The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-07-04 00:00:00

,•.
THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.'

SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS IN AGRICUL-
-1 TURE.—NEW MANURES, &c.

The weather continues to be favourable for vegetation,
and the farmers in this neighbourhood, and even further
north, have nearly, if not wholly, completed their bay har-
vest, which has been more than usually early and abund-
ant. Taking the country generally, the field crops, whe-
ther as regards corn or roots, present a highly promising
appearance, and should the remainder of the season be
propitious, the prices of wheat—latterly on the decline—
will, in all probability, by the autumn not exceed what was
anticipated by us several weeks ago. This is to be attri-
buted partly to the general fineness of the weather since
the long continued rains ; partly to the greater breadth of
of wheat on the ground ; and, but in a small degree, if at
all, to any recent improvement in culture. The present
period is, therefore, a fitting one, now that the farmers
are beginning to complain of the inadeqqacy of prices to
meet their alleged high rents, to inquire whether they
have done all that in them lies so to fertilize ther ground
that the yield, both in quality and weight, would meet the
emergency ; and, at the same time supersede the necessity,
excepting in very unfavourable seasons, of such imports
of foreign grain, &c., as by glutting our markets would
cause a further decline in prices.
It must be admitted that a great portion of our arable
soil is, under any system of management. unsuitable,
without such outlay in forcing as might fail to be remu-
nerative, for the growth of wheat; and it must also be
granted that, in some instances, a reduction of rent would
be but equitable. But we cannot allow that the evil,
as affecting farmers generally, is attributable solely to
high rents ; or, in other words, that the average rental is
beyond the means of the industrious and intelligent far-
mer, who avails himself of modern chemical discoveries
and other appliances in agriculture, which so strongly
conduce to the fertilizing of the soil.

The question is one of great national importance; and
we at once put it to the anti-corn law agitators—who
, would swamp one great interest to elevate a minor one—
I " Is the soil of Great Britain yet so judiciously cultivated
as to give out its maximum ; or even nearly, its maxi-
mum powers of production ?" It behoves, we think, the
advocates of unrestricted trade in corn, to prove that this
has been accomplished; to show that our own lands have
been duly treated ; before they can, with any grace, call
upon the country to supply capital (for such it is) for the
culture of the fields of foreigners.—and thus to throw it-
self, in dangerous dependency, upon alien states (many of
which regard us as their natural enemies) for a large por-
tion of our supplies of the necessaries of life. This, how-
ever,
is a point from the discussion of which they invari-
ably shrink.
Not only have we immense tracts in many parts of
Great Britain and Ireland, left in the unprofitable rude-
ness of nature, inviting the skill and industry of the hus-
. bandmen to render them available; but large portions of
, the soil long since broken in, is worked in so slovenly and
' inefficient a manner, that they probably produce little
more than one-half the crops they are capable of bearing
under a judicious system of cultivation. Even between
Liverpool and Manchester—two of the most populous
towns in the kingdom—there are mosses and other wastes,
both in hollows, and on hill sides, many thousand acres
in extent, but partially touched, yet all of which might be
turned to good account, by draining, digging, or plough-
-1 ing, and quickening with manure. This fact was noticed
even by Mr. Cobden himself, in a recent speech in this
town ; and that these tracts might be turned to good ac-
count is established by the fact that in this and other
parts of the country many of our productive black soils
were originally mosses.
Within the last few years, the farmers have been worse
off than during the few preceding years. Adhering for the
1 most part to the customary and defective cultivation of
the land, they cannot, they say, afford to pay the rents re-
quired by the landlords. But with some instances excepted,
it is not so much the rent that overwhelms them, as a
want of scientific knowledge of the nature and requisite
management of the particular soils on which they are lo-
cated. Rent, indeed, may be too low to he consistent
with good economy in the cultivator, by inducing an in-
dolent system, or a neglect, of cultivation. And it by no
means follows, even making all reasonable allowances for
the respective capabilities of different qualities of soils,
that those who pay the lowest rents are the most success-
, ful in agricultural pursuits. In proof of this we may state
that the Scotch farms in the Lothians are much higher
rented than the generality of the farms in England ; yet
the cultivators, if they be clever and industrious in this
vocation, thrive and become wealthy. The great secret
lies in the proper working of the land, and in adequately
feeding it with manure—which at any reasonable price
will give a good return in increased production, while, at
the same time the land is kept in heart.
We now come more particularly to manures ; and we
need but instance the market gardens round the metropolis
in proof that with an adequate quantity of the ordinary
kind, and good spade work, three times the quantity of
produce may be raised that is generally grown on the same
extent of surface in the provinces where manure is scarcer.
Most cultivators of the present day, following in the foot-
steps of their forefathers, consider the ordinary farm-yard
manure the only prime attainable article. For general
purposes it is certainly the best of our natural home ma.
nures, and so far as it goes is not to be neglected. But it
is not to be had in sufficient quantity to meet the require-
ments of all the land under cultivation. The general
opinion regarding it is, that it is all in all if abundant, or,
in other words that nothing can equal it if administered
in great weight and bulk. Farmers, who can afford it,
bury masses of it in the ground, and are averse to believe,
that when short, any substitute can be found, compara-
tively of trifling bulk, yet of equal virtue. They lay it
on thick when they can get it; and when they cannot,
they yield to what they consider to be an arbitrary neces-
sity, and leave the land without any stimulating appliance
at all ! The effects of bone-dust, &c., when first de-
I
veloped staggered their belief; and the application of
chemical research to agriculture has led to subsequent
discoveries of artificial and other new manures, the powers
of some of which have excited their astonishment, with-
out, however, generally, confirming their faith in their
efficacy. Many of them bewildered by the multiplicity of
new nostrums for fertilizing the soil, have contented them-
selves with creeping on at the old pace, afraid of encounter-
ing a perhaps useless expense, or at a loss which to choose
1 for trial. We have before us that clever agricultural
paper, the Mark Lane Express, in which we find a list,
with prices current (published weekly) of new manures,
patented and unpatented, of no fewer than 36 different
kinds,—including, rape dust, rape cake, rags, graves,
gypsum, carbon, ashes, humus, various nitrates, urates,
sulphates, muriates, chlorides, acids, chie-fou, composts,
alkalies, animalized powder, and even "disinfected" ma-
nure ! We have also real guano, and artificial guano, the
latter (somewhat curiously) dearer than the former. Some
of these are no doubt good ; others of questionable utility,
and others, we opine, bordering on the worthless; for
some of the inventors—chemists of the metropolis, guilt-
less of having ever raised a blade of glass, or of having,
perhaps, seen it beyond the squares of London—appear
to think they can manufacture manure from road dust, or
from—nothing.
Few farmers have an:opportunity of testing even a tenth
of the manures now in the market, and ascertaining which
is the most suitable for particular soils and particular
crops. It was hoped therefore that the Royal Agricultu-
ral Society—which now numbers 7,000 members, and has
moreover large funds—would have made experiments
upon them on a scale sufficiently large to set the question
at rest, by their next forthcoming meeting, and this, we
believe, was suggested to several of the members by prac-
tical men. But it does not appear that the important
subject has yet been taken up by that influential body.
We are happy to say, experiments have been made with
several of the most promising of the new manures, almost
at our own doors. Although this country, taking it gene-
rally, is by no means well adapted for superiority in agri-
cultural or horticultural pursuits, none can boast of higher
cultivated ground than is to be found in some parts of it,
or of having more successfully overcome the frequent
rigours of the precarious mimate, and the natural baren-
ness of the soil. Of this we have several instances, and
none perhaps more prominent than in the extensive nur-
sery grounds of Mr. Skirving, at Walton-on-the-Hill,—
which, from being originally comparatively unproductive
fields, with a bleak exposure, have been so improved in
climate, (if we may so term it,) and in soil, by sheltering
green fences, and the application of proper manures, as to
grow to perfection plants and shrubs which it was deemed
impossible to rear in the northern latitude, and to present
a flush of verdure and luxuriance highly honourable to
the cultivator and encouraging to others, who may have
similar difficulties to encounter. This gentleman, who
for some years past has made experiments with guano, or
South American bird manure, and other manures, has re-
cently made a more extensive trial of several of the most
approved and promising kinds, and we, a few days ago,
witnessed the result. In adding to his grounds some
grass land (in poor condition) he divided a large a portion
of a field into broad buts of equal size, and manured each
respectively with guano, and other manures considered
the best in the list to which we have before alluded—in
quantities corresponding with their money value, or in
other words, for every 20s. worth of one kind, he put
precisely 20s. worth of another upon the same superficial
space ; for this is the only true criterion by which the
farmer can be guided—the virtues of each kind being left
to be decided by the respective weight of the crop in each
but. Precisely the same crop was put in each. The
whole was carefully and equally treated, under a disinter-
ested superintendant, who registered the particulars in a
book. We were astonished at the inequality in produc-
tion of the respective buts. The guano threw up grass of
nearly twice the height and thickness of that of the other
buts, and the hay will be twice the weight. We after-
wards visited a plot of Italian rye-grass, manured with
the guano. It is very fine, strong, and healthy, and
stands throughout about four feet high. No similarly-
sized plot, treated with an equal money amount of farm-
yard manure would, we think, have any chance with it.
We afterwards noticed the effects of the various ma-
nures in a great variety of crops, including field produce,
forest trees, &c.; but the most interesting was the pieces
of ground in which the experiments were first com-
menced in 1840 with guano, nitrate of soda, farm lard
manure, &c. This was visited in the first year, when in
rye grass, by many members of the Royal Agricultural
Society, when they held their meeting in this town, as
well as by many distinguished agriculturists, and the opi-
nion they expressed was, that it was the finest thing they
had seen in the course of their agricultural tour. Last
year it was crogped with turnips, without additional ma-
nure, and the guano still asserted its pre-eminence as a
fertilizer. This year it is in oats, (still without additional
application,) and the crop on the guano bed greatly ex-
cels all the others, and is still very thick and fine. The
proportion of guano and farm-yard manure was about 21b.
of the former to 101 b. of the latter, but as the price of the
farm-yard differs in different parts of the country, and
also in the same locality at different times, this cannot be
considered a fixed proportion. The superiority of the
guano. however, is shown, even under any ordinari'.fluc-
tuation, to be great • and the experiment is highly valua-
ble in showing (which was doubted by many) its great