The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1865-04-18 00:00:00

WELD TAYLOR.
Wimborne Minster, Apra 13.

SWEDES AND TURNIPS.

Our friends, Messrs. H. and T. Proctor, of Cathay,
Bristol, who have contributed so much sound advice to
agriculturists for so many years, as well as set them so
eminent a practical example of farming, have presented
us with the seventh of their new series of treatises.
It is dedicated to the cultivation of the tuenip and the
swede, and intended to illdstrate the conditions which
promote the successful growth of these valuable—and as
la.tresaimee failures severely proved —essential root crops.
It cannot be doubted that to turnip culture It is that
we owe the greatest developments yet attained of
British agricultural resources. Messrs. Proctor quote
as a motto the words of the late Mr. Pusey, "Books
will not teach farming; but if they describe the prate
tices of the best farmers they will make men think,
and show where to learn it." But we all know that
such an apology for their books was quite onneocessary
from these well-known manufacturers of special
manures; since their experimental farm at Wall's
Court will long be remembered as amongst the most
famous sites°, Engliah agricultural enterprise. Indeed
we know of no spot in the whole annals of modern
farming that commands in a greater degree the grateful
reminiscences of the farmer —not the great Lord
Leicester's farm of Holkham—not McCulloch's (or
rather Col. Macdosal's) farm at Anchness where Curd
. first proclaimed the startling results of high farming—
not Kennedy's at Myremill, where liquid manuring was
' carried out in its intregity—not even the Blackmoor
Vale and hill farms of Archdeacon Beatable,
which earned a name for him which can never
be omitted when scientific cultivation has to be
mentioned—nay, not Mr. Mechi's farm of Tiptree itself,
Smith's of Woolston, or Smith's of Lois Weedon, deserve
or command more of our respect than that little farm of
Messrs. Proctor, for it stands in the annals of agrietil•
tare almost upon • par with Rothampstead—the same
of the intelligent labours and researches of Mr. Lewes,
Both farms are in this respect entitled to our gratitude
that both have been devoted to test the value of .
now numerous and remarkable special substances
winch the grand preponderance of our agricalt
success appears to hinge. Coming then from • hoes* I
which, in times past, as in times present, has evinced
such anxiety to ascertain the true value of our agrioub
tend specifics, and discussing as it does the subject of
turnip and swede cultivation, this little treatise of
Messrs. Proctor is entitled to our most respectful atten-
tion. It comes too at a moment when agricultural '
attention ought to be earnestly rivettod on this
momentous subject. Teo or three Fridays or Saturdays
ago our farmers found themselves in the great seed
markets of the year, examining the samples of ,1
the serdsmen, in order to provide themselves with the I
requisite supplies of small seeds of all sorts against the
Usual time and fitting opportunities of sowing. And now
ever is the time to provide against the recurrence of
turnip failures. Alluding briefly to the swede and
turnip culture of this country as the basis of ite arable
farming, these gentlemen proceed to sho • its influence
on agricultural improvement. In referring to the
,subject ourselves, we instinctively place swedes first in
estimation and importance; but it is proper to notice
that Messrs. Proctor do not preserve any distinction
betwixt these and other turnips, but embody all they
have got to say in general remarks upon turnip culture.
As, lowever, they successively speak of the preparation
required by the land, of the use of manure, selection of
Need, time and mode of sowing (which by the way they
leave to be settled, at least the time, by the rule sod
experience of each locality, es the safest guides. amidst ,
the prevailing difference of opinion), singling of plants
and after culture ; finally embarking on the sonsiderat
Con of the difficulties whit& check the growth of the
turnip crop; it may well be conjectured therefore that
a richly interesting treatise, a perfect treasure to the
farmer, is here offered by Messrs. Proctor to
acceptvlnoei anct 're have mualipideesnra In reaommentling
Its peruse/ '

thel
his I

Tim Rnglieh ambassador at St. Petersburg,in a telegram
of Saturday morning, says :—" Another physician has
confirmed my previous reports on the fever here;
dilated pupil. are a symptom of recurrent fever, but
typhus is the more general disease. The army and
navy are healthy. The mortality from all causes rose
one day to 118, but has generally been about 70 to 80
deaths daily. The disease is decreasing, and there are
vacant beds in hospitals."
TEE PsericEnnu.—Arlie most contradictory informa-
tion reaches us from the field of pestilence. In one
private letter we are told that not forty bat" four
phyaicians have succumbed to its ravages; in another,
written by a gentleman who is himself a physician in
St. Petersburg, we read :—" The mortality has been
immense. The lower classes have been dying like
sheep in the vast hospitals that were expressly
estsblished round the town. The Secretary of the
Ss °dish Legation got the fever, but happily recovered.
The fever was terrible during Lent, when, as you
know, the lower classes subsist on rotten vegetables.
Notices were stuck up in the streets warning them
against snob food, but apparently with no effect.
CENSORSHIP OF NEWSPAPERS.—The Russian Council
of the empire has approved the new press laws, by
which the submission of a newspaper to censorship
before publication bee become optional. The Minister
of the Interior can temporarily suspend a newspaper
after three warnings, bat a vote of the Senate is
necessary for its entire suppression.

AMERICA.

A PRIORIDIVITIAL PLKASORR TRIP.—Mr. Lincoln
visited the Potomac army on Sattirday, the 25th, and,
together with Mrs. Lincoln and a number of ladies
and gentlemen, witnessed a portion of the battle on
that day. He has ordered General Anderson to proceed
to Charleston, and upon the the 14th proximo hoist
upon Fort Sumter the identical flag which he hauled
down four years previously, when he surrendered the
fort to General Beauregard. Mr. Lincoln has also
ordered a salute of 100 guns in celebration of the cere-
mony to be fired by each of the Confederate batteries
which aasisted in the reduction of the fort, and that
Mr. Henry Ward Beecher he invited to deliver an ad.
dress upon the oceasion.—Times.
THE PASSPORT Searing. —lt was recently notified by
the United States' Government that the passport
system would be rigidly enforced with regard to all
passengers, excepting emigrants), arriving by sea at New
York or other ports, and this stringent measure has
now been supplemented by an order which is believed
to be unparalleled in its rigour. Without a preliminary
word, or any other oommuniostion than a single tele-
gram to the military authorities, Mr. Seward has
announced that in future any vessels that may arrive
with passengers unprovided with passports will not be '
allowed to di9charge their cargo. Any person or persons,
therefore, who may contrive to elude the precautions of
the commanders or agents of a steamer or other vessel,
or who may accidentally lose a passport or passports on
the passage, may thus be the cause of inflicting what in
some cases might amount to complete ruin to shippers
of goods, who can by no possibility be properly liable
in such oases to penal consequences. Commercial firms
making large consignments might at particular
junctures depend for their solvency upon receiving
return remittances within a particular period ; and,
considering the multitude of other evils that suggest
themselves as contingent upon Mr. Seward's order,
together with the entire tendency of their fiscal legisla-
tion, it would seem as if the grand object of the present
Government at Washington were to isolate themselves
as far as possible from mercantile or other intercourse
with all these of the human race who may seek the
country with any other object than that of enlisting in
the army.
NEW YORK, April I.—The struggle has commenced
at Richmond. Heavy fighting took place on Friday,
the Confederates driving back Grant's left on the Boylton
Plank Road. Grant then assumed the offensive, and
took the ground occupied by the Confederates in the
morning.
GREAT BATTLIS.—EVACIIATION or RICHMOND BY
Lze.--00013rATION BY GRANT.--NEw YORK, April 5.
—Official reports from General Grant to President
Lincoln' received on Sunday, announced that severe and
bloody fighting had been progressing around Richmond
during Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. At noon on
Monday it was officially announced that Petersburg had
been evacuated, and that General Weitzel had occupied
Richmond early that morning, finding the city in flames,
which he was end,svouring to extinguish. During
Sunday Sheridan had born up Ilie Soothed& Railroad,
sod captured three hit an try brigades "and several
batteries of artillery. Grant hat, ronrhly estimated
that be captured during the battles 12,000prinonersand
i
50 guns. Many guns were also found n Richmotd.
After the evacuation of Petersburg and the cap-
ture of Richmond, Grant started towards the
Danville Road to cut off Lee's retreat. The
retreat was marked with artillery, ammunition,
burned or charred wagons, caissons, and ambulances.
All Lee's troops retaining anything like organiastion
had gone north of Appomattox, apparently heading for
Lynchburg. The Confederate losses were very heavy.
Stragglers were found in all direction.. The pursuit
I by Grant, Sheridan, and Meade, hed been tio close .that
the enemy had probably destreVed the greater part of
the transportation caissons and nianitions of war. It
law believed that the prisoners taken on Monday would
exceed 2,000, and that from March 28th until now
I Grant's losses in killed, and wounded, and captured
Izeould not reach 7,000, of whom 1,500 to 2,000 were
captured, many of them being slightly wounded.
Grant would oontinne the pursuit as long as there
sppeared any use in doing so. Correspondents estimate
Lee's losses at 25,000 prisonere, 15,000 killed and
wounded, and from 100 to .200 guns. Correspondents
concur in stating that the turning point in
the battles before Richmond was a bloody engagement
at Five Forks which was won by Sheridan turning
Lee's right, thus rendering his lines in front of Peters-
burg untenable, and compelling the °emulation of
Richmond. Sheridan'e attempt on Thursday to reach
White Oak Road and get in Lee's rear was unsuccessful.
On Friday Sheridan' although reinforced by Warren,
was again driven back. On Saturday Sheridan assumed
the o3muland of Warren's as well as his own corps, and
is said to have displayed great generalship, capturing,
disabling, and rendtring unavailable fully one-third of
Lee's army. The attack along the whole line followed
on Sunday, the Confederates being forced back from
their entrenchments. Lee retreated during Sunday
night. Before °escorting Richmond the Confederates
blew up the forts and rams on the James River. Very
little property was destroyed at Petersburg, and the fire
in Richmond is stated to have been confined to t,,,esenn

By adopting the above practice, and • continual
rotation, I have not been without mushrooms fof a
day during the past throe years.
to Tthheereveisrya maggot
awahhrich
itomws,e tanildifik is de u
ttl
kiihertostwre havi
not discovered any other way of killing it, titapt
crushing it with the finger on the mottld. WhOl
the mushrooms are no bigger than • pin's heed,
these maggots devour them, leaving their littla
shells gutted out. I long thought that this was
caused by cold and damp. I have been of opinion
that the maggots turned into earwigs. They are
about half an inch long . For two-thirds of their leagth
from the head their oolour is dark purple. They are
very active in travelling, having three legs on each
side of their bodies, situated near the head. They
no doubt eat thousands of the tiny buttons just
forming on the surface of the beds. A person look-
ing carelessly over an uncovered bed would not
notice them ; they are so active that if there be tha
smallest hole or alit they are out of sight in •
moment. The only mode of destroying them is to
unoover about a yard of the bed at a time, ad
crush them with the finger before they OAD escape.
Boiling water cannot be employed to kill them,
as that would destroy the crop. This insect is
unlike the woodlice, for these run to either side, and
then boiling water can be used to destroy them, without
doing the least injury to the bed. My hetterdialf
tells me that this maggot is ten times more destructive
than the woodlice, on siectount of living upon
the slender and newly-formed top just arrived at the
surface of the bed. This maggot is entirely different
from what ia called the mushroom maggot. The
mushroom maggot is thought to be • spontaneous
growth, similar to cheese mites and the like. They
may be produced at once in an atmosphere the
temperature of which is above 70 or 80 degrees.
Upon this point, I have taken particular notice
for some years, and I have now discovered that
mushrooms can be produced free from insects in
summer as Well as in winter, by keeping • low
temperature upon the surface of the beds. This can
only be done with water—not watering upon the
mould, but sprinkling over the mats and straw.
The heat is extracted from the surface of the beds by
such damp covering, and, of °Gurus, the maggot
cannot breed. Take an illustration: If in the it
weather you place a pieoe of batter on • slab,
reverse a beam over it, and put a cloth steeped in
water over the bison, it will make the butter hard,
however hot the weather may be. In 1883 we had
mushroom beds in glans houses fully exposed to the
sun ; the temperature in the shade was from 80 to
90 degrees, but we had fine crops, quite free from
maggots. If watering be neglected, failure must
result • yet, too much water must not be given, or
the bed will be drowned.
. . .

In my first edition I stated how the cottager may
make his own spawn with horse manure only, but it
taken much longer to breed than if the following
plan, introduced some years ago, be adopted :—Any
mushroom grower knows too well that horse drop.
pines properly attended to will produce splendid
spawn in the course of two or three month.; and
that this naturally-made spawn succeeds, WA con-
tinues to produce crops after the artificial spawn has
produced an early crop in the bade. To make •
small bed and to form the spawn quickly, ley a
foundation of horse droppings, say a square yard,
and the first layer four inches deep, have some
artificial spawn ready crumbled into dust, of which
barter a handful over the first layer, and tread it
down bard, then put on another layer of horse
droppings, and then more spawn, and so on till the
heap is about two feet high. Mark, all must be
well trodden in order to prevent the heap from at.
taming to more than 80 degrees of heat. Cover the
, heap over slightly with straw, and, in about five or
six weeks, you will have a fine heap of pare spawn
to scatter over the newly-made beds, so that ler
cake-made spawn will be required. If kept dry
the above dropping spawn will keep good for six
months or so.
I merely mention the above plan for the benefit of
cottagere and those gardeners who are stinted in
everything—men whose masters oonsider flu. a deal
for • bushel of spawn; which, I have often proved in
private service thirty years ago, was worth ten
pounds to them. Thirty years ago I have known
one pottle or pound to realise 10s. and even now
sometimes • pound eells for Eis. In Covent Garden
market.

The last gnard against failure I have to mention
is this :—After spawning the bed, chop up a
brick or two of spawn into dust, and scatter
it all over the surface of the bed—before moulding,
of course. Tins plan gives the gardener a better
chance of obtaining fine crop.. So far as my own
knowledge goes, I have not found over-spawning
any preventive to having good crops. Too deep
moulding, I have found, does not produce so floe a
crop as shallow moulding ; about two inches, when
all is finished, is quite enough, provided the best
or rich, loam, &c., is used. Should the mould be
light and sandy, I find that it is an excellent plan to
scatter a little loam on the surface of the bed just
before plastering it. This makes the mushrooms
much more solid, with finer flavour. Our beds
generally bear for three, or four months, or more.
Another great improvement is procuring road shad,
when swept off by a broom, as the dropping aro
finely mixed with the sand, and the strength not
taken from it by heavy rains ke.
This winter, 1864-5, although veaT *evert, we
have been able to maintain • bent in the beds by
the above-mentioned practioe. -•
U the natural law of prodnotiost ot awed
valuable vegetable be examined; how in I
At the end of August and thahniMgri=
days are hot, and tbe nights cod ; •
rapidly, and quickly forms into mashromate, In Wee
Lot ome it lady assisted by naillt=l"
us, therefore, study Notate, and UR laws.
A mushroom hawker Hell in wfth ia Dulwich
fields told me, that the moon had much to do with
the mushroom; but, as yet, I have never had to
blame the moon, JAMES =TRILL,

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