JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
May 3, 1833. ] 
378 
Weight and Average Chemical Composition of Ordinary Crops in 
Pounds per Acre. 
Nitrogen. 
Sulphur. 
Potash. 
Soda. 
Lime. 
Magnesia. 
Phosphoric 
Acid. 
Chlorine. 
Silica. 
tbs. 
tbs. 
lbs. 
tbs. 
lbs. 
lbs. 
lbs. 
lbs. 
lbs. 
Wheat, 30 bush. 
33 
2.7 
9.7 
0.9 
1.0 
37 
14.3 
0.2 
0.5 
„ straw .. 
12 
5.1 
18.2 
2.5 
9.2 
4.0 
8.4 
1.7 
110.6 
Total.... 
45 
7.8 
27.9 
3.4 
10.2 
7.7 
22.7 
1.9 
111.1 
Barley, 40 bush. 
35 
2.9 
9.8 
1.0 
1.3 
4.0 
16.2 
0.4 
12.0 
„ straw .. 
12 
3.2 
21 6 
4.2 
8.5 
2.5 
4.4 
3.2 
51.5 
Total.... 
47 
6.1 
31.4 
5.2 
9.8 
6.5 
20.6 
3.6 
63.5 
Oats, 45 bush_ 
38 
3.2 
8.5 
1.4 
2.0 
3.9 
11.8 
_ 
24.8 
„ straw.... 
14 
4.8 
29.6 
5.9 
9.8 
5.3 
7.1 
5.5 
69.3 
Total.... 
62 
8.0 
38.1 
7.3 
11.8 
9.2 
18.9 
5.5 
94.1 
Turnips, 17 tons 
71 
15.2 
108.6 
17.0 
25.5 
5.7 
22.4 
10.9 
2.6 
„ leaf .. 
49 
5.7 
42.2 
7.5 
48.5 
3.8 
10.7 
11.2 
5.1 
Total.... 
120 
20.9 
148.8 
24.5 
74.0 
9.5 
33.1 
22.1 
7.7 
Swedes, 14 ton3 
74 
14.6 
63.3 
22.8 
19.7 
6.8 
16.9 
6.8 
3.1 
„ leaf .. 
28 
3.2 
16.4 
9.2 
22.7 
2.4 
4.8 
8.3 
3.6 
Total.... 
102 
17.8 
79.7 
32.0 
42.4 
9.2 
21.7 
15.1 
6.7 
Mangels, 22 tons 
96 
4.9 
191.1 
75.4 
24.2 
19.7 
34.0 
40.6 
16.4 
„ leaf .. 
51 
9.1 
71.4 
65.2 
29.1 
27.2 
15.1 
49.8 
9.2 
Total.... 
147 
14.0 
262.5 
140.6 
53.3 
46.9 
49.1 
90.4 
25.6 
Contains in pounds per acre. 
Crops. 
Potash. 
Phosphoric 
Acid. 
Authority. 
Wheat—5 qr. grain 
n 
15} 
Voelcker. 
straw .. .. 
29 
11 
Total. 
38.J 
26} 
Barley—5 qr. grain 
11 
15 
Do. 
straw .. .. 
19J 
5 
Total. 
80} 
20 
Oats—6 qr. grain. 
9 
13 
Boussingault. 
Total. 
30} 
20 
straw.. .. 
24 
4 
Total. 
33 
17 
Turnips—20 tons bulbs 
126 
31 
Playfair. 
tops.. .. 
76 
28 
Total. 
202 
59 
Potatoes—8 tons tubers 
68 
18} 
Vi lie. 
haulms .. 
9 
3 
Total. 
77 
21} 
Hay (Clover)—2 tons .. .. 
52 
20 
Playfair. 
Beans—25 bush, corn .. 
23 
24 
Do. 
straw.. .. 
89 
19 
Total. 
112 
36 
These tables on the chemistry of plants require the special 
study and attention of the home farmer, and ought to give him 
courage in experimenting upon the value of certain crops recom¬ 
mended to him for use, as manure when ploughed in, more 
particularly as the practical farmers by their experiments aDd the 
professors in agricultural chemistry agree in a most remarkable 
manner as to the capacity of green crops to furnish food for the 
cereals. It will be noticed that 17 tons of root crops contain of 
the three principal elements of manure more than double the 
quantity contained in the produce of an average crop of cereals, 
whether of Wheat, Barley, or Oats. These three elements are 
nitrogen, potash, and phosphoric acid, and are also manuies for 
the most part of a lasting character. 
The benefit to be derived from ploughing-in green and vegetable 
crops consists chiefly of manuring at very little cost for either 
seed or tillage, and at the same time all the afterwork required 
can be done at any period when the green crops and roots are at 
full growth without treading the land or delaying the seed time 
of succeeding crops, which often happens when the green and 
root crops are consumed on the land by sheep. Again, whenever 
we have seen this system adopted we have never known it fail in 
producing better crops than where the roots had been fed off 
by sheep, even when they had eaten cake and hay in addition. 
The home farmer, of course, will farm the land as he pleases so 
long as he keeps the land clean, not being compelled to follow 
any particular rotation or system of stocking an i cropping. An 
impression, however, prevails in the minds of many agriculturists, 
whether home farmers or tenant farmers, that the land under 
their management cannot be stocked and manured so advanta¬ 
geously as with a full complement of sheep, kept either as a grazing 
or breeding flock. This impression, however, lies at the root of 
the evil, and it will therefore be our endeavour to induce all those 
who have land in hand to reconsider their position, whether home 
farmers or otherwise interested in its occupation. 
There never has been a time within our recollection when land 
could be taken under more favourable conditions as to option in 
cropping and stocking than at present. Landed proprietors will 
understand that no tenant can injure the land if he keep it clean, 
and so leaves it on quitting. This leads us to a point which has 
been raised lately, that no occupier could keep the land clean 
during such seasons as have prevailed during the past seven years. 
This may be true in the case of certain soils farmed under a four 
or five-course rotation, including provision for sheep stock ; but 
it is not true if a proper system of cultivation has been pursued 
under a close succession of sale crops with no long fallow, and 
where couch, &c., has been forked out by hand labour instead of 
culture by costly horse labour. In proof of which, upon our farm, 
managed on the four-course system of—first, Wheat; second, 
green crops ; third, Lent corn ; fourth, Clover, from the years 
1831 to 1841, and connected with a system of feeding sheep on 
the land, it became as foul with couch as possible, and the more 
highly it was manured the more the couch increased. For under 
this system, although it is still so general, there are twenty-eight 
months during the rotation when no couch can be removed except 
by a sacrifice of the Wheat crop wholly or partially ; and if the 
year of fallow or fallow crops proves unpropitious the land cannot 
be cleaned until the next four years have expired, and not even 
then in unfavourable seasons. We afterwards adopted a close 
system of cropping and extended the acreage of sale crops, but 
without any long fallow, for more than twenty years, and yet the 
farm continued to be as clean and free from couch as any farm 
in the kingdom, although it was a mixed and irregular soil, often 
varying in the same field from strong clay to light sandy loam. 
It must also be noticed that this twenty years included various 
unfavourable seasons, but especially the years 1853 and I860, both 
of which were as unsuitable as 1879. We therefore contend that 
the fouling of land with couch and weeds is attributable only to 
bad farming under a bad system of stocking and cropping. 
We have been induced to notice these facts in order that no 
unfair advantage may be taken of some important observations 
and recommendations we intend to introduce to the notice of 
farmers under the heading of our subject, and which to some may 
not only appear novel, but likewise impossible or inadvisable. 
In the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England we 
note that Mr. R. Russell in his essay on the “Influence of Climate 
on Cultivation,’’ says :—“ Vegetable manuring produces the most 
marked effect on light sandy soils and in dry climates. The 
decaying vegetable matter seems to improve the physical texture 
of the soil by its attraction for moisture ; it also, to some extent, 
regulates the supply of ammonia to the plants by only slowly 
yielding it up—a matter of much economy in the feeding of plants. 
The influences combined have the effect of sustaining vegetation 
in a comparatively healthy state during periods of drought.” 
Irrespective of the above important considerations, we know 
from our own daily practice the benefit derived from applying 
any manuring substances which act mechanically—such as long 
fresh stable dung upon strong soils—and we can therefore estimate 
the value attributed to green and root crops ploughed in on 
heavy clays ; for they not only act mechanically by making the 
land more porous, but also chemically by storing up a quantity of 
ammonia in a partially insoluble state, which is taken up slowly 
by the roots according to the requirements of plants, and also by 
the residue of decayed substances furnishing an amount of humu3 
exceedingly advantageous to future crops. 
We are now arrived at a point of our subject when we must 
illustrate our opinions by a practical explanation of our plans for 
farming the laud to attain the objects we have in view—viz., the 
securing of increased profits by reducing the outlay and invest- 
