THE CULTIVATOR. 
97 
5. Extra weeding, throwing ditches, draining, &c. 
may occupy about 80 days. 
Let us now recapitulate— 
Collecting litter, .. 150 days. 
Feeding stock in yards,.. 150 
Carting earth and dung,........ 132 
Dibbling wheat,. 90 
Extra weeding, draining, &c.... 80 
Total........ 602 
At 300 working days in the year, this is equal to 
two laborers extra, winter and summer, employed on 
a farm containing only about 120 acres of arable land. 
It is not easy to estimate with precision the in¬ 
creased amount of produce which a farmer may ex¬ 
pect to obtain in consequence of such an increased 
outlayin labor; the less so as that increased produce 
does not make itself felt the first, second, or third 
year, to the full extent; indeed, I have heard an in¬ 
telligent farmer say, that he has observed a progres¬ 
sive improvement in his land during no less than 
twenty years, from persisting in a system of high culti¬ 
vation. I quoted in a former letter the estimate of 
Yon Thaer, which, however, was so disfigured in the 
printing (owing, I fear, to the badness of my hand 
writing,) as to be almost unintelligible ; I beg leave, 
therefore, to repeat the statement. 
On a farm on 913 acres of good barley land. 
Under the old Under the im- 
system two crops proved or alter- 
and a fallow. nate system. 
Produce in cattle, ..... 
£210 
£1,249 
Produce in grain,...... 
894 
2,030 
Gross produce,... 
1,104 
3,279 
Expenses of cultivation, 
537 
L051 
Nett produce,......... 
567 
2,228 
The last line comprises rent, profit, interest on ca- 
i pital, tithes and taxes of any description, the object 
i being simply to show the comparative results of the 
two systems of cultivation. The system is not found¬ 
ed on speculative views, but on extensive and accu- 
: rate observation during a long series of years by a 
man well acquainted with the practical business of ag¬ 
riculture. Indeed, I may observe in passing, that 
there is no work in the English language to be com¬ 
pared with Von Thaer’s, so far as my knowledge ex¬ 
tends. I am not surprised at the low estimation of 
works on agriculture among practical farmers. In- 
! stead of containing, as they ought to do, a digest of 
all that is necessary to be known by a single compe¬ 
tent hand, such works consist, for the most part, of 
loose collections of suggestions, speculations, experi¬ 
ments, and observations ; correct and incorrect, au- 
1 thenticated and unauthenticated; thrown together 
apparently almost at random, without order or discri¬ 
mination. 
It will be seen, on comparing Von Thaer’s num¬ 
bers, that his estimate of the expenses and produce 
on the two systems of cultivation respectively is in 
round numbers as follows :—On the improved system 
the expense of cultivation is double; the gross pro¬ 
duce is triple; the nett produce is quadruple. 
This statement, however, being expressed in so ge- 
! neral and abstract a form, and resting a3 it does on 
the authority of an unknown author, is not likely, I 
fear, to weigh much with the majority of farmers.— 
.Let me then endeavor to bring the question home to 
them by a statement of a different kind. I suppose it 
'will hardly be disputed that by means of the system 
of high cultivation which 1 have described, a cultiva¬ 
tor may expect to get per acre at least one sack* of 
wheat, one of barley, a quarter of a ton of clover, 
shay, and three tons of turnips additional. Let us 
compute the value of these items. 
4 bushels of wheat at 56s... 
£1 
8 
0 
4 bushels of barley at 30s... 
0 
15 
0 
| ton of hay at 31.... 
0 
15 
0 
3 tons of turnips at 5s...... 
0 
15 
0 
A 41 
Average per acre,.... 
£3 
13 
0 
0 
18 
3 
This on 120 acres amounts to 
£109 10 
The labor of the extra hands 
through the piece at 11s. 
per week, amounts to.... £57 4 0 
I charge nothing for horse 
labor, since the carting of 
dung, litter, &c., is per¬ 
formed at times when the 
team would otherwise be 
standing still. But as there 
is some additional wear 
and tear of carts and wa¬ 
gons, let us estimate this at 10 0 0 
--- 67 4 0 
; Extra profit arising to the occupier,.... £32 6 0 
* A saek is four bushels. 
The result of this computation, if correct, ought 
surely to encourage every farmer to be liberal in his 
expenditure in the article of labor, and if not correct 
I hope some one of your many correspondents will 
point out where I am wrong. The actual produce of 
the present year, in my own case, is as follows:— 
my wheat, so far as yet threshed, averages from nine 
to twelve sacks per acre ; the last is the produce of a 
new variety, which proves very prolific. My barley 
has yielded on an average twelve sacks per acre. I 
have, however, one field of barley not yet threshed, 
from which I do not expect to get more than nine 
sacks per acre, the soil being a poor gravel. The 
general character of the land I have already de¬ 
scribed. 
I hope these statements and calculations will call 
forth the observations of some of your able corres¬ 
pondents, in order that my conclusions may be con¬ 
firmed, if well founded, or corrected, if erroneous; 
and should they prove sound, as I am willing to be¬ 
lieve, I trust they will contribute to promote the more 
general employment of the poor. 
A HAMPSHIRE AGRICULTURIST. 
Feb. 8, 1838. 
[From Hitchcock's Re-Examination of the Geology of Mass .] 
Theory of the action of Lime on Soils, Manure, 
and Vegetation. 
The action of lime is threefold; each distinct. 1. 
It is a Neutralizer: 2. a Decomposer: 3. a Converter. 
1. I have already alluded to some acid soils : free 
phosphoric acid, geic, acetic, and malic acids, also oc¬ 
casionally exist in a free state in soils. Here lime 
acts as a neutralizer. 2. Soils may contain abundant 
geates ; particularly geate of alumina, the least of all 
demanded by plants. Long formed and sun-baked, 
they are scarcely acted on by rain or dew, and are al¬ 
most useless. Here lime, by decomposing these me¬ 
tallic and earthy geates, forms a combination, which, 
in its nascent state, is readily dissolved. If the car¬ 
bonate of lime acts better than the hydrate, it is be¬ 
cause, following a well known law, double decomposi¬ 
tion is easier than single. If any acid geine exists in 
the soil, or any free acids, carbonic acid is then libe¬ 
rated; it acts on the geate of lime, supergeates re¬ 
sult, and these are easily soluble. 
3. The great use of lime is as a converter; turning 
solid and insoluble, nay, I go further, solid vegetable 
fibre, into soluble vegetable food. Here is the great 
puzzle, the point where our philosophy seems to leave 
us; giving us our choice, to refer this action to one 
of the numerous cases of mysterious ‘ catalytic ’ change, 
with which we are becoming every day more and more 
familiar, or to explain the process by referring the 
whole to saponification. I use this word as convey¬ 
ing to you at once what I mean ;—but I do not mean 
to say that the product of lime and vegetable matter 
is soap; but I cannot make myself more intelligible 
to a farmer than by saying, this lime makes compounds 
of vegetable matter, just as it makes soapy compounds 
of oil and fat. The action of lime on geine I take to 
be of the same nature, as its action on oils and fat.— 
It is well established that animal and vegetable oils 
and fats are converted into acids by the action of al¬ 
kalies, earths, oxides, and even by vegetable fibre it¬ 
self. The general law is, that whenever a substance, 
capable of uniting with the acid of fat or oil, is placed 
in contact with fat or oil, it determines the produc¬ 
tion of acid. Now we have seen that alkali produces 
a similar change on geine; it develops acid proper¬ 
ties. I go further, if alkali has converted vegetable 
oil and geine into acids, I see no reason why a simi¬ 
lar action may not be produced by all those substances 
which act thus on oil. Hence lime, earths, and me¬ 
tallic oxides, convert geine into acid : as fast as this 
takes place, so fast it becomes soluble. Then too the 
long action of air on insoluble geine, rendering it solu¬ 
ble, is it not analogous to the action of air on oils 1— 
Both evolve in this case, vast volumes of carbonic 
acid, the oil becomes gelatinous and soluble in alkali; 
does not a similar change occur in geine l It is pos¬ 
sible that during the action of lime on geine, a solu¬ 
ble substance may be produced, bearing the same re¬ 
lation to this process that glycerine does to saponifi¬ 
cation. These views you will see need to be follow¬ 
ed out experimentally. If found tenable, the most 
signal benefit will result. We place manures on a 
new foundation, on which great practical results may 
be erected. 
Practical application of the theory of the action of lime. 
Taking the preceding principles as our guide, we 
may lay down a few general principles for the appli¬ 
cation of marls. 
1. Enough ought to be applied to neutralize all the 
free acids in a soil; which may be known by its ceas¬ 
ing to produce acid plants, such as sorrel and pine.— 
Generally, however, the amount required for this pur¬ 
pose is small. 
2. It will be serviceable to add enough to convert 
the earthy geates of a soil into geate of lime. The 
richer a soil is, the greater we may conclude is the 
quantity of geates which it contains. 
3. It will be serviceable to add enough to convert 
all the insoluble geine and vegetable fibre in a soil 
into soluble geine. Hence the richer a soil is, and 
the more manure is added, the more marl will it bear 
with benefit. Indeed, there appears to be no danger of 
adding too much marl, provided a sufficient quantity of 
manure be also added. Ignorance of this principle, I 
apprehend, is the source of most of the failures that 
have occurred in the use of lime upon soils. Far¬ 
mers have supposed that its action was like that of 
common manure, viz. to serve as direct nourishment 
to the plant; whereas it only cooks the food, if I may 
be allowed the expression, which exists in the soil, or 
is added along with the lime. In nearly all cases of 
over marling which I have read of, a fresh supply of 
manure has been found to be the remedy; which 
shows the truth of the above principle. Agricultu¬ 
ralists have spread marl alone, or with very little ma¬ 
nure, upon land that has been worn out, that is, whose 
geine has been exhausted; and because such soils 
have not thereby been recruited, they have inferred 
that lime was injurious. Without acids, or geine, or 
geates, or vegetable fibre, to act upon, much excess 
of lime appears to operate injuriously, so as to dimi¬ 
nish, instead of increasing the crop. They have also 
expected a sudden and surprising increase of fertility: 
whereas in some cases the chief benefit seems to con¬ 
sist in causing the land to produce for a greater num¬ 
ber of years, by preventing the ultimate decomposi¬ 
tion and escape of the organic matter. In genera], 
however, it will add also to the yearly product: but 
those who employ marl or lime in any form, ought to 
moderate their expectations that they may not be dis¬ 
appointed, and to be satisfied if they can slowly and 
surely improve their lands, as they most assuredly 
can do, by this substance, provided they do not expect 
to accomplish it by the use of lime alone. 
Templemoyle Agricultural School. 
The Agricultural Seminary of Templemoyle origi¬ 
nated at a very numerous meeting of the North-west 
of Ireland Farming Society at Londonderry, and it 
was at first intended that it should consist of two es¬ 
tablishments, taking Mons. Fellenberg’s Institution 
at Hoffwyll in Switzerland in some degree as the mo¬ 
del : the first to be a school affording instruction in 
every science and accomplishment aimed at by the 
children of the higher orders ; the second for the edu¬ 
cation of the sons of respectable farmers and trades¬ 
men, in the hope of disseminating the advantages of 
an improved system of farming with greater certainty, 
by combining the practice and theory of it in the in¬ 
struction of those who were afterwards to make agri¬ 
culture their pursuit. It was hoped that the extended 
scale of the institution would have allowed of a great¬ 
er variety of masters and lecturers, and that the profit 
derived from the superior school would have contributed 
towards the maintenance of the secondary one ; but a 
short experience convinced the subscribers that such a 
scheme was impracticable without much larger and 
more certain funds than they could rely on ; they then 
gave their undivided attention to the agricultural se¬ 
minary, which through their increasing exertion has 
attained such eminence as may justly entitle them to 
look forward with confidence to its increasing useful¬ 
ness, and to its becoming a model for establishments 
of a similar nature in other parts of Ireland. 
The school and farm of Templemoyle are situated 
about six miles from Londonderry; about a mile dis¬ 
tant from the mail-coach road leading from London¬ 
derry to Newtowlimavady. The house, placed on an 
eminence, commands an extensive and beautiful view 
over a rich and highly cultivated country, terminated 
by Lough Foyle. The base of the hill is occupied by 
a kitchen and ornamental garden, cultivated by the 
youths of the establishment, under an experienced gar¬ 
dener. The ground between the garden and house 
is laid out in beds in which all the different grasses, 
clovers, &c., are cultivated with the greatest care. 
The house is in the form an ||=||, with range of farm¬ 
ing offices behind, containing spacious, lolty and well 
ventilated school rooms, refectory, dormitories, apart¬ 
ments for the masters, matron, servants, &c. 
Each pupil occupies a separate bed ; the house can 
accomodate seventy-six, and the number of pupils 
amounts to sixty. They receive an excellent educa¬ 
tion in reading, writing, and arithmetic ; book-keep¬ 
ing, mathematics, land-surveying, and geography. 
This department is managed by an excellent head mas¬ 
ter and assistant master, both resident in the house. 
The pupils are so classed that one-half are receiving 
their education in the house, while the remainder are 
engaged in the cultivation of a farm of 130 Cunning¬ 
ham or 165 statute acres, in the management of which 
they are directed by the head farmer, an experienced 
and clever man, a native of Scotland, who has a skil¬ 
ful ploughman under him. The pupils who are em¬ 
ployed one part of the day on the farm, are replaced 
