The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1859-03-22 00:00:00

2griculture.

IMPEDIMENTS To AGRICULTURAL

IMPROVEMENT IN DORSETSHIRE.- -Nu. 11.

(Frew the Ayrindtedrat Gaulle.)

ASI E. —ln continuation of the article with this head-
ing. which appeared at page 127, we proceed to direct
att.iption to the great source of annoyance and lows
consequent on the I.reservaliun of rabbits and hares.
Where they are preserved in large numbers, as is too
often the case, they prove to he a Kure veto to agricul-
tural 'progress, therefore any ane person will not iequire
long or powerful argument. to demonstrate that all
landlords who prowrve them have tips desire to ace the
land well farmed, orthitr.:t hare
tl:eyiin,
jruerygednutilieuubieyn tnee
little knowledge of the. g. liltlu
aninim,„ It ho often one of those vexatious lospies which
fell on the occupier without ally adequate return,
through the want of experience on the part of the
proprietor. Hut from whatever cause it are it leaves
a rankling sore for which there ia no reuitaly but the
removal of the nuisance.
. . . . . _

It is a well known physiological fact that the growth
of plants is IaCIVISISI iii diminished in proportion to
the spread of leaf. With the increase of foliage conies
an inc reali, in the windier of stomata through which
the carbonic acid and probably small ijuatitities of nitric
acid andaiu,nts are imbibed trio.: the atiiimipliere.
The former, by • wise Providence, is collected in the
plant in quantity prmairtioneil to the wants of the plant
and to the power of the plant to mathuilate it. In fact,
the plant forms a natural laboratory which, if left to
itself, would fulfil the wise design of its author. But if
a part of that plant is eaten by some initial the labora-
tory is 'clowned, there ill lesa matter receive,' into it,
and less matter undergoing chemical change. It receives
a severe check through being !cam:lied, and it is longer in
performing its function,' ; its means are dii ll ill islied,
slid it produces nut only less fruit but of an inferior
description, through the loss of that time which ii. the
must favourable for the ripening of hectic This applies
to all the cereals mid to all plants that are cultivated for
their aced; but does mit the first part apply Wall ileacrip-
Cone of plants? If we take the turnip, we find from
experience that this plant, if eaten ir a hen fit to hoe,
produces afterwards a luxuriant green that deceives the
inexperienced eye. It has • more vigorous head in the
autumn than its neighbours, has re vitality through
being checked in its early growth, but what of the bulb?
If its neighboura are :Sibs. each, -hall we riot find this
bulb about 2llri. ? Again in the natural grasses what do
we experience ? Do we not charge much higher for the
keep of a horse than a CIPIY, hecatue the former bites
much closer than the latter? and does not a rabbit or a
hare bite closer than any of our doinetiticated at
It may be said that eight or twelve rabbits or hares con-
sume as much as one sheep, but where is the comparison,
all things considered? See the close bite of rabbits and
hares, the poisonous droppinga, the dislike of other
animals to feed after them, the culling of the sweetest
and most nutritious herbage, the consumption of the
very food left for times of scarcity, the destruction of
the clover plant, the rotting of the turnips after their
bite, the later harvest, the diminished yield, the inferior
grain, all these are objections to the compariiion drawn
by gentlemen between sheep and those wild animals
that are running over and injuring every crop on the
farm. After this who OM say what it costs to keep
rabbits and hares? . . .

.....
The adulteration of manures and the deception prac-
tised on the farmers by the manufacturers is another
impediment to agricultuial improvement. It requires
an extensive knowledge of what is going oil in the
commercial world, and in the manure market in par-
ticular, to give anything like a finished picture of the
varieties of manures that are now sold untkr the same
name. We have neither time or space for it, and shall
therefore confine our remarks to superphosphate*,
nitrophosphates, and guano, on each of which we shall
say little.
The great increase hi soluble phosphate which is this
year found in supheryillosphate of lime is a new feature
in the manufacture of this manure, and may be AC-
counted for in two ways, first throne' the soluble phos-
phate being maile from mineral phosphate, and second
from the closer union of science with practice. SCICIICO
haa hong ago ShOWII Us that the pli.pliates must be
blade soluble previous to their being taken up by the
plant, and that it is not wasted through being soliable, as
It combines with lime or AUUIC other base, and forms •
precipitate phosphate RBI soon as it is applied to the
The lore extended use of analysis all a means to
find the composition of manures has also led farineni to
discover the superiority of those superphosphate,' that
contain the greatest per centage of soluble phosphate,
and the results is that they are supplied with what they
require. The best auperplio.pliates sold in this county
last year contained on an average about 16 per cent. of
soluble phosphate—this year they will average about 22
per tent.
materials of which superphosphate* have been
and are still made is an impediment through the fanners
being misled by sonic of the manufacturers, and through
the former not taking the precaution to have them
analysed and reported on by able clic:lin:its. When the
soluble phosphate was first made trine mineral phos.
pliate there ought to have been adiled a greater quantity
of phosphate to mnply the deficieney which must have
followed the new iii ~be of manufacturing this article.
If the soluble phosphate is made from mineral phow
phate, there generally remains 7or per cent, of this
substance in the shape of insoluble phosphate, and
which, as Dr. %%wicker has remarked, is AS worthless
S*IIII. Now this, As WC Italic SAUL lIIIIst lIRVe
the progress of w4ricultural improvement. for the appli•
cation of a superphosphate made from bUllei, As the
purchasers were lvi to believe time were, would love
added, with the usual dressing, as much more bone phos-
phate to the acre as would be derived from cwt. of
bones. The loss ::f cwt. of hones to the acre is A
serious matter, and would be supplied in some other
form or by an additional quantity of superphosphate
were not the farmers deceived as to the materials of
which it was male.

rophosphates are generally superphosphate's, to
which is added nitrogen in some form in which it will
or is supposed to benefit the plant. If it is thought
necessary to supply the plant with more nitrogen than
is found in common superpholiliste.i, we use a small
quantity of Peruvian guano along with it in pre.
ference to paying the manufacturer fur making nitro-
phosphate. . .

s
Guano is another manure that is often found to he
of little benefit to the crops to which it is applied. This
applies especially to those plioaphatic guano, which are
highly spoken of in this county as being a valuable mix-
ture for the turnip in the proportion oil cwt, of guano
to 2 cwt. of superphosphate, which contains a high per-
centage of soluble phosphate. It especially prolongs
the growth of the plant in the autumn. It is the fault
of those who buy these manures if they are deceived
whilst they have Dr. Vuelcker and other able chemists
who can not only allow thou the compositi ~,, of theme
pianos, but show them in what state the phos-
phates are, whether they are mineralised and of no
value, or in that valuable state in which theg are found
in all real guanoa.
Smog Forms. --Much may he said against small farms,
but they are stepping stones to industrious and saving
men that are deserving to stand in a higher sphere of
life. Farms of lOU acres and less are often occupied by
men of this claims, therefore we shall find that their
education is not better than we could with to find in our
common farm labourer. We scarcely know that these
farms are comparitively any impediment to progress,
although they are managed in an antiimated style that
would probably represent pretty accurately the fanning
of the beginning of this century. Where these small
farina are numerous we are sorry to find that the
labourer* are not so regularly employed. They are
oftener thrown on their own resources, which cause
some dissatisfaction and much inalewndenee. In such
places they have generally other work to fall back on,
when not wanted by their petty masters, whic% results
in the want of that fidelity, industry, and honestry of
purpose that we find in the well housed, well fed, and
regularly employed farm labourer.
The small grass farm i. not SU ninth the object of our
attack, but we cannot help noticing as we travel through
the county, how deplorably thi.e tenants are behind the
times that cultivate small arable farms. These occupiers
generally begin with insignificant capital. They are
ambitious to become farmers without the means of buy-
ing live stock, to cultivate and manure the land. It
must again he seen by all that it is neat to impossible
for them to buy those implements with which labour is
HOW to much cheapened. They would never receive the
interest for the capital so employed, did they possess the
means of doing it. On these farms they are dependent
on some neighbour for a drill, and consequently rarely
get in the seed in favourable weather. through its being
used by the owner at such times. They have no Hen-
broaa6hare, or Coleman's cultivator, they have no
horsehue or horserake, no heavy air light rollers or clod-
crushers. In fact they cannot, if they possess the know-
ledge, cultivate the land properly or profitably, and it
is to time interest of lanillorls, tenants, and labourers,
that all arable farms should be at least 2(I) acres.
We have labourers around us of all shaded, from the
honest, industrious, intelligent and painstaking man, to
the unprincipled, ignorant, and prejudiced being, who
curses all progress, and whose failing it is to do all he
can to thwart the Views of the farmer who is unfortunate
enough to employ I • . It is nut educat alone that
is going to Alter this latter class of men, there must be
a greet revolution in the hoiiieo of the labourers. The
old cottages have been greatly improved, and new cot-
tages have be-am constructed on the best principles, but
we have still the ohl habits, the nil likes and dislike*.
We have taut given them in those homes any source uf
amusement or entertainment that would perhaps re-
move the present tendency to evil 'weak i Lig, and lusatility
of feeling to their superims. In our villages we want
schoolmaster.. and not sehasalmistresses, for the boys ;
We want nightschools for those lads that are in the
nehla during the day, and a reading room for those that
are still ~,,, re advanced. All this limy be attended to by
the schoolmasters 'l. the eyes of the clergymen. (ties
every advantage to the Immuring poor by enabling them
to Imelp tigsula for
ik''iinati u tl•a lleleettla"; haul" be spared ts. culti-
n
perhaps keep them from the beer shop and make them
industrious and prudent, and give the a a distaste for
010 Se vices Whirl* 110 W Cause tlielli R./ touch unhappiness.
This, with other things that would follow in its train,
, would slowly hut surely remove that ignorance and pre.
!jushioe of the labourer, which causes so much trouble,
and is such • great hurt to the employer.—G.

PRODUCTION OF SUGAR IN AUKTRALIA.—SMIIC agri.
cultural experiments which have recently been made in
South Australia will afford additional evidoee of the
al t lavish manner in which the gifts of nature have
been bestowed upon the Australian colonies. The
climate awl soil of Australia are suited, in one or other
of the colonies, to the production of nearly every
description of vegetable and cereal produce. The repw
tation of the grain of Tasmania and South Australia %RA
fully established at the Great Exhibition of
anti every year that has elapsed since that period has
tended to confine the good opinion then funned Of
.%ustralian wheat. Moreton Bay, it has been demon-
strated, will produce cotton of excellent quality, and
many other of the tropical and semi-tropical fruits. We
now learn that in South Australia one of the species of
sugar producing plants has been cultivated with cow
siderable success. The agriculturist who has turned his
attention to this plant may hereafter be regarded as one
of the best friends of the colony. It is said that a negro
slave of tortes was the first who cultivated wheat in
the Spanish colonies of South America ; he sowed three
seeds, which he found in some rice brought fruus Spain
for the use of the troops. At Quito the earthen vessel
in which the first wheat was sown by • Franciscan
I monk, a native of Ghent, is preserved as one of the

11104 highly prizes of the relics. The introduction
wheat into Spanish America was not more beneficial to
that continent than the sugar plant may prove to be in
Australia. We do not expect Dom in its present state,
or for some years to come, A astralia will ever be regarded
sanfl extensive nigar-producing colony. able to compete
with ti3O Veot In,iia islands, or a part of the southern
States of America. The scarcity and high price of
labour conatitat. & difllcolt7 which will not be readily
overcome ; but the fact having been clearly demon-
stratel of the suitableness of ti,l. oj cliwate of the
country for the growth of the sugar is, nevertheless one
of considerable illlrmtatico to the future of these colo-
nies. We learn (roil one of or onitemporaries at
Adelaide that sir. Duncan who lo_s hail the advantage
of a West hluliaexlwronceso Amigar planter, is of opinion
that the plant will not at present pay for the puri.ose
of sugar manutieturing, in COIIII43IOCIICC of the high
price of labour. The " holcus" is not however merely
useful as • plant from which to extract sugar, but it is
of great value am food for cattle and horses. Cattle are
extremely fond of it, and they will eat plant, stalk,
leaves, and flower without any preparation, and the
plant is extremely nutritive and fattening to stuck of all
kinds. The result of the experiments which hare been
suede show that the plant is about twice as, I ;
pro..uct.ve
as a haycrop, that it grows without much trouble on a
soil of moderately good quality, and very little sued is
required. The grain from four 111406 is said to be suf-
ficient to sow all acre of land. The climate°, Australia,
which is at certain seasons of the year lint and dry, is
not well suited to the production of heavy graas crepe
or of those rich inoturages which are to be met with nit
climaterull sy
arpatLivorissupfuont, ttihhweisw yocituarly:yairs.ugaTral
sugar
rtt
pliasi.xwcvert.ciaosliariantyyofintjte.