The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1866-02-27 00:00:00

Literature.

NEW WORKS ON A GRICULTURK

SCIZNCI MID PRACTICS IN Fa m Ocrvoisstmer :
By Professor Bookman : (Robert Hardwicke, 192,
Piccadilly). Since first the Dreamt writer put forth
len years ago hie little weave' of " Agricultorsl
gaience applied in Practice," (lroombridge sad
Soo), this title has been the aiss and mid of arrival
works of no little repels. We do not complain of
this. it is, wham • riomplisnent The this in.
tended is dam's to marsh ; Professor Backman has
arrived at it more nearly end simply than any if se,
yet even bie is not altopther indaNd with the words
placed upon his title pug!, for is a postscript too his
handsome volume he mums' the reader to animid the
tide as follows, " &Moos of Practice in Farm Cul-
tivation," showing Out after all oar oopyright title
already appropriated would bars be.. more is his
pa Agricultural &Mom applied in Practice,"
Pr0f....,, Is that not It Bat after all,
• What's in • name r Bomisildag. we adruit,.there.

in the nam. 7ir irtilemil&—liooman, and Mihst of
another to whom his present work is most appro.
pristely dedicated, "Jobs Chalmers Morten, the
talented editor of the A grieultwral Gazette, many of
the facts and opinims already detailed in which in-
flosetial journal are here but riposted." Profaner
Bookman boviag settled amongst us to Donstebire,
is decidedly sod praddiailly mend as well se orna-
mental to our agriculture, and not to ours aloes,
which in mi peseta a rasher, hat to the pima
mommeat of the Mime no well as the practice.
We may bete mention one other specialty of his
volume. It I graphically illastested. The fine
plates of Marione( agricultural as well as botanical
',mimeos ore furnished by hie publisher, Mr. Hard-
Make, the well known proprietor of " Science
Gossip," and similar publications; the woodcuts of
roots are lent by the Royal Agricultural Society of
England, sod we are very happy to hear of mob se
at of kindness to an author, whilst our and Mr.
Risk man's esteemed friend, Mr. Wheeler, of
(ammeter, hes given tbe use of the woodcut Wow
*nations of groom hem hie famed "Little Hoek,"
and &al both the drawings of roots and grimes were
dom by the accomplished Professor hiseeslf, direct
on the wood, it is only fur be should thus heath by
ha own ability. We can only my that when first
we sow them denudation& of cultivated grimes in
"Wheeler's Little book," (which wee only on
maim of primaries for the Bath and West
of England Society • paper on "Farm seeds
and seeding,") we inariatively uttered the
opiaies which so omplately tickled the pro.
prii.bar, that he forthwith advertised it in every
newspaper in the Ended Kingdom. Well theo,
Preform/or &Mime, surreeo&d by all Mess ante-
cedento, has prodneed • very besetifid, sad what
we may dell none • naturalist's work, as egrieol-
tend Sonia Nothing meld be more Important to
cultivation, to which the koowledge of the origin
and nature of oar caltiveted proihots I. of all
Waifs, the most esesetial. The ordinary grower
eina :Sp
esperismos, oely • painful and some-
times es vs (Majority with the habits of the
roots Mats in ordinary *salvation. He sees
them there, mid he knows that should he fail to
treat them after soma approved Whim, he may ho
the loser. Bat how they mos than., or got sods-
mited ; what they were in their wild deft ; sod
how to preserve their vshatile (pugilist mini-
paired, be knows oily practically sod empirically.
This the potato UMW, the turnip sad Mem
were.. the eerie., blights of the mods balls the
farw.ri shill, Ihr it it Mill devoid at lineviedge.
Nee on observer like lreismer Beekinas, devoting
his life to the cooniderelime of this eehjeet, in OM-
nestioo with man& reeeereii, my do as to
orerceese this evil, by 'milling. at leext, the
a.s.pted elemote of isiorinelies, 00 the natural
hietory of cultivated prodoita Wegay the
'' accepted" elements of inforenetios, for its, •

strange thing that whilst Professor Beckman un-
hesitatingly adopts the doctrine that "Cropdente
are derived from wild oar ;" there is really no
on-taint, on the gabfest, but on the cestrery, much
doubt and disputation. That the "watery potato"
bad, wet, waxy tad miserahle, an it wee when first
it snook to the teeth is this country, in Elisabeth's
time and LW, bed its orgin in the "deadly night-
shade" of Routh sod North Amelia, (lie diffiCalt
to believe, especially when we Sod from Bishop
Hills, in his noel missionary wander's. im British
Colombia, that he iavarisbly found the potato in a
state ef culture amoapt the satires, and was
astonished to use it earthed up anotly es with oar-
selves. The latest seamiest redeemed from • Mate
of nature in this reentry, is, perhaps, the wild
°Mary of Nottingham Owls Rock, which it said
some Preach prisoner redeemed, and brought into
popular ass for soaps, ho. How far the "celery"
plant is even yet removed from the wild state with
all the ether of cultiraticio, earthing and blanching
it demands, we leave to be judged by those who
know that it is only not so poisonous as hemlock,
bemuse its noxious principles are modified by mesas
of that great gardenias piaci* of the Masse,
that as you eslarie said dWind fruit and vegetable
pewit's, you astray poisonous
_prinalples and
flavour; and this last fact Profaner Booboos, who)
does not advert to its being the reason why the
Chinese resort to the proms of deer-flag their fruit
tress to oceeeetrate the flavour of the podium
stumbles spoil in hie opening maim of the wild
parsnip, from the top of the Cotteprolds, where he
tells us it is animist this most frequent of weeds.
From the wild seed, by cultivation, the Profaner
certainly succeeded In producing his "Modest"
parsnip, of which be tap 'the flavour, though
much stronger than that of the usual emalent
EUlliniPS, wee rather agrosolge than otherwise.
This matter of flavour is • settled of interest, m
most lovers of the parsnip, sa a prise eonlemit, had
got to mplain of this root Wooesiag more and
more tastelem. That this was so our own **potence
moth fully confirms ; we leave now. however, '
otiseded this root very materially is this
Wear, quite sere from the athmlatioa of Me....
Buttons, el Reading that the harmed Professor has
done so. But we are not quite so mre about his
"wild parsnips" theintelass "from tbe top of the
Ootteswolds." Ws know the place pretty well,
and consider the prsval.no. of the pleat In gnostic&
rather .xosptiaual, so mace an, iedesd, as be sug-
gest tbe suspicion eo constant sanommet behmists in
mob 011014, that things found is any habitat, in un-
usual profusion, rather Mitigate their escape from
cultivation, than au& being isdigethea Mr.
Bookman mono's, thongb oily to meats the belief
le! " a modern Pres& naturalist of great axperieses,"
N. Deoaisoe, that our cultivated forms are not wild
at all, but specially masted for the um of sissa.
Thus U. DOOMiIIaIN having tried to sesobls the wild
carrot, did not mooed. Mr. Beaman naturally
prefers Vilmorin's a:perinatal ; which is asemesd to
have proved that the hard-rooted wild carrot is
really the parent of our aeltirthed varieties se M.
Vilmories experimentally fatomeded in obtaising, by
' cultivation, perfectly tender eatable nob front seeds
saved from plants °sly three or four generatioes off
ths wild sprats: Singularly enough, Mr. Beek•
man ham himself withered so much of the wild
carret, that whilst regarding DOWIIII Yarding'
Olt merside spear) as the original, be views
Deuces Moth (the wild inland carrot) se a protabth
denesedaat horn the cultivated or iprden stook.
Such is, undoubtedly the cam, with tglattd I. the
reclaimed oalery of Nottingham Cestle Rock already
adverted to in the most central inland gametes
in gogleed.—end such we inter may have
been the mei with r.p.M to the Prolemer's own
wild petunia Somebody in Rowena in the far
north, is midi to have latterly felt convinced that the
cialtivated wheat Peet was serer acolimatiascl from
abroad, but always • native of this actuary; and
although we may have heard a good deal of the sup-
posed identity of the AV/flops Dicta with the oat
Poet, we are not aware that the attempt to hiring the
wild cereal in question into a cultivated condition
has yet rewarded the industry impended on it. Still,
Prothisor Buckman supplies many metal and iota
rusting bets, not oaly on the origin of toots and that
of their different sorts, but on their trammels on the
one hand and digeneracy on the other, showing
clearly the pernicious effects of growing seed horn
dmiminste roots, and expaging severely "ski art
and mystery of turnip-eyed adulteration." Biome of
the moth ourious aberrations are those prodesed is
roots (turnips especially) by insects, and they
are firmed by Mr. B 1141111•11 with appalling
fidshty. Pally the most popular, emisinly the
tope precast, portion of this work is the
section which is headed "flow to pow graeme."
W• think we bear from oar meadow bottoms •
univerial mho answer "bow r Mr. Bachman
discusses in detail preasent sod artificial
in all their varieties, aid shows beantilaily traliicrOf
the illustrations the vales of • good selestioa of
grasses adapted to the several situations end aroma.
Manes. of growth. On the paint the Professor is
melee 01 his fame, and that is in dtheating peter*
weeds and warning m aghast them. Half the
potable improvement in all pastimes depends on the
extirpation of worthless weeds and the substitution
of good socoullimit herb,'" in their places. "How
to grow good °lover" is • newer branch of the
Prohmor's laborers, and we really wish be meld like
tie late Jesepla Ady " taloa something to oar airier
tags" on that "abject But alas ass I although
he tells se all that is lumen, end like Mr. Thus,
some things that are not, clover elation is still
among the things that arm "How to grow good
corn," (the next motion of the work,) I. like those
sections that pnsoed. it, dedicated to the promotion
of better results by pointing out bed our ler avoid-
ance. Whig, or bow much denied*, however, in
the manipdatiou of the soil Mr. Bookneas mem Ism
to tell, than to relessres the values end character-
logos, the merits and demerit', the health end
disease of the pleat. The his 10th chapter certainly
relates to, or, rather is inscribed, "Science in the
cultivation of corn;" but •fter • short allusion to
"Manures," we revert once more to "the wieldy and
quantity of Deed corn," Ito. Primarily and palpably
that, the present ia • hook of pienta but it n •
good on. at itt kiwi, if restristed in its magefar,
very to. within the heads of genera agnealture.
A. "hew to wow geed home" tads the anther an
toads in his owe latitude as in that of the hedger.
By the way, we are glad to ignorer that he does not
score the literery amesitiee, but quotes fres the
Rev. William Barnes, under ciee of these well-grows
rustic hedges, • Dormithire Ditty, one of the
prettiest of rural ports. "Row to gre:mast
timber" is hardly • past of "Farm gala
however ; at les* Mr. Mosaiti's grand wahine
I, bow to out it down. Bat the Profneor
tells us a great demi Meal the different
woods
and m be follows it up with "bow to grow
orchards," which in this part of Mgr cioisate7l
usquestioaably pertains to our rural monaney, and
conoludes with • brie/ but amusing chapter on the
I miss and mosioniy of cider and perry, we dare my hi
I will be forgiven if be (uranium us coomionally with
I a &Thy of his imagist embinatios of scientific and
faring knowledge equal Pant before am —V. V.P.

Discturrivs nue= Lurr, 1866, Or Siam or
AONICI7LTIMAL Gneiss= AND FORADI PLAXIII,..q
Mama Ravnbird, Caldeoott, &wires, Dowling
Company, Lisaillsd. These international exhibition
medalists, tame tutor" ns as one of the combinations
which the new principle for the employment of
capital and the Mani of British itidnstry ia
so rapidly multiplying throsgbo.t tbii country. As
anuouncement from time& will be honed I. our
advertising columns, sad we bare mock pleasant
in meatkaing that tbe sake of these old
asegdiabed dims attending the meg markets of
Hasingstake, Saliabery. Andover' Wallop, and
Nywbgrf ; the shipping pate of London, South-
asaptou, and , as well se Mark-Lane, has been
formed under tbe very best anspines. ma Mime
Dowling gulnrintend the isnaort•At breach of
milling trefoil sad mantas, for which they are
oslidesied. And, as agricaltnral sesdanen, the sow
company an really afford great scope for the an
of • kris =went of spitsl in combina-
tion with skill and masagemeat. The said trade bas
its esorees, but Maim Raynbird, in their well.
known mays and papers in the Joernals of the
Royal and Bath and West of .U•gleed Societies, have
show. a mastery ova them. Thar present Price
List is a very fair illustration of tbeir knowledge and
capabilities It is not • mere trade list. 111 one
of tie beat aid mast °oedema existing triable. on
tbe scimitars' grams and foram pla.tsia prmaat
cultivation. To quote from it ia proof of tlus were
needless, NIDOII the bust thing any farmer ase do is
to put himaelf in communicatiou with the Arm at
Basingstoke and obtain • copy for bimeelL