The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1859-05-17 00:00:00

agriculture

ROYAL AGRICULTURAL BOCIELT.—The meeting
takes place this year at Warwick, where new railway
stations, registered hotels, ludgiughoums, and other prc.
parations are being made for the event. At a meeting
of the Town•council on Tuesday, Mr. Richard Oreaves
offered to present to the town a splendid drinking
fountain on &similar plan to that erected hy Mr. Merry,
at Liverpool. The fountain, we understand, will be of
granite. and will be opened fur public use at the Royal
Agricultural Society's meeting in July.
BATH AND WES! or ENGLAND Sot. irry.—A monthly
council was held at Waglioni's Hottl, Taunton, on
Saturday week, J. Sillifant, Ed' president, in the
chair. There were upwards of 30 members of council
present. The Secretary laid before the Council various
cut 1111 l unieatione relating to the North Devon Meeting;
amongst them, the subject of local prises for implement*
adapted to the North of Devon. The society having
discontinued their scheme of prizes for implements, it
was resolved that the local implements be exhibited in •
separate stand, apart from the society's bazaar of im-
plement.; and that a 'separate field be engaged for their
trial.—Mr. !Amid 1111 l a. Chairman of the Field Cum•
mittee, proinived to provide extra land for this pummel.
It MILS unaniniou.ly agreed that Mews'. R. Smith, King,
and l'itts be appointed Stewards of Live Stook for the
Durcheater Meeting. Mr. RN. Orenville Was emulated
the new Steward of the implement department. Mr.
Pitman was re-elected Steward if the joultry depart-
ment. The officials of the Arts department for IWO will
be appointed at the next meeting Id the Council. The
Director received a grant for 1:500, on account of the
expenses it the North Devon Meeting.. The Director
reported that the entries for the moiety's premium's
acre unumally good, end that eve'', department of the
diow would iln well reereseuted, epecially thy C 111440.1
for Devon cattle, and the implement department. The
Judges' Selection Committee reported that they had
ineile their aelectioli of judges for the society's prizes, as
also the local stock prises, and that the Local Commit-
tee would nominate the judger for local implement*.
A special Council Meeting will be called before the yr
hibition week, when final arrangements will be con-
cluded for every department of the show.
ANGPI. WURIII..—At a time when getting in the
mangel ssursel rap is one of the chief oecumitions of
the arable farmer in must of our English counties, we
may usefully call attention to the need of a largely
extended growth of this root as compared with the
swediali or common turnip. The difficulties which are
increasing in the way of these latter croja, whether they
be constitutional and resident in the plant amen, or
external and attributable to deficiencye iii the soil or to
the virulence of insect attacks, s cm a. likely to drive
the &num to • tollmtittate a• tie merits of the mania
wursel as tint substitute are to dr.w him. A crop of
311 bine, which in Heim easily obtained than another is
of 20—which iv so undid for either cattle food or sheep,
and which remains good for ten months after harvest-
ing. while that other spoil. in four or five, ought surely
to comma! d • more rapidly increasing cultivation than
judging from localities known to Oa it wenn to be
obtaining. No doubt the difficulty in its way is the
need of • somewhat more liberal manuring, if the sub-
sequent erop of corn is not to suffer nom its removal
from the land. But it would be better to apply all tie,
farm manure that may be lit in April to the growth of
mange' wurzel, and depend entirely on superphosphate
for the turnip crop, rather than run the risk as turnip
cultivators in the south and midland counties always di,
of losing the root crop together, however liberal the
dressing from the dung cart. Another difficulty in the
way of an extended growth of mangel wend is' the
labour and the risk of securing it through winter. The
harvesting of this crop is no doubt an addition to the
labour-bill of October and November—but it is a most
profitable outlay coesidering what security it affords all
feeders and breeders of stock of ample stores of food iii
wring and early auiuuiner. There is no rout more ready
kept from frost than inangel wurzel. Lay them in
heaps, however binge, and cover up the sides, leaving
the tops exposed or barely covered with a little straw
for a month after piling them together, and • very
slight covering over all will then serve as • protection
all the winter. We are informed that in those districts
on the continent where beet is collected in quantity for
the distilleries, enormous quantities are piled together 6
and 7 feet high—the sides only being covered well from
the front —and a very slight sprinkling of straw at top is
all that is dernded on for safety from the severity of
a German winter. If a thicker covering is used the
roots are less likely to remit' uninjured.—Gardeaces'
Chronicle.
GAIN IN TIRE AND OPPORTUNITY BY STEAM
CULTURC.—Altliough ateani is much chearr than
horse-power, the Izestion of cost heOollll.lll insignificant
in comparison with opportunity. Nothing Can illustrate
this better than the word.' of Mr. ffinith, of Woolston,
in one of his recent letters on the use of his steam
elltivator. He says, " I have shown that 225 acres of
heavy clay require the work of an 8 horse-power
engine 45 days. I find from practice it would require
35 hones to perform this work in the same time. i. 0..
five horses for 315 days, the whole of a year ; this of
course does dot include what can be dome by the
apparatus in the spring and simmer." In other words,
as • fernier of 225 acres would only have eight or nine
horses, three-fourths of Isia stubble land would be
unbroken during the 45 fine days of August. September,
and October. It is only the chemist of agriculture who
can sufficiently appreciate the enormity of this lose of
nitration, evaporation, filtration, and consequent fructi-
fication. If the consolidation of stiff clays in damp
weather by pressure renders them infertile by the
exclusion of air, which I particularly know to be the
fact, the opposite of this, by steam cultivation in dry
weather, meat be a great gain. Mr. Smith's comparison
of horse and steaisi-power confirms my own calculation,
that four hours of unremitting draught without a rest is
an ample day's work for a hone. In the midland counties
where the barbarous practice of four !lonics in a line awl
two drivers still exists, the ceremony of turning at the
headlands, the alternate coaling and threatening to get
the hones into working condition, consumes no end of
time. Even in our own well-ploughed pair-horse county
L E:sehip I have on a fine May tranquil morning been
amused by the colloquy, if I may so term it,

between a pair of knowing fat horses and a good-natured
but indignant ploughman, as the ejaculations of " Hexer
and Wiolet," " Worree," and " Hike, come hither,"
cause ringing on the morning air, the horses taking
especial care to reserve their effort to pull for the
ploughman's last burst of indignant excitement,
sometimes accompanied by a small clod--stern, untiring
steam will destroy much of the poetry of agriculture,
and give it a Manchester character—Pd.

SAVING or FOOD BY STEAM LTI•IIE.—A 11l inu-
tion of one-third or more of our horse-power would at
free for the food of man a vast extent of our soil. If
the horses of agriculture consume the produce of one-
fifth of ita available area, it follows that something like
2,.100,000 of acres would be gained for food for the porti•
lation. Spackman ertimates the farm-horses at 1.500,000
—M my opinion far too large an estimate, seeing, on
arable farms, that we have only um, horse to 25 acres.
Every 100 acres of arable land require four horses, anti
etch horse consumes the produce of five acrea, or tl:e
food of seven moo. I consider that steam for cultiva-
lion, grinding, threshing, chaff-cutting, pumping, 6.c.,
would economise two-fifths of the hurse-poaer of the
farni.-161.

estii,,atrs the ;1;7 cnu'l tui n-
oclllecCuLpilttitEnslothellipAZlVLA.,CT,
ral interest in land and tenant's capital for the United
Kingdom at 1ffi,01.10,1300,000, or twenty-five times as large
as the manufacturing interest, which he estimates at
1'78,000,000. Although I think this is exaggerated,
I there can be no doubt that agriculture is by far Mu
lerge.t interest in the kingdom. Hut is it the most
inteiligent and unprejudiced? I think not. If I
were to test this comparatively, I should estimate it by
the amount of 114411111 power which it employs relatively
to the other great producing interests of the country.
I Let us see how the inatter stands. So far as I sin able
Ito obtain approximate estimates Manufactures
I employ 150,000-ateani-engines of an average power of 20
horses-3,000,000 b-p. ; railway locomotives, 7.5410. 100
horse-power-756,000 b-p.; marine engines, 2,000, of
100 horse-power-200,000 h.p. ; our armed steam navy
480 ships-1,10,000 b.p. ; agneulture only 6.000, lidiorse-
power-48,0W is-I'. Now, if Mr. Sparkman is right,
agriculture should employ millions of horse-power,
instead of only 48,000. In these days I take the use of
steam to be the measure of progression, intelligence, and
probt. What is there in agriculture 1•0 complicated or
difficult that steam could not master. I saw in Man-
chester, the other day, two 18-horse-power engines,
which cost £l,OOO, employed entirely in packing hales,
and working the hoists or lifts which carried the mcmi
and cotton goods from floor to floor. The hydraulic
! squeeze given by steaui-power, caused a bale to be
packed in three minutes, which, by Ulllllllll labour, used
to require It. minutes. Time, surely, is money, as much
in agriculture as in any other industrial occupation.
Taking the average of farms at the ordinary depth
cultivation, the number of steam engines required woo
be enormous for cultivation alone ; but if our clays at
(as they ought to be) moved to a depth of two or three
feet, then, indeed, great will be the requirement of
steam-power. As our ordinary depth of cultivation is
under five inches, and as our little island is sea girt,
tripling or quadrupling our depth of cultivation would
be equal to an immense extension of territory, without
additional rent, tithes, or taxes. At present, in our
stiff undrained clays, all below five inches is a terra
incognita, unseen and unavailed of, as is shown by the
going off of the crops in April and May--Poid.

FARMFAB' MENORANDA FOS MAT.—Towards the end
of the month turn out cattle for pasture • the occasiousl
use of Thorley's Food will add much to ;heir health and
appearanof neat ce. Fro the
.hemat id:hud
lloeolf this,wwn
tothane beginning
may nniu
month, bu
grown on land thst will produce nothing else. Carrots,
potatoes, and cabbages should be hoed; and hop-grounds
newly planted should be dug, and your fellows well-
stirred. Clear the farm-house of manure, and hoe and
weed wheat. Sow rape and turnips for autumn feed,—
TAorley's Farmers' Almaxack.

LONDON MARKETS.

(BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.)

MARK-LANE, MONDAY, MAY 16.

The supplies of foreign wheat at our market
to-day were large; of home-grown, moderate.
_ ...

. -
In wheat there was an itdvanee of four shil-
lings aa compared with last Monday's rates.
Barley and oat, without alteration.

METROPOLITAN CATTLE MARKET.

MONDAY. MAY 16.

Our market was supplied to-day with three
thousand five hundred beasts, and twenty-two
thousand sheep.
Trade improved.
Beef, best quality 4 8
Mutton, ditto
Lamb, ditto