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The Farm.

TH

EXPERIENCES OF AN AMATEUR FARMER.

HIS is the heading of an article in a contemporary. It is written by It is written by a gentleman whose initials are "J. W.," and who, at the commencement of his article, declares that he has been placed under very fortunate circumstances, in so far that he is in a situation where he has "a constant supply of manure in quantity comparatively unlimited." He also says, that "it must be a poor farmer indeed, who cannot raise crops of all kinds successfully, and have a considerable margin to himself after paying all men 20s. in the pound."

What is the answer to this? It is simple. There are many men, within our own experience, who have failed who were not bad farmers, who have not been able to pay 20s. in the pound after sinking £5000 or £6000 in the soil. We do not give names just now, but we can, when called upon. There are various reasons why a man fails in farming, who is not an amateur.

there may be much cheaper than it can be purchased for in localities where people are sparser, and where there are more applicants for farms.

We give practical farmers the opportunity of judging of the amateur's experiences. He says:—

I have had this season 1200 tons of town dung, the most of which I have used for growing cabbages, mangolds, and turnips. So convinced am I of the good qualities of this kind of manure, that on 12 acres of green crop I have not given it the slightest assistance in the way of artificials. As a top-dressing for pastures it is unrivalled, and this for a two-fold reason :—First, in its excellent fertilizing properties; and, second in its being in such a state of comminution, it is brought into contact with the roots of the grasses whenever it gets a shower of rain, the good qualities of the manure coming thus into operation without the slightest delay. I have given up growing corn, finding roots and grasses to pay far the best. I have received over £7 per acre for the seeds on a field, the soil of which is naturally poor and open, the crop cut and carted off early in the season, long before the ryegrass was in flower, thus rendering

From

One reason is, that a farmer, not an amateur, might give too much for his land, to commence with; another, that the land, in the matter of drainage, might not be so good as the after-grass especially valuable. he supposed it, and that in order to make the continuously high-feeding of the land, the it better he expended a large amount of money on it (we are speaking of places where there are leases); a third, that under the operation of the law of Hypothec, we refer especially to Scotland, although the law there has been modified to the great advantage of tenants' creditors, the landlords can at any time deprive the tenants of their farms without recouping them for the sums laid out. A fourth reason is, that farmers are not so well situated in the way of town-manure as the correspondent referred to. Staleybridge is the centre of a populous district, and manure

grass becomes capable of being fed decidedly earlier every season, and this with climatic disadvantages of no small amount. This season I put my cows on excellent pasture on the 8th of April, a most unusual thing in this district, on which account I had many visitors, to judge for themselves whether the cattle really had anything to eat, few people about here ever thinking of doing anything in the way of improving their pastures. On 22 acres I have twenty cows and seven horses, and they have always plenty to eat. In addition to the grass, I give every cow 5 lb. of meal and cake. To vary the diet, I would be disposed to give a small feed of grains ; but my cows have actually turned against this

Experiencies of an Amateur Farmer

article of food, probably from continual high feeding. I find rape-cake very difficult to be had of good quality, and, in consequence, linseed, although dearer by the ton, becomes actually the cheaper of the two in the end, as there is no waste and no accident following its use. Inferior rape-cake is of a very heating quality, inducing swelled legs and other injurious consequences in the cattle partaking of it. I had no less than five cows at one time so lame as to be scarcely able to go out and in, bad rape-cake being undoubtedly the cause of the injury, as they recovered immediately on the cake being withdrawn.

My stock of dairy-cows is at present twenty, their united produce amounting to 240 quarts daily. For high feeding, I find cows on their fourth calf to suit much the best, the profit being considerably over that made by younger cattle, and this for several reasons. They are, first of all, just in their prime for milk, and give a large flow for a very long time when the food is succulent, rich, and abundant. Second reason, they finish off for the butcher to much greater weights than younger cows, and yet are not past the age when the price per cwt. would be lessened on account of deterioration of quality. It is astonishing how long a cow will continue to milk profitably if well fed and not permitted to get in calf. I have a cow which I purchased twelve months ago for £21, and her daily produce, measured by itself, is still over the average of the whole. My experience of cow-keeping is, that where there is a ready market for the milk at a high price, it does not pay to take the slightest trouble in rearing young cattle; purchasing heavy cows in their prime, however high the figure, being far the most profitable, and, moreover, one's labours and energies are concentrated on one objecta great help to success in any business. I may remark, further, however, that these will not make much money, either if their feeding is grudged or in any way curtailed; they must be kept constantly full, and the appetite even tempted by a change of food. The constant high feeding thickens the flesh so much that the animals change completely in character and appearance, eventually becoming so weighty that they bring up to £10 more when parted with than they cost when brought in. This goes a long way in helping the profit of cow-keeping, paying a considerable part, if not at times actually the whole of the purchased food. In no case is a loss on the first cost admissible, unless it occurs accidentally, as such management could

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scarcely fail of turning out a very bad business indeed. The manure made by highly-fed cattle is a point in aiding success; which should on no account be overlooked, as by its aid immense crops of roots and cabbages can be grown, and that, too, on very poor land naturally. On this account the bedding should not be stinted, as however good in quality the droppings of the cattle may be, some bulk is required when applied to the land, and even if straw has to be purchased, its value is so great when soaked with rich urine, as to far more than counterbalance the expense of procuring it.

With regard to the growth of cabbages on a portion of the green crop break, much depends on the facility for procuring manure, as unless it is given with no sparing hand, those going extensively into it for the first time may experience considerable disappointment in the result. This plant is a very gross feeder, filling the soil with a mass of fibres, and growing with extraordinary vigour when the land is well worked and filled with manure. Unless, therefore, these conditions are fulfilled to the very letter, it is better to put in some other crop. I do not think the value of the cabbage as a field-plant is at present appreciated as it ought to be in this country, but still believe its cultivation is extending, and that the time is not far distant when agriculturists of every grade will acknowledge its value, and make its cultivation a source of profit. When liberally treated, there is no other plant that I am aware of, capable of giving such a large monetary return, and if used on the farm, such a large amount of food for stock. Few people like to name the sum this vegetable is capable of making when sold in open market

the amount looks so improbable by comparison; yet the fact remains, that it is simply enormous. A neighbour of mine put in 20,000 plants to the acre, and sold them this spring and early summer at Is. 6d. to 2s. per dozen in the Manchester market. Assuming a very large margin to be deficient of the original number when brought to market, through defective planting, ravages of slugs, or severity of the weather, there surely ought still to be sufficient left to make over £100 in cash, even if the lowest price be taken as the average. The number named may appear large, but setting them out in rows 2 feet apart, and I foot distance in the rows, takes about 21,000, and for early cabbages there is no necessity for having them wider. With the large Drumheads it is, however, quite different; they must have room, from 26 to 28 inches being a useful distance

cach way, admitting the drill-grubber both lengthways and across, and giving them a chance of attaining a large size. Encouraged by last season's success, I have planted 9 acres with cabbages, putting in 80,000 plants, or about 9000 to the statute acre, as nearly as could be managed, which gives ample room for cultivation. In planting them, I feel no desire to get over the ground in a hurry, preferring to take a little time and secure as regular a plant as possible. The spade is a very safe implement, making a slit, inserting the plant, and finishing off with pressure of the foot. When the land is moderately free from stones, and in moist condition, the operation can be very successfully performed

with the setting-pin, a smart and careful man accustomed to the work doing them both speedily and well. The great plenty of valuable food which is obtainable from a few acres of cabbages, must be seen to be properly understood or even believed, all the domestic animals, not excepting the horse, eating them with the greatest avidity, either in a raw or boiled state, and thriving proportionately. For the feeding of sheep and dairy stock, they are especially applicable, the butter made in the depth of winter, when this food is very largely used, being sweet and good, and quite free from the prevailing unpleasant taste which makes turnip butter almost worthless.

WE

NO MORE GUANO.

E copy the following article, by Mr D. T. Fish, from our contemporary, the Gardener's Chronicie and Agricultural Gazette:

This means dearer bread, scarcer meat, more paupers, heavier rates, higher rents, smaller profits; bad times for farmers, short time for labourers, and more hungry and halffed throughout the kingdom. It may mean more and worse than all this-semi-starvation to many, pinching poverty to more, more suffering and privation to all; embarrassing problems in politics, social strife, danger to order, and serious peril to our institutions, For, humiliating as the admission is, it is nevertheless largely true, that the security, happiness, stability of states, rest largely on the state of their larders. Fill them with an abundance of good things, and nations wax fat and prosper, while ill-filled stomachs are the natural allies of treason, confiscation, sedition. No monster so unreasonable as gaunt famine, gnawing hunger, and these seem barking at our heels in the no very distant future. Every day swells the ranks of the bread eaters by the thousand, while the area of production, we are told, has reached its limits, and one of the most powerful promoters of fertility is exhausted. Truly the prospect seems most gloomy. It would be intolerable

but for some gleams of light athwart the gathering darkness. We are not wholly dependent for life on home supplies of food. Corn comes to us from every land. Science has well nigh succeeded in bringing us fresh beef from the antipodes. We have been called a nation of shopkeepers-the cottonspinners for the human family. We should be more truly described as a nation of bread and beef eaters. Our shambles and bakers' shops cover the earth, and our deliveries, in transit, block up the sea. Every breeze wafts us golden grain or preserved meats. The prairie and pampas alike are but wide fields on our outlying off-hand farms. But it must never be forgotten that as the food from distant lands rolls in, the gold is drained out. We are fed, it is true, but we are likewise impoverished. Foreign food blesses us but once-home supplies many times. And it would be easy to shew that food is to a large extent cheap or dear—and that means to the mass of consumers plenty or scarce—in proportion to the amount and quality grown at home. The more bread, beef, sugar, grown in England, the cheaper these commodities; the less, the dearer-free trade and its invulnerable theory of exchanges notwithstanding.

Accepting your estimate, we have reached the maximum of home production; with all

No More Guano

the land occupied, and one of our most powerful stimulants exhausted, we can hardly expect to get more out of the land. Hallam's dictum seems also irrefragable. "There are but two possible modes by which the produce of the earth can be increased; one by rendering fresh land serviceable, the other by improving the fertility of that already cultivated." You assume that the first mode has been worked out. No more commons to enclose, no fresh land to be possessed! Of course the statement is meant to be wide and general. There are still many exceptions to it, a good number of acres throughout the kingdom that might be profitably reclaimed. How frequently we pass over barren tracks, only separated from splendid fields of corn or roots by a fence! Surely, if the one could not be made as fruitful as the other, then our geological boundaries are more sharp and capricious than we are wont to believe. They are likewise wonderfully easily obliterated, for I have never seen an unsuccessful attempt made to make the one land as good as the other. But it is not of such means of getting more land that I am writing at present, for these wastes cannot be had for nothing; on the contrary, they rise wonderfully in value as soon as wanted; but my light and hope for the future is-more land without more rent. Surely in these days of struggling competition for land, when a raid is made by eager farmers on every vacant holding, that cry will be listened to. No new land laws are needed to make that land yours. How, then, are you to get it? Get your smashers and ploughs deeper, and it is yours. Amid all the barbarous impediments to improved cultivation stereotyped in antient lease, I have never read among them, "Thou shalt not go down and find new gold fields,"—that is, fresh land beneath each furrow. There it is, in every arable field throughout the three kingdoms, waiting patiently through the long ages to be possessed by the well-fed roots of the future. No fresh land to be possessed-only every inch gained in depth adds 120 additional tons of productive force per acre to your fields. Let us pause a moment, and

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try to realize the meaning of this statement A 4-inch tilth represents a productive earth force of 480 tons, a 5-inch of 600 tons, a 10-inch of 1200 tons. I do not assert absolutely that a 12-inch tilth would yield three times more than à 4-inch, but I do affirm that the capacity of the deep tilth would be three times that of the shallow, and were they both alike rich and good in texture, the possibility is that the 12-inch would yield even more, especially of root crops, than the legitimate ratio of three to one.

It may be well also to remind your readers that these views are not founded upon mere arithmetical data, nor natural philosophy formula—thus, two and two are four, the energy of mass is apportioned to its sizebut that they have been abundantly proved in practice by many years of actual experience. It is amusing to read occasionally, in the discussions at farmers' clubs, of nambypamby farming as mere gardening, as if the practice of horticulturists was in a laggard, benighted, to-be-commiserated state. So, evidently, does not think that busy, great, and intelligent farmer, Mr Mechi. In his most suggestive letter on "Liebig's Theory Vindicated," he points out how gardeners have long been familiar with the art of feeding the lower roots, and implores farmers to go and do likewise. And where are those lower roots to be found? On the farm, from 4 to 6 inches from the surface; in the garden, from 2 to 4 feet. Rather nambypamby cultivation that, is it not? wisdom and advantages of this radical treatment of the earth, this cultivation of the lower farm, is proved by the irresistible logic of such facts as these-the increased produce and superiority of garden crops, and the higher rent of garden land. Similar good results are reaped from deeply-cultivated farm lands.

The

It will probably be another century at least before a maximum depth of tilth will be generally reached. Until that time-if come it ever will-there is plenty of fresh land to be utilized. It is wholly a mistake to measure the productive force of the earth by square feet or yards. This mode of computation has

led to intense competition for possession of surface only. The joint streams of capital, skill, and labour have spread wide-not run deep. The consequence has been a tremendous loss of productive force, and a wretched average return at about £4 per By doubling the depth you get as much again land for the same rent; and surely it is almost as obvious as that two and two make four, that with as much again food, the things fed thereby-that is, the produce -ought also to be doubled. Some will doubtless cry, I have tried it frequently; you cannot do any more than cover the surface. My crops cover the ground." Yes, but with what sort of covering? Might not these ears be longer, each kernel larger, heavier?-each beet, turnip, and mangold reach double the size? I do not affirm too much when I say, you know they might. And for the development of quality and weight, the unused earth at the bottom of the furrows is as good, nay, it may be better-at least it may be made so than that on the surface.

How

But this brings me to my last point. are you to get more out of your enlarged holdings? All your manure was too little to enrich your shallow tilths; how is enough to be provided to satisfy the deeper ones, especially as your old friend, guano, is worn out? These are vital questions, and I will endeavour to answer them briefly and fairly. The earth itself is a productive force of no mean value. This is too apt to be overlooked by the farmer; he treats the ground too much as he would a horse-so much corn in, so much work out; so much manure in, so many coombs or tons out.

But the earth can also produce somewhat without manure, and this natural force can be wonderfully augmented by aeration and admixture. This co-mingling of earths in the soil is somewhat analogous to the crossbreeding of animals. The product of the admixture of soils is a wonderful increase of growing force. Even the addition of a comparatively worthless earth to a good soil gives, as it were, a fresh lease or a new infusion of growing power to the entire mass.

That great and good teacher, Mr Mechi, adverts to this in the letter already referred to, and I think a useful aid to deep culture might be rendered by republishing, in a cheap form, Mr Smith's, of Lois Weedon, and Mr Lawes' experiments on what might be called the normal productive force of the earth without manure. Again, deep tilths utilize to much more advantage all the manure applied to them. On shallow tilths it is no exaggeration to affirm that one-third of the manure is utterly wasted; it is either lifted up into the air or washed out into the water; it is not half covered, and its strength is rinsed out into the nearest ditch or blown out by the first breeze; but deep tilths hold manure tenaciously as a blacksmith's vicethe top covering is thick enough to be gasproof, the bottom is deep and retentive of manurial juices as a sponge. There is, there can be, no loss.

But then, with a dearth of guano and more land, will not the farmer be in a worse dilemma than before? It certainly seems so at first sight, but we fall back on the common proverb, that when one door shuts another opens. We believe this will be verified in this instance to the letter, and that, moreover, the second door will prove by far the best for the farmer. While the guano store lasted, it seemed useless to direct attention to other sources of enrichment, but close that door and our home guano will stand a chance of being fairly tried. Here, again, I am glad to find the views I have endeavoured to promulgate for years are in perfect accord with your own and Mr Mechi's. Both reach the same point from opposite sides; the guano deposits are exhausted, therefore recoup your fields from the refuse of your consuming centres, is your cry; deepen your tilths 30 inches, and flood and enrich them with town sewage, re-echoes Mr Mechi. I reiterate these cries. Possibly, they may be heard now there seems no other means of getting more off the land than by recouping its productive force by the waste of our lives and the dirt of our labour. We are coming to this at last, by a process of exhaustion. All other means have been

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