows  the  ordinary  conditions  of  a fertile  soil  in  possessing  the  alkalies,  but  in- 
dicates no  unusual  supply  of  phosphates.  The  specimen  was  taken  from  a depth  of 
two  feet  near  the  hedge,  the  roots  of  which  account  for  the  organic  matter.  The  great 
value  of  this  soil  is  probably  owing  to  its  perfect  mechanical  texture  : 
“ Subsoil  from  South  Petherton. 
Water  .... 
Organic  matter 
Sand  and  clay  insoluble  in  acids 
Sulphate  of  lime  . 
Phosphate  of  lime 
Magnesia  .... 
Potash  .... 
Soda  ..... 
Oxide  of  Iron  and  Alumina,  and  loss  in  analysis 
2-89 
2-93 
84-03 
1-00 
trace 
•21 
•63 
•17 
8-14 
100-00” 
p I found  great  difficulty  in  ascertaining  the  weight  of  the  bones  of  cattle  and 
sheep.  I could  not  obtain  the  information  from  the  butchers  or  from  any  book.  At 
last  a Somersetshire  friend  in  the  College  of  Surgeons,  Mr.  Quekett,  ascertained  from 
the  sausage-makers  that  the  bones  of  a short-horn  bull,  aged  7 years,  weighed  138  lbs.; 
