The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1858-02-23 00:00:00

Igriculturt.

ITALIAN RYII GILASA—Always presuming the land
to be drained, and of ordinary texture (not sand or lime-
stone), I find no difficulty in growing from 40 to 70 tons
of grams per acre in one year, according to the quality of
the land and style of dressing it, and then leave the land,
after the second year's culture, clean and full of force
for wheat or any other kind of grain for which the land
is adapted. My method into plough in Augusts °leap,
dreu, and sow my seed with the broadcast machine
(harrow and trough), two bushels this way and two
bushels across the field; harrow very lightly and wait
for a crop. If a crop of weeds grow with the grass hand
weed them, and out it quiokly ; if the land is poor and
the crop weak give it two or three owt. of guano to the
mire as • top dresaing, and cut it again as soon as ready.
Dress it in the same manlier again before Christmas and
by the let of March, or before (if the winter is mild),
and you will hum • crop to feed off of about 12 toms to
the acre, which will keep 30 sheep till the let of August.
Being shut up one month in the interim, you will have
the manure of 30 sheep per acre for four months, and
what, I ask, will be the effect of that on the land!
Now, if we continue to mow, the let of March will pro-
duoe 12 tons to the acre; April 14th, 12 ditto; May
14th, 12; June 10th, 12 more; July 20th, 10; Sep-
tember 10th, 8; and another after that of 6; lifter every
mowing there must be a dressing to produce thin; there
Is no magic about it—no conjuring means to the end.
My land in the Forest, well known to some of you, was
poor and filthy only two and • half years lime. It ii
now clean, fertile, and growing crops of every kind, to
the astonishment of my neighbours, who, when I went
into the Forest, allotted me two years to be starred out
and to finish my career; they now adnilnelt, and have
begun to follow the example. As I have spoken of large
mops of grass, larger than you can, perhaps, at once be-
lieve, I thought it would not be amiss to brieg you some
specimens grown this summer from seed sown 18th April
last. The first crop was mown with a crop of ripe seed
July 30th, just before Mr. Spooner requested me to
speak to you on this subject; the specimen was collected
' from the field afterward', singly; one of the mowers,
being a lame man, mowed rather shorter, and left a
few plants standing here and there. The second speci-
men was cut September 20th, off two square feet of
land, which weighed 7 tons 14 get the 'Pep; it will
dried in my kitchen rather too much, and was reduced
to two tons the acre ;; then put into the oven, after the
ter
' bread, and dried to ton 12 cwt. I hare brought _ you
a specimen from grass grown, since cut, September 30th.
not dressed. You may form some idea of the ctuliatitY
by these samples, but you cannot of the quality; the
amount of nitrogen it contains is the rule of the feeding
quality. I can tell you, from an analysis made by Pro-
fessor Way for Mr. auxtable, that one acre of 6 tone
8 cwt. contained 55lbe. of nitrogen, equal to 64 ',whale
of wheat. The previous year's crop contained as much
nitrogen as 300 bushels of wheat. I am convinced,
from using it 14 years, that it is the very beat green food
for animals of the farm I ever saw. Pigs require it very
young; sheep and lambs also ; cows when ibis three
feet, and horses just as the seed ear is shot oat. There
Sr. several amounts in my pamphlets given by persons
who have cultivated my plant, that may interest you
one of the long winter evenings. I have avoided touch-
ing the contents as much as possible, became you can
always read that. To grow the gram is the fint object;
to me it profitably is the next. If it cennot be made
to realise more money than it outs it is sapless, mid
sheuld be cast off; but if it can, and five crops each,
equal to an ordinary grass amp, can be grown in one
year, three of them may be calculated at the price of the
manure and labour. Two cwt. of guano, now 24e., will
be about the Kies of as many tons of gnu wane grown
upon an acre of land in one crop, an averegirof eight
tons of highly nutritious food, which yoa rnay have
when you have no other; the rent eadtaiieettpiiid in
the two first Mops. Seventy tons may be upon
an acre of rich land, well done. You wreil; what
kind of land! I should answer may retentive bean,
wheat, or oat land in high oonditimi ; light barley land
would require irrigating ; sand, chalk, magnesia, lime,
stone, and stone brwth will not grow it. Ammonia is
the food. Urine and water stand first; guanq in wet
seasons; nitrate of soda in hot, dry seasons. Do not
mix any salt with either of them; wood ashes, or fine
dry earth, as much as you can spare, will do well, and
spread it with Chambers' manure machine. Twenty
loads of hay may be grown and made in a year by drying
it artificially, which in quite possible by all those who
have the steam engine. In December, in 180, I had a
splendid crop of grass, and was assisted by a kind and
scientific man, Mr. Appold, of whose excellent pump I
dare say you hive all heard, to make the experiment of
artificial drying in his lofts, which he emptied for the
purpose. We weighed the grass in and out of the lofts,
and kept an account of the cost. Nineteen virtu of
grass went in, was dried in about 10 hours, and six owts.
came out, consuming four cwta. of coke; the out was
Ba. the load. This was in December. It might be dried
at half this out in a house appropriated for the purpose,
and woula answer; as much more hay would be saved,
and of so much better quality. I was a younger man
' then, and red-hot; old age has made rue cool and slow.
1 The drying-house was & part of my scheme. I may
never carry it out, although I intend to endeavour to do
so when my engine is up for the purpose of irrigation.
—Mr. Dickinson, New Part, Lymington.

MAKING AND KICEPING GOOD CIDZIL—E. C., of
New York, desires us to tell him and others how to
keep cider sweet during the winter. There are several
items to be taken into aooount in answering the above
question. One is, that the article called "Cider," be
really true, veritable juice of the apple pure and un-
adulterated, not mixed up with hen ch:oppings in and
about the pomace vat, and the press alovened with to-
bs.coo saliva while being made- the "Cheese," in press-
ing, "slushed down" with dirty water, and various
other ingredients mixed therein, such as we have seen
at sundry cider presses in the course of our agricultural
observations. Another is, that it be made of sound,
well-ripened apples, where the rotten, as well as the
green, acrid fruit has been thrown out before going into
the mill. A third, that the whole machinery of its
manufacture be sweet and clean, and kept so through
the whole cider-making process. A fourth, that the
pomace lay in the vat after grinding at least twenty-form
hours, with two or three thorough shovelingt over in
the meantime to give it a sufficient opportunity to ab-
sorb the oxygen from the atmosphere, wherewith to
sweeten and give the juice the deep, full colour, which
good cider should alway have. And fifthly, that after
pressing it should be well filtered into sweet oaken casks,
and thoroughly worked of its impurities before bunged
and brought into the cellar for winter storage. All this
being done, our correspondent would have little need
of instruction how to keep the cider a meet during the
winter. It would keep sweet of itself. If, however,
when it is perfectly " settled "—which may be readily
ascertained by the aid of a gimlet hole near the bung,
if the barrel be full, through which the frothy matter
will still oore, if not thoroughly worked—a tendency to
change into the vinous state is observed, it should be
drawn off into another clean cask, and • gill of powered
charcoal poured into the bung hole, the cask lightly
shaken, the bung driven tight, and the vent hole, if one
exist, be plugged also. This will keep it sweet for the
winter. If bottling be intended, in the month of
March draw, or rack off the cider again, and if it be not
perfectly clear, dissolve an ounce of pore isinglasa in •
little of the cider, and pour it in, which will make it
clear and sparkling. In May it may be drawn off and
bottled. Fill the bottles to within two inches of their
tops, drive the corks close, seal them and lay them in
boxes, when it will be abundantly purer, and infinitely
healthier than nine-tenths of the VaDADOI33 compounds
termed and labeled" Champagne," for which you will
pay $lO to $25 the dozen at the wine dealers. There is
a great deal of corked and manufactured trash got up at
the cider cellars in various parts of the eountry, in
which, as in the champagne aforesaid, there is scarcely
enough of the pure original juice of the fruit of which
it oughtto be made "to make a note of." To all sellers
of such compounds, the lovers of real cider should torn
the cold shoulder by letting it alone.—Anterican Agri-
culturist.


LONDON MARKETS.

(BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.)

MARX-LANE, MONDAY, FEB. 22.

The quotations for both Wheat and Flour at
Mark-lane to-day, were exactly the same es
those of last week.

Better qualities of Barley were rather dearer.
Prioes in the French markets have improved.
In Beaus and Peu there is an upward
tendency.

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