I I ^HBolil '

THE

JOURNAL

OF THE

ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY

OF ENGLAND.

VOLUME THE SEVENTEENTH.

PRACTICK WITH SCIENCE.

.1.

LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.

185G.

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SIKlUI.D HE TO PUEVARETHE FORMS OF SUCH EXPERIMENTS. AND TO DISTRIBUTE THK EXECUTION OF THESK
AMONO THEIR MEMHEHS.

Von Thaek, Prinr.ivlns of Agriculture.

London : Printed by William Clowes and Sons, Stamford Street^
and Charing Cross.

CONTENTS OF VOL. XVIL .

ARTICLE PAGE

I.— Statistics of the Corn Trade, 1828-1855 2

II, — Ecport on the Agricultural Department of the Paris Exhibition
of 1855. By J. Evelyn Denison, M.P., Vice-rresident of
the Jury for Class III., Aj^riculturc 33

III. — Elementary Introduction to the subject of Vegetable Physio-
logy. Py Artliur H(!nfrey, F.P.S., F.L.S., Professor of
Botany, King's College, London, &c 62

IV. — A Report upon the Agriculture of the County of Durham. By

Thomas George Bell, LL.D. Prize Report 86

V. — On the Composition of the Waters of Land-Drainage and of
Rain. By J. Tlnnnas Way, Consulting Chemist to the So-
ciety 123

VI. — On the Natural History of British Meadow and I'asture
Grasses. By James Buckman, F.G.S., F.L.S., Professor of
Geology and Botany in the Royal Agricultural College . . . . 162

VII.— On the Roots of the Wheat Plant. By James Buckman,
F.G.S., F.L.S., Professor of Geology and Botany in the
Royal Agricultural College. Prize Essay 172

VIII. — On the Com])osition of Farmyard Manure, and the Changes
which it undergoes on keeping under diU'erent Circumstances.
By Dr. Augustus Vcjclcker, F.C.S., Professor of Chemistry in
the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester 191

IX.— Management of Dairy Cattle. 1854 to 185G. P>y T. Uorsfall 260

X. — On some points in Agricultural Chemistry, liy Justus von

Liebig 284

XI. — Bringing Moorland into Cultivation. By Robert Smith,

Emmett's Grange, Exmoor. Prize Essay 349

XIL— The Agricultural Meeting at Paris of 1856. By J. Evelyn

Denison, M.P 394

XIII. — Manure for Mangold- wurzel. By James Caird 400

XIV. — On the Cultivation of Mangold- wurtzcl. By Cliarlos Paget .. 403

XV. — Action of the Atmosplicn; upon newly-deepened Soil. By

Thomas F. Janiieson, Ellon, Aberdeensliire. Prize Essay .. 407

XVI. — Farming of Warwickshire. By Henry Evershed, Gosfield,

Essex. Prize Essay 475

XVII. — On the Construction of Labourers' Cottages. By T. W. P.

Isaac, Terrace Walks, Bath. Prize Essay 494

XVFII. — The Natural History of British Meadow and Pasture Grassc^s.
r>y James Buckman, F.G.S., F.Ij.S., I'rofcssor of (ieology
and Jiotany in tiio Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester .. 513

XIX. — On the different Mechanical Modes of Deepening the Staple
Soil, in order to give it the full l)ene(it of Atmospheric Intiu-
ence. By I'eter Love, late of Manor Fariri, Naseby, North-
amptonshire 543

XX. — Re]iort on the Exhibition of Slieep and Pigs at the ('helms-
ford Meeting of the Society, 1856 563

XXI. — Re|)ort on the Exhibition and Trial of Implomont-s at tlic

Chelmsford Meeting. By Wiilinm G. Cavendish ., .. 564

IV CONTENTS OF VOL. XVII.

ARTICLE ' PAGE

XXII. — On the Growth of Wheat by the Ix>is Wcedon System, on the
llothamsted Soil. By J. B. Lawes, F.R.S., F.C.S., and Dr.

J. H. Gilbert, F.C.S 582

XXIII. — On the Quantity of Nitric Acid and Ammonia in Bain- Water.

By J. T. Way, 15, Welbcck Street, Cavendish Sc^uare .. 018

Miscellaneous Communications and Notices : —

I. — On ' Ridge-and-Furrow' Pasture Land, and a method of levelling

it. By Chandos Wren Hoskyns 327

11. — Contagious Disease among Cattle in Mecklenburg 331

III.— German Wool Fairs. Midsummer, 1856 ;. ., 335

IV. — Use of ReajDing Machines. By Anthony Ham ond 339

V. — Use of Reaping Machines. By Thomas Parrington .. .. 341

VI. — Experiments in Cattle-feeding. By E. W. Moore 342

VII. — Cultivation and Tenure of Land in Scotland and the Channel

Islands. Communicated by Charles Bowyer Adderley, M.P. 622

VIII. — Prevention of Injury from the Turnip Fly. By T. L. Thurlow 624

IX. — Obstructions in Draining-Tiles. By M. Herve Mangon . . .. 625

APPENDIX.

PACE

List of Officers of the Royal Agricultural Societj^ of England, 1856-1857 i

Memoranda of Meetings, Privileges, Payment of Subscription, &c. .. ii

Report of the Coimcil to the General Meeting, May 22, 1856 .. .. iii

Balance-sheet of Half-yearly Account, ending December 31, 1855 .. viii

Schedule of Prizes for Essays and Reports ix

Rules of Competition for Prize Essays xii

Members' Privileges of Chemical Analysis xiii

List of Officers of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, 1856-1857 xv

Memoranda of Meetings, Privileges, Payment of Subscription, &c. .. xvi

Report of the Council to the General Meeting, Dec. 13, 1856 .. .. svii

Balance-sheet of Half-yearly Account, ending June 30, 1856 .. .. xxi

Balance-sheet of Country-Meeting Account : Chelmsford, 1856 .. .. xxii
List of Stewards of the Yard, Honorary Director, Judges, &c., at the

Chelmsford Meeting xxiii

Prize-Awards of the Judges of Live-Stock : Chelmsford Meeting .. .. xxiv

Special Prizes offered by the Chelmsford Local Committee xxxii

Commendations of the Judges of Live-Stock : Chelmsford Meeting .. ih.

Prize-Awards of the Judges of Implements : Chelmsford Meetins; .. xxxv
Commendations of the Judges of Implements : Chelmsford Meeting .. xxxix

Prize- Awards for Essays and Reports : 1854-56 xl

Schedule of Prizes for Essays and Reports xlii

Rules of Competition for Prize Essays xlv

Members' Privileges of Chemical Analysis xlvi

Index.— Vols. I. to XVI.

DIRECTIONS TO THE BINDER.

The Binder is desired to collect together all the Appendix matter, with Roman nmneral folios, and
place it at the end of each volume of the Journal, excepting Titles and Contents, which are in all
cases to be placed at the beginning of the Volume : the lettering at the back to include a statement
of the year as well as the volume ; the first volume belonging to 1839-40, the second to 1841, the
third to 1842, the fourth to 1843, and so on.

In Reprints of the Journal all Appendix matter (and in one instance an Article in the body of
the Journal), which at the time had become obsolete, were omitted ; the Roman numeral folios,
however (for coiivenietice of reference), being reprinted without alteration in the Appendix matter
retained.

CONTENTS OF PART I., VOL. XVIL

ARTICLE PAGE

I.— Statistics of the Corn Trade, 1828-1855 2

II. — Eeport on the Agricultural Department of the Paris Exhibition.
By J. Evelyn Denison, M.P., Vice-President of the Jury for
Class lU., Agriculture 33

III. — Elementary Introduction to the subject of Vegetable Physio-
logy. By Arthur Henfrey, F.R.S., F.L.S., Professor of
Botany, King's College, London, &c 62

IV. — A Report upon the Agi'iculture of the County of Durham. By

Thomas George Bell, LL.D. Prize Eeport 86

V. — On the Composition of the Waters of Land-Drainage and of
Rain. By J. Thomas Way, Consulting Chemist to the So-
ciety \ 123

VI. — On the Natural History of British Meadow and Pasture
Grasses. By James Buckman, F.G.S., F.L.S., Professor of
Geology and Botany in the Royal Agiicultural College . . . . 162

VII.— On the Roots of the Wheat Plant. By James Buckman,
F.G.S., F.L.S., Professor of Geology and Botany in the
Royal Agricultural College. Prize Essay 172

VIII. — On the Composition of Farmyard Manure, and the Changes
which it undergoes on keeping under different Circumstances.
P>y Dr. Augustus Voelcker, F.C.S., Professor of Chemistry in
the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester 191

IX.— Management of Dairy Cattle. 1854 to 1856. By T. Horsfall 260

X. — On some jioints in Agricultural Chemistry. By Justus von

I^iebig 284

Miscellaneous Commttnicatioxs and Xotices : —

I. — On ' Ridge-and-Furrow' Pasture Land, and a method of levelling

it. By C. Wren Iloskyns 327

II. — Contagious Disease among Cattle in Mecklenburg 331

III. — German Wool Fairs, Midsummer, 1856 335

IV.— LTse of Reaping Machines. By Anthony Ham ond 339

^^' — Use of Reaping Machines. By Thomas Parringtoii .. .. 341

VI. — Experiments in Cattle-feeding. By E. W. Moore 342

Appendix.

CONTENTS OF PART I., VOL. XVIT.

APPENDIX.

PAGE

List of Officers of the Eoyal Agricultural Society of England, 1856-1857 i

Memoranda of Meetings, Privileges, Payment of Subscription, &c. .. ii

Eeport of the Council to the General Meeting, May 22, 1856 . . . . iii

Balance-sheet of Half-yearly Account, ending 31st December, 1855 .. viii

Schedule of Prizes for Essays and Reports, 1857 ix

Members' Privileges of Chemical Analysis xiii

DIRECTIONS TO THE BINDER.

The Binder Is desired to collect together all the Appendix matter, with Roman numeral folios, and
place it at the end of each volume of tlie Journal, excepting Titles and Contents, which are in all
cases to be placed at the beginning of the Volume : the lettering at the hack to include a statement
of the year as well as the volume ; the first volume belonging to 1839-40, the second to 1841, the
third to 1842, the fourth to 1843, and so on.

In Keprints of the Jom-nal all Appendix matter (and in one instance an Article in the body of
the Journal), which at the time had become obsolete, were omitted ; the Roman numeral folios,
however (for convenience of reference), being reprinted without alteration in the Appendix matter
retained.

J U EN AL

OK THE

ROYAL AGRICULTUKAL SOCIETY
OF ENGLAND.

VOL. XVII.

STATISTICS

OF

THE CORN TRADE,

1828-1855.

The following tables were compiled under the direction and
superintendence of Mr. Henry S. Bright of Hull, and published
by him in the year 1854. He has, in the most liberal way,
placed them at my disposal for insertion in the Journal, and has
had additional tables prepared, which make the series complete
up to the present time. They contain, in small compass and
accessible form, the principal statistics of the corn trade since
the year 1828, as well as the average price of wheat for the last
two centuries, and will be found valuable to the politician and
the financier as well as to the farmer. — H. S. T.

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sis, ?s;ki: fg. i?^y;;SK;i

II. — Report on the Agricultural Department of the Paris Exhi-
bition. By J. EvELYX DexisoX, M.P., Vice-President of the
Jury for Class III. Agriculture.

To die Pii.iilit Hon. the Lord Stanley of Alderley, President of the
Board of Trade, &c.

My Lord, — Tlie International Jury of Agriculture (Class III.)
of the Paris Exhibition consistad of, —

Count de Gasparin, President . .

Evelyn Dcnison, V^ice-President

Count Herve de Kergorlay, Secretary

Bousslngault

Barral

Yvart

Dailly

Vihnorln (Louis) . .

Monny de [Nlornay . .

Robiuet

Delehaye . .

De Mathelin (Leopold) . .

Ramon de la Sagra

Dietz

Baron de Riese Stallbourg
Dr. Arenstein
Baron Delong
Wilson, J.
Amos, C. E.

Nathorst, J, T

France.

England.

France.

France.

France.

France.

France.

France.

France.

France.

Belgium.

Belgium.

Spain.

Grand Duchy
of Baden.

Austria.

Austria.

Denmark.

England.

England.
(Sweden and
\ Norway.

It was quite time that France and England should be better
known to eacli other, and that it should be made apparent what
great benefits would accrue to both countries from an improved
acquaintance and extended intercourse.

Up to the year 1851, till the time of the Exhibition of London,
we are told by a French writer of high authority,* " that in
France, more perhaps than elsewhere, notwithstanding our near

* M. Leonce de Lavergne, -author of 'Essai sur TEconomie Rurale de I'Angle-
terre, de I'Ecosse, et d'lrlandc' This essay formed part of a course of lectures
delivered at the Iiistitut National Agroiioiiii(|iie. The information it contains, as
regards the condition and prospects of agriculture in these islands, is so correct,
and exhiliits such a thorough knowleiige of the subject in all its branches, that it
is a reasonable assumption, that an author who writes so accurately about the afl'airs
of a foreign country may be relied upon when treating of his own. Tliis essay has
gone through two editions in France, has been translated into Englisli, and has
unilergone the ordeal of Scotch criticism.

VOL. xvrr. d

34 Agricultural Implements and Produce.

proximity, an opinion bad prevailed that in England agriculture
had been neglected in favour of trade and commerce. The tariff
regulations of Sir R. Peel, not well understood in their design
or in their consequences, had tended to fortify this assumption.
Nothing, therefore, created more surp>rise than the vast collection
of agricultuial implements which the Exhibition of London con-
tained, and the proof they afforded of the high development of
agricultural skill and science in the United Kingdom/'

It has been reserved for the Paris Exhibition of 1855 to give
new force to these impi'essions ; to carry into the heart of France,
and to display before the eyes of hundreds of thousands of spec-
tators, these evidences of the skill of our machine-makers, placed
in immediate contrast with the works of their competitors from
all quarters of the world.

The approach between the two nations, which was invited by
the Exhibition of 1851, has been advanced and quickened by the
Exhibition of 1855. The cordial and friendly reception given
to Englishmen of all classes in Paris has been thoroughly appre-
ciated and responded to — new interests have been called into
action. The advantages to be derived by both people from a
more free communication have forced themselves upon public
attention, and have taken root in public opinion. Such a result
alone would be worth all the labour and all the cost of both Ex-
hibitions.

It was not till the 25th of October, shortly before the close of
the Exhibition, that I was made acquainted with your Lordship's
wish, that I should furnish a report on the Class of Agriculture.
If I had known this wish at an earlier period, some matters,
especially matters of detail, might have been noted, which it
would not be easy now to go back upon. But I bear in mind
that this is not a report, accompanying and justifying an adjudi-
cation of prizes. Such a report will be furnished to the Imperial
Commission by officers specially appointed in each class, and-
will be accessible to all.

The terms of the letter addressed to me by your Lordship's
directions are, " That I would furnish a report, to be laid before
Parliament, of the position which the United Kingdom held in
the Paris Exhibition, compared with foreign countries, in the
Class of Agriculture, and the progress, if any, which has been
made since 1851 in respect of this class of objects."

I propose to follow the course pointed out in this letter of
instructions.

It may be well to consider at the outset the position of the two
countries as regards agricultural practice at the present moment.
Such a picture, full of life and interest, has been drawn to our
hands by the able pen to which I have already referred. As the

Agricultural Implements and Produce. 35

comparison is very favourable to this country, I prefer to employ
the words of a French author rather than to make use of my
own.

In natural gifts of soil and of climate the advantages are beyond
all question on the side of France. It maj^ be that France has
relied too much on these excellent gifts, while England, less
favoured, has been urged by her necessities to increased
exertions.

Systems of Cultivatiox.

" France has devoted herself too exclusively to the production
of corn crops, which are the immediate food of man, without
sufficiently considei-ing the means necessary to uphold the fertility
of the soil under this exhausting process. England, on the con-
trary, has been led, partly by the nature of the climate, partly by
design, to take a sort of by-path, which reaches corn crops
through the intervention of green crops ; finding, in the rearing
of cattle and the supply of manure, the restorative process which
is necessary.

" The experiment has entirely succeeded, and is extending
itself day by day ; and the remarkable fact is, that in proportion
as the head of cattle increases the quantity of corn increases also;
the gain in intensity exceeds the loss in extent. Thus, on a sur-
face of 31,000,000 of hectares, reduced to 20,000,000 by the
waste lands, the British isles produce more food for animals than
the entire surface of France, of double the extent.* Hence the
jsupply of manure is in proportion three or four times greater.
The average produce per hectare in France is 6 hectolitres of
wheat, about 5 of rye, and 1 of maize or buckwheat ; collectively
about 11 hectolitres. In England, 25 hectolitres of wheat (3^^
quarters per acre), more than double in quantity, and three times
more in saleable value. Scotland and Ireland are included in
this estimate. If the comparison is made with England alone,
the results are far more striking. This little country, not larger
than one-fourth of France, protluces 38,000,000 of hectolitres of
wheat, 16,000,000 of barley, 34,000,000 of oats. If France pro-
duced as much in proportion, she would produce, deducting seed,
150,000,000 hectolitres of wheat, 200,000,000 of oats and other
grains ; that is, at least double her actual production.

" Taking all products into account, animal and vegetable, it
appears that the produce of England, per hectare, nearly doubles
that of France.

" Tlie great lesson which these figures teach, beyond the dis-
proportion of the results, is the relation of vegetable to animal

* I preserve the French measures, together -with the calculations of the author.
The French hectare is equal to 2"471 English acres.

1) 2

36 Afjriculhiral Implements and Produce.

prodiuts. In France the vegetable products form four-sixtl;s of
the whole, and the animal products two-sixths only ; showing at
first sight, an exhausting cultivation, and one at least stationary.
In the United Kingdom the animal products are equal to the
vegetable. Thus the animal products alone of an English farm
are equal to the entire products, animal and vegetable, of a French
farm of the same extent.

Sheep.

"The most remarkable feature of British farming, In com-
parison with that of France, is the number and quality of the
sheep. According to the statistical returns and estimates, the
number of sheep in France and in England is about equal, about
35,000,000 of. sheep in France and 35,000,u00 in England. But
this apparent equality conceals an inequality the most marked.
35,000,000 of slieep in the United Kingdom live on 31,000,000
hectares of land. 35,000,000 of sheep in France live on 53,000,000
hectares. France, in order to have as many sheep in proportion
as the United Kingdom, ought to have 60,000,000. If the com-
parison is made with En2:land alone, the difference is far greater'.
England feeds 30,000,000 of sheep on 15,000,000 hectares of
land ; that is, proporticmally, three times as many as France.

" But the great difference is in the quality of the sheep, upon
the breeding and improving of which, with a view to weight and
early maturity, so nmch care and attention has been bestowed.
The weight of an English sheep is twice that of a French sheep ;
so that an English farm on an equal surface gives six times as
much mutton as a French farm.

Horned Cattle.

" In the case of cattle, the same care in breeding from selected
animals in the United Kingdom, and continually improving the
races, in studying meat-producing qualities and early maturity,
has effected results similar to tlie results produced in sheep.
France possesses 10,000,000 head of cattle, the United Kingdom
8,000,000. In France, three products are demanded from cattle
— labour, milk, and meat: in England only two — milk and
meat. The yield of these two valuable productions is materially
interfered with by requiring work also from cattle. It might
appear, at first sight, that tlie work of cattle (ould not in an
important degree influence the supply of meat, and it is not diffi-
cult for people to persuade themselves that labour in utilising the
life of an ox enables meat to be sold at a lower price, But expe-
rience has proved, that if this is sometimes a truth in detail, it is
an error in the gross.

" T'lic habit of laI;our forms hardv, vigorous rac?s, wliich, like

Acjricultaral Imj^lcinents and Produce. 37

men devoted to hard work, eat much, fatten slowly, develop their
bony structure, make little flesh, and make it slowly. The habit
of inaction, on the contrary, forms races, gentle, tranquil, which
fatten early, assume round and fleshy forms, and give with equal
food a far larger yield to the butcher. If we look to labour, the
ox is killed when he has finished his task. If Ave look to meat,
the ox is killed at the moment when he yields the largest amount.
Cattle in France are killed too young or too old; among the
4,000,000 head killed, figure 2,000,000 calves, giving each only
30 kilogrammes of meat. Those which survive are killed at an
age when the growth has long ceased, i. e., when the animal has
long been consuming nourishment which has not added, to his
%veight.

" In England, on the contrary, animals are killed neither so
young, because in their youth they make the most meat, nor so
old, because then they make none. The moment is seized when
t\ie animal has reached his maximum of'increase.

"In France the number of animals killed annually is about
4,000,000 head, producing 400 000,000 kilogrammes of meat,
averaging therefore 100 kilogrammes per head.

" In the United Kingdom the number killed is 2,000,000,
producing 500,000,000 kilogrammes of meat, averaging 250 kilo-
grammes per head.

"Thus, with 8,000,000 head of cattle and 30,000,000 hectares
of land, British agriculture produces 500,000,000 kilogrammes
■of meat ; while France, with 10,000,000 head of cattle and
53,000,000 hectares of land, produces only 400,000,000 kilo-
grammes."

Such a description of the high attainments of English agri-
culture having been placed before the public of France, it was
natural that great expectations should have been formed both as
to the display of live stock and the exhibition of agricultural
implements. Nor, I venture to say, were these expectations
disappointed. The cattle of our improved breeds found a crowd
of admirers and many purchasers. The Durham short-horns have
3)een imported largely into France for some years bv the agents
of the French Government, and very good specimens of this race,
bred in France, were exhibilcd. The first prize, for young bulls
of the Durham breed, was awarded to the Marquis de Talhoust,
•for a bull sixteen months old. More surprise was created bv our
sheep, especially by the large size and admirable symmetry of
our South Downs. Tlie jury decided that a gold medal of the
first class should be struck in tlie name of Mr. Jonas Webb, for
the collec tion of South Down sheep, bred and exhibited by liim-
.self. The cattle show took place before the juries for the Palace

38 Af/ricidtural Implements and Produce.

of Industry were summoned to Paris ; I had not -the good fortune
myself to see the show. The deputation who accompanied the
President of the Royal English Agricultural Society were greatly
pleased with the excellent arrangements of the show, and with
some of the continental breeds of cattle, especially with the French
Charolais race, as very good in themselves, and offering a stock
very suitable for crossing with short-horn bulls ; also with the
Metis-merino sheep, pointing out the road which French breeders
must pursue to accomplish the end of their mission — the supply
of meat at a reasonable price to the markets of France, Though
horses formed no part of the show, I must not omit to mention
the race of draught horses, known by the name of Percheron.
They are strong, muscular, hardy horses, of great power and
activity, worthy the attention of English breeders, better suited for
the quickened step of improved farming than the heavier sort of
English cart horse.

The collection of agricultural implements was formed by Mr.
Brandreth Gibbs, under the direction of the Board of Trade,
assisted by a committee of the English Agricultural Society.
The selection was made with great judgment ; the implements
sent were not too numerous, and they were all of established
excellence. They consisted of ploughs, harrows, cultivators,
broadshares, drills, horse-hoes, rakes, rollers, reaping machines,
haymakers, &c., portable steam-engines, threshing-machines,
chaff-cutters, corn-crushers, and machines for making draining
tiles. But the French system of classification placed in the list
of agricultural implements those implements only which are used
in the fields. It removed the articles last on the list — threshing-
machines, chaff-cutters, corn-crushers, machines for making drain-
ing tiles — from the jury of agriculture, and placed them in Class
VI., " Mecanique speciale." This led to some practical incon-
venience in the conduct of the trials, and to a seeming incon-
sistency connected v/ith the change made in the tariff of duties,
of which I shall presently speak.

The first trial of implements took place on the 7th of July, at
Trappes, about ten miles beyond Versailles, on the farm of M.
Dailly, a member of the jury, who afforded every possible accom-
modation and the most liberal hospitality both to the exhibitors
and the members of the jury.

The day was chiefly devjoted to the trial of ploughs ; an
English hay-maker was exhibited, and tried on newly-mown
lucern. In England it is employed generally only for meadow
grass, for which it is best suited. Though a machine of very
long standing in this country, it appeared to be a novelty in
France, and was much admired and approved.

A[/ricultural Implements and Produce. 39

Subjoined is the report of the experiment on ploughs, furnished
by Mr. Amos, my colleague, consulting engineer of the English
Agricultural Society, who assisted at the trials.

Teials of Ploughs,

Trappes, July 7tli, 1855.

Fifteen were used from various countries. A great difficulty
was experienced in obtaining the names and addresses of the
exhibitors, through the cards or marks not being placed on them.
This accounts for the imperfection of the first colum.n, viz.,
" Makers' Names."

The land was light, and offered but little I'esistance to well-
made ploughs, but the experiments would have been more valu-
able had more " field room " been given, so that each plough
could have made three or four turns before the dynamometer
was applied. Each plough should also have worked to tlie same
depth, as the ground was harder at bottom.

The " ground " is also usually harder near the old " water
furrow," and lighter near the old " ridge ; " hence each plough
should have had a " land " or " ridge " to itself, and then, had
the dynamometer been applied at an equal distance from the old
" furrow," greater truth would have been obtained.

The dynamometers tried were one provided by the French,
one from Denmark, and one from England (by Bentall). The
latter was used, but it is imperfect when used with ploughs of
" light draught," as it gives the " resistance " of such ploughs
too small. This arises from the driving " disc-plate " having a
hole in its centre ; and although that hole is of no consequence
or inconvenience when ploughs are used on " heavy land," yet
when used with ploughs of small I'esistance on " light lands,"
the spring of the dynamometer is not compressed enough to keep
the " driving-disc " clear of the hole ; hence the " registration "
is too small with light ploughs. This may account in some
degree for the difference {as recorded) in the draught of the
ploughs of our best makers.

Tlie following table gives the length, breadth, and depth of
" earth removed," which, being multiplied together, gives a
" total " in cubic feet. The tabular number in the seventh
column is. the number recorded by the dynamometer. This
number in each case multiplied by 100, and the product divided
by the number of cubic feet of earth removed in each experiment,
gives the tabular numbers in the eighth column. The numbers
in the eighth column show the " comparative cost " or " cxjicndi-
tiire of poiccr^^ of removing an equal quantity of land, the lon'cr
number showing \\\e greater degree of excellence of the implement.

40

Afjriciiltural Implements and Produce.

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Agricultural Implements and Produce. 41

In carrying out the details of the experiments, the able assist-
ance rendered me by Mr. f]dward Combes, C.E., of Paris (a
gentleman recommended by Piofessor Wilson), Avas eminently
useful. C. E. Amos.

The trials, for the reasons above mentioned, could not be con-
sidered entirely complete or satisfactory. The indications of the
dynamometer were unduly favourable to the ploughs of the
lightest draught ; but making the fullest allowance for this, the
difference between the resistance offered by the different ploughs
will appear very remarkable.

The best French plough, tlie " Grignon," was light, cheap,
simple in construction, and did very good Avork ; but in com-
parison with Howard's plough, tlie dynamometer marked 29 as
against 16 ; in comparison witli the best Belgian plough,
*' Odeurs," 57 as against 16.*

It was objected against the English ploughs, and indeed
against the English machines in general, that they were too
heavy and too costlv ; but the trials showed that a light plough
does not always make light work, nor is an implement, cheap at
first cost, always the cheapest in the end. Tlie same objections
against iron ploughs, and in favour of the old wooden ones, have
been freely made at home, but they are passing away under a
longer experience. To do good work in the field you must have
strong and well-constructed implements. The best implements
are the cheapest in the end; they are fast superseding inferior
machines at home, and they will no doubt in time obtain the
same preference wherever they shall be put fairly to the test.j
The value of solidity and strength was fully recognised in the
implements akin to ploughs, drags, scarifiers, and broadshares,
by which so much of the labour on the best cultivated farms is
now effected. The implements by Garrett, Bentall, and Cole-
man were the first of their class, and their superiority was not
contested.

The position of the English exhibitors of agricultural imple-
ments was not an encouraging one. They sent specimens of
their newest inventions and most approved machinery. These
might be examined, c()])ied, ])urchased as models, l)y foreign
competitors. The individual machines exhibited might indeed
be sold at the close of the Exhibition, on the payment of a duty

* Further trials on the 1st and 2nd of August, and on tlie 1-1 th and I'lth of
August, made with the dynamometer of General Morin, varied in some decree
these results. They were made in the absence of tlie English makers and their
workmen. They were favourable to tlie light draught of the Grignon plough.

t Howard's plough was bought on the grouud for the Government Establish-
ment at Grignon.

42 Agricultural Iinplcmcnta and Produce.

of 20 per cent, ad valorem. But the sale of a single machine
was, of course, a most inadequate compensation for the trouble
and expense incident upon the Exhibition ; nothing more, how-
ever, was in view. The duty on the importation of machinery
was so high, that it amounted to a prohibition. It was not to be
expected, under such circumstances, that any great zeal or en-
thusiasm should prevail among the English machine-makers,
busy at that moment in preparation for the Carlisle show. Still,
when notice was given of the intended trials at Trappes, at a iew
days' warning only, several of the makers themselves came over,
bringing with them their workmen, and they appeared on the
ground ready to contend for the honour of victory, though victory
should be barren of all but honour. At the close of the day
their conduct through the trials drew from Count de Gasparin,
the president, these complimentary words : — " Your countrymen
have indeed set an example to all. They have brought good
implements, men to manage them, an interpreter to speak for
them, an engineer to advise with. Ttiis is the way in which
business should be done."

An international exhibition, w^hich had broken down no bar-
riei's of prejudices or partial laws, which had ended without ex-
citing friendly sympathies, or promoting friendly intercourse,
would have been but a barren display. The enlightened French-
men with whom I had the good fortune to be associated were
the first to pronounce in favour of free exchange. Our class
agreed unanimously to make a representation to the Imperial
Government in favour of a reduction of the duty on foreign agri-
cultural machinery. The repi'esentation was successful : an
Imperial decree appeared in the Moniteur of September 7,
making a considerable reduction in the duty on many manufac-
tured articles, and specially reducing the duty on agricultural
machinery to 15f. per 100 kilogrammes. This duty being by
weight, 15f. per 100 kilogrammes (equal to 2 cwt.) operates un-
equally in different classes of machinery.

On an iron plough, for instance, in which the weight of the
raw material, in comparison to workmanship, is considerable,
the duty will be something above 20 per cent, ad valorem. In
the more complicated machines, into which labour enters more
largely, as in drills, horse-hoes, &c,, the duty Avill be from 15
to 20 per cent, ad valorem.

This concession was accepted with much satisfaction by our
machine-makers ; orders to some extent were received for ma-
chines. The barrier, at all events, which had hitherto stood
between the industry of the two countries was broken down, and
ground was laid for a trade which may be ripened and matured
into results of mutual benefit to both countries.

Agricultural Implements and Produce. 43

I have said that portable steam-enfrines, and threshing-machines,
and tile-making machines were not included in the list of agri-
cultural implements.

Unfortunately the classification in the books of the Custom-
house corresponds with the classification in the catalogue of the
Exhibition, consequently those machines not falling under the
denomination of agricultural machines do not partake of this re-
duction of duty.

Of all machines connected with agriculture, there are none in
which greater improvements have been made in late years than
in machines for making pipe tiles for draining. There is no
class of machinery which would be more useful in France. The
excellent results of draining are there thoroughly understood and
appreciated. Specimens of draining were exhibited by the Mar-
quis de Bryas (Gironde) and the Viscount de Rouge (Aisne) from
the opposite extremities of France.

The draining of the Medoc vineyards by Count Duchatel has
been attended with complete success. It is computed that one-
seventh of the surface of France requires draining. It is under-
stood now that draining not only keeps land drier during the
rains of winter, but keeps it cooler and more moist during the
heats of summer, preventing the baking of the surface by the
sun, and promoting the constant progress of vegetation. It is
the foundation of all improvements — the first step in the path of
good cultivation. No machines attracted so much attention as
the tile machines of Messrs. Clayton and Whitehead, exhibited
in work. They were surrounded from morning to night by a
crowd of spectators. I cannot think it probable that the Go-
vernment of France, anxious to promote improvements, and to
strengthen the hands of French agriculture, will decline the
benefit which is offered to them by the possession of these ap-
proved machines.

Under the law as it at present stands the cost of introducing
a tile machine into France exceeds the prime cost of the machine.
Mr. Clayton thus reports his experience : —

" The sale of tile machines for France would have been much
greater, but the numerous applicants were deterred by the high
rate of duty ; it amounts, indeed, almost to a prohibition. I sold,
the other day, a tile machine and pug-mill, to be delivered at
Fresnes, near Paris. The sale value of this machinery amounted
to 58/, ; the cost for transjiort and Douane charges amounted to
62/. — 4/. more than the entire cost of the machinery."

The threshing-machines were tried by the jury of Class VI.
The Enirlish niacliine by Ilornsby, and the American by Pitts,
of Buffalo, State of New York, v ere the most approved. The

44 A[/ricultiLral Implements and Produce.

details of tlie trials have not yet been published, and they are
not in my possession.

These trials do not appear to have been conducted with all the
care and exactness necessary to place the decisions beyond the
reach of cavil.

Reaping Machines.

Though reaping machines have, up to this time, disappointed,
the sanguine expectations which were formed of them at their
first appearance, the various specimens in the Exhibition were
regarded with much curiosity, and the trials of them excited a
lively interest. Mr. W, Fairbairn, President of Class VI., has
favoured me with the following report on these machines. The
name of Mr. Fairbairn will be a sufficient warrant for the value
of this report.

Report ox Reaping Machines.

Machines of this kind are of great antiquity. They were
known to the Romans, but we hear nothing of them during the
middle ages ; and from those remote times we have few traces of
improvement, or any successful attempts to substitute machine-
reaping for the sickle. It was reserved for Mr. Bell of the Carse
of Gowrie, in Scotland, in 1826, to construct a machine that
answered all the purposes of a good reaper. Mr. Bell has used
his machine, and gathered his harvest by it, for the last twenty-
nine years, and it is not too much to say that most of the ma-
chines now in use are based upon the principle of Bell. There
is great similarity in nearly the whole of these machines, and the
Universal Exhibition of Paris exhibits nearly the same charac-
teristics in principle and construction as those shown at the Ex-
hibition of 1851. It is true there are some slight improvements
introduced by Mr. M'Cormick and others, but the principle of
the machine remains unaltered, excepting only the receiving-
boards, which in those brought forward for competition at the
Paris fllxhibition are exceedingly variable, and some of them very
ingenious.

The period of the General Exhibition at Paris was most
favourable for giving a fair trial to machines of this description,
and the month of August afforded an excellent opportunity for
testing the merits of each machine by actual experiment. Through
the liberality of M. Dailly, a distinguished agriculturist, and
member of the jury, a field of oats on his farm at Trappe was set
apart for the exclusive purpose of ascertaining the properties and
proving the value of each machine. The Imperial Government,
always alive to the interests of the community and the advance-
ment of mechanical art, took a deep interest in the trials, and, in

Agricultural Implements and Produce. 45

order that the jury might not be incommoded, several mounted
gens-d'armes, a few soldiers of the line, and a drummer, were
sent forward to Trappes to prevent the crowd from inccmveni-
encing them. On the 2nd August, at 11 o'clock, the machines
were divided into three groups, and the contest for superiority
commenced as follows : —

GrOUJ) Id,— Metres.

M. Coiirnior's allotment 1,628

M. Atkhis' „ 1,733

M. Lawreiit's ,, 1,825

Group 2nd, —

M. Mazicr's „ 1,82G

M.Manny's „ 1,<JOO

M. Crosskill's „ 1,058

Group Qrd, —

M. M'Cormiclv's „ 1,987

M. Dray's „ 2,256

Canadian ,, 1,650

Having grouped the machines as above, the conditions were,
as far as I could learn, — the time required to cut the allotment,
the number of hands employed, and the perfection with which
the work was executed without injury to the grain. These con-
ditions being ascertained, the first group commenced operations,
by beat of drum, at 11 o'clock, all three starting at the same
time.

Gkoup 1.

Courniers Macliine (French) on Bell's principle. — This ma-
chine, with one horse, cuts clean, but is liable to get entangled
in the cutters with straw. A great deal of time was lost from
this cause, and this defect appears to be common to all the
machines when tlie speed liappens to be reduced under 2^^ miles
an hour. In this respect. 1 found the maximum A-elocity of the
machines to be as nearly as possible 3 miles an hour ; and the
knives, for every 18 feet in distance, made 11 single or 22
double cuts for one revolution of the wlieel. This machine had
a sliding rake motion for the convenience of the reaper, and in
order to enable him to clear the receiving-board of the grain as
it is cut. With some improvements, this machine may be made
irmch more effective, and would work much better with two
horses and a wider cutting-board, so as to take a greater width of
grain, and maintain the speed necessary to accomplish a max-
imum result. From the frerjuent clogijing of tlie cutters it re-
quired 1)7 minutes to cut 1(')28 square metres of corn. The reel
in tiiis macliine for gathering the corn went too fast, and proved
injurious by striking the grain too high up the stalk.

JSI. Aihiiis Automaton Machine (American) executed 173i)

46 Agricultural Implements and Produce.

square metres in 24 minutes. This machine is nearly self-acting,
and only requires the driver ; one attendant, indeed, following
the machine in case anything goes wrong. Its novelty consists
in a rake worked from the wheel that drives the cutter-shaft. It
is attached by an arm or connecting-rod to the bevel-wheel, and
by a combination of levers it receives a rotatory motion, which,
along with that in a longitudinal direction, drags the grain for-
ward over the side of the board. In order, however, to make
sure of the discharge, another rake or cleaner strips the before-
mentioned one of its load, and lays the straw in parallel lines
ready to be bound into sheaves. This machine, like Cournier's,
has some clever devices about it ; but, like all new attempts at
improvements, there still remain some further improvements to
simplify and make the machine more effective and complete.

Laivrent (French). — This machine, like Cournier's, was con-
stantly choking with the straw round the cutters. It is a copy
of Bell's, and requires two men at the pole — a driver and a reaper
— to work it. It is a heavy machine, and almost too much for
two horses to work, and the reason of its entanglement was a
falling off in the speed. In all these machines speed is an ele-
ment of success, as might be seen whenever the velocity of the
knives and the speed of the machine were reduced ; on such
occasions, choking or entanglement of the straw was the result.
This being the case, it is therefore a consideration of much im-
portance to have all these machines of such dimensions as to
enable the horses to work them with ease at the required
velocity.

Group 2.

Mazier s Machine (French). — This machine is of light con-
struction, adapted for one horse, and cuts a breadth of 2 feet 7
inches in line all round the field. It cuts either right or left, by
means of the frame containing the cutters turning on a central
axis. The knives are worked by a wheel and worm, and are
well calculated for cutting light grain, such as oats and barley,
but might prove inefficient in operation on a field of heavy
wheat. The machine, as a whole, was rather slender for the
work it had to perform ; but, if well constructed, and the parts
judiciously proportioned for two horses, there is no reason why
it should not reap any description of grain. In the attempt to
cut the allotment it unfortunately broke down by some of the
parts giving way.

J. M. Mamiy (United States). — Mr. Manny's allotment con-
sisted of 1900 square metres, which he cut in 2Q minutes.
The machine is worked by two horses, and cuts a breadth of
4 feet 6 inches. Mr. M. speaks highly of his machine, and

Agricultural Implements and Produce. 47

gives numerous testimonials of its efficiency, exclusively of
medals, premiums, and awards from different districts in Ame-
I'ica, and from different countries in Europe, for its performance.
According to Mr. Manny's account, " it will cut eitlier grass or
corn when down, wet or dry, and in whatever direction the wind
blows, without being stopped for a single instant." Mr. M.
further observes, " that it can easily be converted, in a few
seconds, from a reaper into a mower, and the only thing required
is to withdraw the platform and change the scythe of the reaper
for the cutting scythe of the mower. The cutting apparatus, for
corn or for grass, is made in such a way that it cuts as well
backwards as forwards when the machine is reaping ; the wheat
is received on the platform, gathered, and put into a heap by the
action of a wing-board, and by a single stroke of his rake the
attendant puts down on the ground at the back of the machine
the already made sheaves, which only require tying." It will
not be necessary to follow Mr. Manny furtlier in his description,
which evinces great confidence in the superior performance of
the machine; suffice it to observe that it did its work, with the
exception of some parts not very clean cut, moderately well, and
in 26 minutes completed the quantity it had to perform.

CrosskiWs Machine (English) is an improvement upon Bell's,
and in great repute amongst the farmers of the North Riding of
Yorkshire and other parts of England. In the hands of Cross-
kill it has received several improvements, but unfortunately on
this occasion the key of the connecting-rod that woiks the
knives got loose, dropped out, and stopped the process of reaping.
Under these circumstances it was thought desirable to withdraw
the machine, and leave the field open to the other competitors.

Group 3.

M^Cormick (American). — This reaper is probably one of the
best machines of its class. It reaped 1987 square metres in
seventeen minutes, and judging not only from tlie quantity of
work done in so short a time, but from tlie manner in which the
ground was cleared, and the grain cut, it evidenced much greater
perfection in its operations than any of the others whose powers
were brought to the test. It cuts a clean track of 5 feet 6 inches
wide, and pcnlorms the operations with a degree of certainty and
precision sufficient to account for the very short time in which
the allotment was cut down. This macliine, like most others,
is susceptible of still further improvements, and I am glad to
find that Messrs. Burgess and Key, tlie makers, are about to in-
troduce a new moveable apparatus, consisting of three Archi-
medean screws, for delivering the grain from off tlie receiving
Ijoard as it is cut. The jrreat defect of this machine was the

48 Agricultitral Implements and Produce.

imperfect way in which the grain was delivered from the plat-
form after being cut, and the evident want of some method of
laying the heads and straw parallel and in bundles and sheaves,
and also for clearing the ground and leaving the track clear for
the liorses on the return cut. This defect in distributing the cut
grain as it falls from the knives appears to be the principal ob-
jection to this machine. Burgess and Key's clearing apparatus,
if properly constructed, may probably remedy this evil, and
render the machine much more perfect in its operations than it
has been heretofore.**

W. M. Dray and Co.'s MacJdne (English) is of an exceeding
compact form. It is entirely without a reel for gathering in the
corn to the cutters, and requires only one man as a reaper to
watch the cutters and discharge the corn as it is received upon
the board or wooden platform behind. The cutters are 5 feet
wide, and it rea])ed 2250 square metres in 35 minutes.f The
peculiar features of this machine are, its portable construction
and the receiving-board, which moves upon an axis. By the
pressure of the reaper's ioot the platform is tilted, and the grain
drops behind, ready for the person who follows to bind and tie
it up. The only objection to this process is that it requires the
binding to be done immediately, otherwise the horses, at every
succeeding cut, would trample over the previously reaped corn,
and, moreover, would effectually impede the working of the
machine. Under these circumstances the track previously cut
must be entirely cleared in order to prepare for that which suc-
ceeds. This operation of the tilting-board, which throws the
grain upon the track behind, appears to be the chief defect in
the machine. A different clearing apparatus to effect the dis-
charge of the cut grain in a lateral direction would render this
machine much more valuable. It would give time for binding
up the grain into sheaves, and at the same time it would clear
the track for the horses and machine in their return for the
next cut.

The last machine (the Canadian), which completes the three
groups, was withdrawn, from some cause that was not explained.

On a careful examination of the several machines entered for
the prizes, it will be observed that in every one of them an at-
tempt was made to effect a certain purpose by certain means of
transmission, calculated to retard rather than facilitate the pro-
gress of cutting. In machines of this description, where horses

* A trial has been made of this apparatus since the above was written, but
without success. I am not prepared to state from what cause, but will take an
early opportunity of ascertaining the facts or of witnessing its performance at some
future trial.

t Some say 34 minutes.

Agricultiwal Implements and Produce.

49

are employed as a motive power, it is desirable to make tlie
action as easy as possible, and to effect the motion of cutting,
reaping, &c., with as light wheels and gear as practicable. Now,
these small wheels and their attachments at present in use appear
to me to be the very worst and heaviest parts of the machine,
and I would earnestly urge upon the makers of reaping-machines
the absolute necessity of increasing the diameters and dimensions
of the gear which works the cutters, and at the same time to fix
and attach the journals and ends of the shafts into one casting,
so that they cannot vary in position, but must move, and, techni-
cally speaking, go and come with the machine. These altera-
tions being made, the proper clearing apparatus being attached
to the receiving-boards, we might then look forward to the la-
bours of the harvest being pei'formed with much greater cer-
tainty and effect than is now accomplished by the present
machines. The following table, which Mr, Edward Combes has
kindly handed to me, gives the results of the different trials as
follows : —

Trial of Reaping Machines on the Farm of M. Dailly, at Trappes,
near Paris, 2ud August, 1855.

o

^

to

c

a i

^ .

No.

Name.

Country.

rt

■-S

It

Time.

°l

Price.

Remaiks.

A

3

'^2

ft.

in.

min.

£.

1

Cournier.

France

4

3

1,628

67

1

20

Driving-wheel 3ft. Sin. ;
crank makes U revolu-
tions to 1 ; knives not
serrated.

2

AtUins . .

American.

5

3

1,733

24

2

3C

Diameter of driving-wheel
4ft. ^in. ; crank makes
24 to 1.

[ 3

Laurent.

France

5

1,823

66

2

Diameter of driving-wheel
3ft. ; crank makes 15
to 1 ; similar to Bell.

4

M.T/.ier . .

France

2

7

Broke

down

1

Small macliine, cottins;
eitlier right or left, by
means of the cutting-
frame turning on a
central movable axis;
knives worked by wheel
and worm.

5

Manny .

American .

4

6

1,900

26

2

23

Diameter of driving-wheel
^ft. (iin. ; crank makes
13 to 1.

«

Crnsskill, ■)

Hell's . ]

M'Cormick .

Kn','lancl .

5

Broke

down

2

45

7

American.

5

6

1,087

17

2

30

__ ■

«

Dray . . .

England .

5

2,250

35

2

25

9

The Canadian

6

6

liet

ircd

2

From the above table it will be seen that M'Cormick's
American machines performed the most work in tiie least time ;
that Atkins' and Manny's executed as nearly as possible the
same quantity of work in the same time, there being a fraction in

VOL. XVII. E

50 AfjricuUural Implements and Produce.

favour of Manny ; and that Dray was next in the order of time
and the quantity of work done.

Reducing- the whole work done to a standard of 2000 square
metres, the competing machines will stand thus : —

M'Cormick's would cut 2,000 metres in 17*00 minutes.
Manny's „ „ 27-36 „

Atkins' „ „ 27-69 „

Dray's „ „ 31-11 „

If we are, therefore, to take the quantity of grain cut in the
least time, Mr. M'Cormick's machine will stand first on the list,
and the others according to their position in the above scale.

In the investigation of this suljject we have hitherto confined
our observations to the machines. There is, however, another
element equally important and essential to the efficiency of the
process of reaping, and that is, tlie preparation of the land : and
in fact, before we can look forward to ultimate success, the sur-
face must be levelled, and the present injurious system of ridges
dispensed with. To a casual observer it is obvious that the pre-
sent state of culture, as pursued in most parts of Europe, is not
calculated to afford the necessary facilities for insuring a success-
ful progression to machinery. To apply machinery successfully
to the labours of a farm the land must be prepared, not for
hand, but machine labour ; and the successful introduction of
reaping machines will chiefly depend upon the preparations that
are made for their reception. The system of ridges may be
tolerated, and overcome by the sickle, but to give to the new
process of reaping by machinery its full effect, a totally different
plan of operations must be pursued, and the fields laid down
with a perfectly smooth surface. The larger description of stones
and other obstructions should be removed, and in place of the
superfluous water not required for the nourishment of the plants
being allowed to flow between the ridges on the surfaces of the
field, sweeping in heavy streams, as it now does, everything be-
fore it, the new system of drainage will require to be adopted,"
and the water carried under in place of running over the surface.

To make a machine, such as a reaping-machine, work well,
everything must not be left to the machine ; the agriculturist
must do his duty as well as the engineer, and that duty once
duly performed on both sides, a certainty of action will be
secured which will solve the problem and effect satisfactory re-
sults. Having arrived at these happy results, we may then, aiid
not till then, reasonably look forward to the crops being well and
quickly gathered by machinery, to the exclusion of a laborious
process, effected with difficulty, and often imperfectly, by the
human hand.

W. FAiRBAm:N-.

Agricultural Implements and Produce. 51

I regret that the Exhibition closed without any declared pro-
gress in the great problem of steam cultivation. Hopes had
been entertained that a steam cultivator, the invention of Mr.
Romaine, brought from Canada, promoted by funds voted by the
Canadian legislature, would have been so far perfected, that it
might have been presented to the jury for examination ; but un-
foreseen difficulties beset the path of the inventor, and he was
compelled reluctantly to give up the cherished hope of signalis-
ing his machine by a public display at Paris.

Still it is just to Mr. Romaine that I should bear testimony to
what I saw, and to the point which he had attained. I saw in a
field, near the walls of Paris, Mr. Romaine's machine, carrying
its own boiler and engine, travel by its own locomotive power
100 yards up the field, and break up and cultivate the land in
its course.

Besides taking the lead in promoting cultivation by steam,
the Canadian legislature voted a large sum of money (10,0007.
currency) for the general objects of the Exhibition, and sent some
good machines and a magnificent collection of products.

The Exhibition of 1851 brought favourably into notice the
great resources of Canada, increased the general confidence in
the security of sums invested in its public works, and facilitated
the introduction of capital into the colony. The display which
was made at Paris cannot fail to fix on broader and firmer foun-
dations the confidence in the natural resources of the colony, and
in the intelligence and public spirit of its inhabitants.

The sales of English agi'icultural machinery have been for
some years past much more extensive to the German states than
to France.

Belgium exhibited some good machinery ; the first prize
was awarded to her for churns and for chaff-cutters. The Com-
missioners of her Government were diligent in turning the Exhi-
bition to good account. They purchased several of the best
English implements, which will no doubt speedily be reproduced,
possibly with improvements, in her active and well-appointed
workshops.

It may be sufficient for the purposes of this report to say of
the foreign agricultural machinery in general, the collection of
which was very large, and of which only a small portion was
subjected to trial, that, without venturing to express an opinion
of the merits of some of these implements, or of their adaptation
to the different localities where they were employed, it did not
appear to our macliine-maker or to our consulting engineer that
they offered models which it would be important to adopt for the
purposes of English farming.

Gold medalsof honour in Class III. for norricultural niachinrrv

52 Agricultural Implements and Produce.

were awarded to six individuals only. Five of these exhibitors
were from England, and one from the United States of America.

Grand Medal of Honour. — Mr. M'Cormick, of Chicago, United
States of America, for his reaping-machine.

Medals of Honour. — Messrs. Garrett, Saxmundham ; Hornsby,
Grantham; Howard, Bedford; Ransome, Ipswich; Crosskill,
Beverley ; for agricultural machinery.

Agricultueal Products.

The collection of agricultural products was very large, and of
high interest. To give a detailed account of them would extend
this report beyond reasonable limits ; nor for the purposes of
this report does it seem necessary, as in the majority of instances
there was no question of comparison or competition.

The fine wools of Germany were a class to themselves.

The tobacco of Cuba was without a rival ; various specimens,
the produce of the soil of Europe, followed at a respectful
distance.

In the important article of flax, France, Belgium, and Ireland
received an equal award from the jury.

The rich and varied products of the wide domain of France
and of Algeria were set forth in long and imposing array.

The agricultural products of these islands were combined in a
single collection, formed by my colleague, Mr. Wilson, under
the directions of the Board of Trade. It was very complete,
carefuHv arranged and classified, and called forth the warmest
commendations of the jury.

No unimportant share of the interest of the Exhibition was
supplied by the dependencies of the British Crown, by India, by
the continent of Australia, by Van Diemen's Land, by Jamaica,
Guiana, &c. The value of their contributions was fully appre-
ciated, and suitable acknowledgments were made by the votes of
the respective juries.

Amid all the beautiful specimens of wheat from Algeria, from"
Australia, from Van Diemen's Land, from Canada, it was ad-
mitted that no single specimen equalled in excellence the speci-
men sent from South Australia to the Exhibition of 1851. It
does not appear, from the information that has reached me, that
these fine grains sown in this country retain the excellence of
their original type. Grains matured under a hot sun form, ac-
cording to the commonly received opinion, the most valuable
seed ; but in the case of wheat the practice seems to be the
reverse of this. It is certain that our strong and prolific Avhcats
are imported largely into France for seed. Not less than 5000
quarters were imported early in last autumn for this pur];oiC.
These strong and coarse wheats no doubt refine in colour and in

AcjiicuUaral Implements and Produce. 53

quality under a more southern sun. It does not appear that the
exchange of the fine grains of the south to our northern latitudes
is attended with results equally advantageous.

It would be desirable that some careful experiments should
be made to induce to greater certainty on this point of so much
interest.

Among the specimens of artificial manure, that made from
fish, the Engrais Poisson, was considered by Professor Wilson
specially worthy of notice.

The fish, after having been steamed, are pressed into cakes
and dried. In this form the manure is said to contain from 10
to 12 per cent, of nitrogen, and from 16 to 22 per cent, of phos-
phate. The price, about 8/. per ton.

Progukss since 1851.

In reply to the second, and not least interesting question —
"What progress has been made since 1851?" it may be con-
fidently asserted that progress has been made on every side. In
machinery, in scientific acquii'ements, in field practice ; and to
such an extent, that beyond all question the productive powers
of these kingdoms have been more largely increased within the
last four years than within an equal space of time at any former
period.

In machine making, though some interesting novelties have
appeared, the characteristic feature has been the constant im-
provement, tending to perfection, of our established implements,
and a great extension of their use through the body of the farm-
ing community, a fact significant of the superior intelligence
which is now brought to bear on farming affairs, promising a
sure and continued progression.

First on the list in point of interest, first in its remarkable
increase, stands steam machinery.

No farmer who has ever had a steam-engine on his farm will
ever again be Avithout one ; no farmer who has ever threshed his
corn with steam power could bear again to see his horses toiling
in the wearisome circle, now jerking onwards when the whip
sounds, now brought almost to a stand-still when the machine is
clogged by a c.ireless feeder. The regular stroke of the untiring
steam-engine gives excellence to the work, keeps everybody in
his ])lace, and introduces among men, even the most careless,
something of its own exactness and precision.

It was thought a remarkable thing that in the year 1851, one
firm, (Clayton and Shuttleworth of Lincoln, a firm not known to
the agricultural world ten years ago, should have constructed and
sold in one year 140 portable steam-engines. Since 1851 the
annual progress has been as follows : —

54 • Agricultural Iniplonents and Froduce.

Engines. ■-- • Aggregate horse power.

1852 sold 243 1,349

1853 ,,293 1,723

1854 ,,363 2,297

1855 ,,491 3,332

1,390 8,701

Besides the constant increase in numbers, it will be seen there is
a constant increase also in the power of the machines. In the
year 1851 each engine averaged scarcely the power of five horses.
In the year 1855 they average nearly seven.

It is computed that 90 per cent, of these engines are used for
agricultural purposes in England ; the remaining 10 per cent,
are sent abroad, or are used for purposes not connected with agri-
culture. We Iiave tlierefore in the last four years, deducting 10
per cent, from the wliole number of 8701, a power equal to 7831
horses added to the force of the farmer from one firm alone.
Messrs. Clayton and Shuttleworth direct their attention exclu-
sively to steam-engines, and to machinery moved by steam power,
This devotion of the undivided attention to one class of objects
is of itself an indication of progress, and conducive to perfection.

The increased power afforded by steam has led to improve-
ments in all maciiinery moved by steam — in none more than
in threshing-machines. The corn now is commonly delivered
from the stack upon the machine, and delivered from the
machine into sacks ready for market — a great economy of time
and of money. For these and similar processes, the use of steam
power is making rapid strides, and will continually extend itself,
to the great help and furtherance of every operation to which it
can be applied.

Our leading machine-makers all concur in attributing marked
results to the Exhibition of 1851.

Messrs. Garrett have foreign orders, arising from connexions -
formed at the Exhibition, still coming in. One customer in
Hungary has had not less than 8000/. worth of machinei'y, chiefly
drills and threshing-machines. Drills have been improved by a
new steerage patented in 1854.

Chambers' patent manure distributor is a new instrument, the
invention of a practical Norfolk farmer ; it will sow from 1 to
100 bushels of artificial manure per acre, delivering it with great
regularity, and is excellent for the simplicity of its construction.

Drills for liquid manure are still undergoing improvement. If
found useful in this country, how much more valuable are they
likely to prove in the dry and sun-burnt plains of southern
Europe ?

Messrs. Hornsby consider the improvements in threshing-

A(jricidtural Implements and Froduce. 55

machines to be equal to a new creation of the implement. Their
business has increased three-fold since 1851.

Messrs. Howard find the demand for improved implements to
come now mainly from the tenant farmers : formerly it was in a
great degree confined to amateurs and large proprietors. The
business of all the leading machine-makers has doubled since
1851.

Messrs. Ransome concur as to the improvement in threshing-
machines, and as to increased demand lor machinery. Much
has been done, but inuch remains to be done still.

Messrs. Smith and Ashby date the wide diffusion of good im-
plements from the Exhibition of 1851. The Paris Exhibition
has opened to them several new sources of trade, in France,
Algeria, and Germany, and has led to the appointment of an
agency in Berlin for the introduction of improved machines into
Germany, at the instance of a spix'ited merchant of that city.

Messrs. Bentall have found the demand for improved ma-
chinery increase largely since 1851.

Such has been the uniform tenor of the replies from all the
leading machine-makers from whom communications have been
received. There is a host of local makei's, equally alive to the
importance of improvement, and adding largely in their respec-
tive spheres to the stock of good implements.

Agricultural Chemistry.

In speaking of the progress of agricultural chemistry, to
Mr. Lawes must be assigned by English farmers the place of
honour. Without entering on the high controversy between
Baron Liebig and Mr. Lawes, lately revived with increased
animation, tlie English farmers have wisely accepted the teaching
of Mr. Lawes, based on experiments, in the accuracy of which
full reliance may be placed, and the results of which are open
to the view of all. They have learnt that tlie apj)roved arti-
ficial manures are not mere stimulants, but agents of fertility
which, when properly applied, may be depended upon with
certainty to produce a crop. The principles on which the growth
of corn depends are better understood. The repetition of corn
crops on the same soil can no longer be considered as necessarily
faulty in principle, and to be unconditionally condenmed. It is
rather a question of expediency, to be decided by the costs of
manure and of produce.

These lessons the English iarmers have learnt from Mr. Law(?s.
They have accepted them with becoming gratitude. Tiiey are
practising them with increasing confidence day by day, to their
great and proved advantage.

Mr. \\ ay, to whom also the farming world is under the greatest

56 Ayr ('cultural Irnpkments and Froduce.

obligations, has snatclied a few moments from his professional
pursuits to furnish mo with the following sketch of tlie general
progress of agricultural chemistry.

This department of applied science is now attracting to itselJ
the attention of able chemists in all countries ; and the contribu-
tions to knowledge resulting from the various investigations have
during the last few years been very considerable. To attempt
anything like an account of these results in this place is obviously
out of the question, and we content ourselves Avith little more
than an enumeration of the principal and most interesting inves-
tigations.

In tliis country Mr. Lawes has continued his experiments om
the laws concerned in the feeding and fattening of animals,
taking, for the objects of trial, pigs and sheep. The number of
animals experimented upon, the intelligence and care brought to
bear upon every detail of the experiments, and the very consider-
able expenditure Avhich has evidently accompanied them, place
these investigations far in advance of any of a similar kind thai
have been undertaken elsewhere. Although the results are of a
practical character, the experiments of Mr. Lawes must not be
classed with the very numerous trials on the feeding of animals
that are to be found dispersed through agricultural publications,
and which are merely practical, being undertaken without refer-
ence to general principles. The results of Mr. Lawes' inquiries
are too numerous to be stated here, but they seem to point out
that a just balance of the different constituents of food is of more
importance in the feeding and fattening of cattle than a predomi-
nance of any one ; that neither the albuminous nor the farinaceous
elements of food have an exclusive value for the purposes to
which they are applied ; and that the classes of vegetables which
are peculiar in containing a high proportion of nitrogenous
matter are not necessarily, from that circumstance, the most
adapted in practice to produce that part of the animal body
(muscle) which most resembles them in composition. According
to Mr. Lawes, therefore, the valuation of foods in relation to their
contents in nitrogen is attended with much fallacy.

Amongst other papers. Dr. Voelcker, of Cirencester College,
has published an account of experiments made Avith a view oi
ascertaining the cause of the fertility produced by burnt clay
when used as manure. He has arrived at the opinion that the
effects are partly mechanical, but principally due to the libera-
tion of potash from silicates of that alkali existing in the soil,
but only slowly available until released by torrefaction.

Mr. Way has published two further papers on the Important
subject of the absorption of manure by soils, in continuation oC
his first research on this subject, which Avas published in 1850..

Agricultural Implements and Produce. 57

Mr. Way attriliutes the power possessed by soils to remove
various alkaline bodies (as potash, ammonia, &c.), from solution
in water, to the existence of a class of double silicates of alumina
and another base, which is generally lime or soda. Mr. Way has
succeeded, for the first time, in producing this class of salts ; and
he argues, from the effects observed in soils, that these latter
contain the silicates in question in small quantity, and hence
their power to preserve soluble manures from loss by rain and
drainage. His second paper on this subject refers to the action
of lime on soils ; and he endeavours to show, from the large
quantity of ammonia existing in almost all soils, which, according
to his experiments, very far exceeds the doses of this alkala
usually applied in manure, that lime acts much in the same waj
as ammoniacal manures themselves, by furnishing indirectly st
supply of nitrogen to plants. The effects of over-liming are ac-
counted for in the same way,

Mr. Way has also given an account of his examination of cer-
tain beds Ivins: immediately below the chalk formation, which
contain large quantities of what is known to chemists as " soluhh
silica^ This form of silica has not hitherto been met with natu-
rally, except in the case of some strata in the Department des-
Ardennes, in France, which were examined four or five years
ago by M. Sauvage. From their peculiar nature they are sup-
posed to be available with advantage for many purposes in the
arts, and as a source of soluljle silica for agricultural use.

The subject in the chemistry of agriculture, which has lately,
however, attracted the greatest share of attention, both in this-
country and abroad, is that of the source from which plants
derive their nitrorjen. It has been satisfactorily proved that
plants growing in the ordinary way often contain more of the
element nitrogen than they can obtain from the soil in which
their roots are placed ; and it is obvious that in some way or
other this accumulation is derived from the atmosphere. Now,
the air surrounding the globe is composed of a mixture of nitro-
gen and oxygen gases in the proportion of about four parts of
the former to one part of the latter ; it also contains small quan-
tities of otlicr gases, such as carbonic acid, nitric acid, and am-
monia. The question at issue is, as to whether plants can, under
any circumstances, make use of the great bidk of the nitrogen of
the air in building up their tissues, or whether they derive ths
observed excess from the ammonia and nitric acid in the air.
This question, the interest of which, both in a purely scientific
and agricultural point of view, can hardly be overrated, has en-
listed the energies of chemists on liotli sides, and has given rise
to some admirable researches. It has als(j involved tlie extended
examination of air and rain-water, in order to ascertain how

58 Agricultural Irnjilements and I^roduce.

much ammonia and nitric acid are usually contained in the one,
and brought down by the other. The principals in this discus-
sion in France are MM, Boussing^ault and Ville ; both of these
chemists have made extended series of experiments on plants
grown in glass-cases ; their conclusions are, however, diametri-
cally opposite, — M. Boussingault contending that plants cannot
make use of the atmospheric nitrogen, but must be indebted to
the nitric acid and ammonia in the air for their supply in excess
over that furnished by the soil ; M. Ville maintaining that, in
the absence of both of these, an increase of nitrogen in plants
still takes place. A Commission of the French Academy of
Sciences, recently appointed to look into this matter, leans rather
in its report to the side of M, Ville, but the question is still far
from being set at rest.

M. Barral has determined the quantity of ammonia and nitric
acid brought down by rain in Paris. M. Boussingault has re-
peated these experiments as regards ammonia in Alsace, and
finds the quantity very much smaller than in the rain of the
city, a circumstance which we should be prepared to expect.
M. Boussingault has also examined, with the same object, the
water of fogs and dew, and of rivers and streams. M. Ville has
cai'efully determined the ammonia existing in the air both in the
interior and suburbs of Paris.

Mr. Lawes and Dr. Gilbert have published the results of an
inquiry into the quantity of ammonia and nitric acid in rain
falling at Rothamsted, in Hertfordshire. The methods of deter-
mining small quantities of nitric acid are at present so imperfect,
that Messrs. Lawes and Gilbert have not thought it well to pub-
lish their results as to this substance, but they are led to believe
that in quantity it exceeds that of ammonia in rain. Besides the
names Ave have mentioned in connection with these researches,
other continental and English chemists might be referred to, if
circumstances admitted of greater amplification. It is, however-,
dbvious, that in this hurried sketch we have omitted all notice of
many investigations on this and other subjects of agricultural
chemistry which might well claim attention in a more extended
review.

Finally, we must not omit to mention, tliat the trade in artifi-
cial manures, which is rapidly rising into such national import-
ance, especially in England, is receiving the most important aid
at the hands of chemical science. Not only are the various
waste substances of manufactures and of daily life worked up
into available form, but the manures produced by chemical
means, more especially the superphosphate of lime, are daily
improving in charactei", mainly through the suggestions of
chemists who have specially devoted themselves to this branch of

Af/ricultural Imj)lements and Produce. 59

science. Fresh sources of guano have also been discovered, and
new supplies of substances useful to the farmer have in several
places been obtained.

It is, therefore, not without reason, that we congratulate our-
selves on the progress which has, within the last five years, been
made by that department of agriculture which is based upon
chemical science.

Field Pkactice.

The greatest improvements in cultivation and management
have taken place in the strong lands. Draining is the foundation
of all these improvements. Draining, now better understood and
generally well executed at a sufficient depth, has changed the
character of whole districts, turning unmanageable and unprofit-
able soils into easy-working and pi'oductive land.

It would be interesting to ascertain the extent of land drained
each year, but no sufficient data exist for a reliable estimate.
Draining operations are carried on by means of the public loan,
the capital of private companies, and of individual proprietors.

Of the public loan of 4,000,000/., the sums issued for works
in each of the last three years have been —

1852 £410,478

1853 318,637

1854 322,728

£1,051,843

What proportion do the lands drained by the public loan bear
to the lands drained by private capital ? If this district may be
taken as a fair sample of the whole area of the country, the
lands drained by the public loan would not be more than one-fourth
oi those drained by private capital. In such case, tlie total sum
expended in draining for the last three years would amount to
5,257,615/., and allowing 5/. for the expense of an acre, the
extent of land drained would exceed 1,000.000 acres. This sum,
or whatever sum may have been expended in draining, will have
been capital supplied mainly by the pro])rietors of land. A sum
equal to the above in amount has been expended mainly by the
tenant farmers of the tliree kingdoms, in the purchase of a single
article of manure ; and this is not a vague estimate, but an ascer-
tained certainty.

1'he sales of Peruvian guano by Messrs. Gibbs for the last
three years have been —

Tons.

1852 118,000

1853 135,000

1854 J 77,000

430,000

CO Afjricultural Imjdcments and Produce.

Allowing 12Z. per ton for cost and carriage, tlie sum expended
amounts to 5,160,000/.

To this must be added the large outlay on linseed cake, on
bones, rags, on minerals containing fertilising principles, on
lime, plaster, «Scc. With these combined efforts on the part of
the owners and occupiers of the soil, there can be no danger in
asserting that the productive powers of these islands have largely
increased, and are continually gaining new force.

I have said that the most marked improvement has taken
place on the strong lands. Draining and autumn cultivation,
materially assisted by good implements, have enabled the occu-
pier of strong land to add Swede turnips to his course of crop-
ping. Tlie importance of this addition is beginning only to
make itself felt. This root, which, with its different varieties, created
the value of the light lands, is now performing a service almost
as great to the strong lands, not, as on light lands, for feeding
sheep, but for feeding cattle. The quality of the turnips grown
on strong lands is greatly superior. The land will bear the
whole crop to be carted off to feed cattle in yards. Cattle supply
manure, manure gives corn. It is difficult to estimate the addi-
tion, in meat and in grain, which this alternating process Avill
surely afford.

It may be thought by some that too much stress has been laid
on the value of improved implements. It may be worth while to
examine the point more closely.

What saving might be effected on a farm of 200 acres of
arable land, (the rental, say, 25s. per acre,) drained and laid into
fields of a suitable size, by the use of good implements ? All
land is ploughed at least tvvice a year. The difference in labour
between ploughing drained or undrained land is very great.

It would be an estimate much below the mark to put it at

1^. per acre for each ploughing.
For the year 2s. per acre.

The next process would be sowing the seed.

On the old s^'Stem, 2i bushels of seed wheat would be sown

broadcast per acre.
On the new system, with an improved drill, li bushel
would be sown with better results.

There would be a saving, therefoi'e, of one bushel per acre on
the 50 acres sown with wlieat, which, at Is. per bushel, amounts
to 17/. 10^., or per acre, over the Avhole area, \s. 9f/.

On 50 acres of barley there would likewise be a saving of one
bushel of seed per acre, which, at 4.?. per bushel, would give a
saving per acre of Is.

Next comes the preparation of the grain for market. There
are to be threshed the produce of 50 acres of wheat, at a yield of
four quarters only per acre, 200 quarters ; of barley, 50 acres, at

Agricultural Implements and Produce. 61

a yield of five quarters per acre, 250 quarters. The cost of
tlireshing wheat by the flail, and dresslns;, is 45. per quarter ; by
an improved steam machine, Is. Gd. Saving on 200 quarters of
wheat, 25/., or, per acre, 2s. Qd. The cost of threshing barley by
the flail is o.v. per quarter ; by steam machine, 2s. Saving on
250 quarters, 121. 10s., or, per acre. Is. od.

Total saving by the use of drill and threshing machine, Ss. 6d.
per acre, or one-third of the rent, 25^.

Besides the economy and direct gain to the farmer, the saving
of one bushel per acre of the grain employed in reproduction is
an important aid to the consumer, and when multiplied over the
total area of land still cultivated under the old system would form
no insignificant addition to the annual resources of the country.

The rapid spread of useful information and of approved prac-
tice must be laid to the account, in no small degree, of the
Journal and of the meetings of the Koyal English Agricultural
Society. The meetings of the Society, held in eacli year in
different districts, enforce precept by example, and communicate
every variety of useful information in the most attractive form.

Such are some of the proofs of the onward march of agricul-
ture, and of the progress which it has made since the Exhibition,
and, in many points, by virtue of the Exhibition of 1851. Still
we feel ourselves to be only on the threshold, and much remains
to be done. We ask of science to penetrate yet deeper into the
secrets of Nature's laws. We ask of mechanical art to bring to
our aid in the field the mighty agency of steam.

We call upon the farmers to continue and increase their efforts ;
so alone will they be able to keep pace with the demands made
upon them by a population ever increasing in numbers and in
wants, and to maintain the place in the front rank which they
now honourably hold.

The verdicts of the Paris jury will be a warrant that no jealous
or narrow spirit ruled its deliberations.

It is a pleasing duty, in closing this report, to be permitted
publicly to acknowledge, not only the personal courtesy, but the
spirit of fairness and candour, which characterized the entire
conduct of my colleagues of all nations. It was my fortune, in
the Council of Presidents and Vice-Presidents, and as one of the
Conunittee of seven for the final revision of the awards, to assist
in the proceedings of the Commission to their close. The same
honouraljle spirit animated this high council, under tlie imme-
diate guidance of the illustrious Prince, its President, who him-
self afforded an example to all of fearless impartiality and evcn-
lianded justice. j i^^ve the honour to be, &c.

J. liVELVX DeXISOX.

( 62 )

III. — Elementary Introduction to the subject of Verjetable Physio-
logy. By Arthur Henfrey, F.R.S., F.L.S., Professor of
Botany, King's College, London, &c.

The object of the present paper is to present a brief sketch of
some of the more important bearings of physiological science upon
agriculture, through the medium of certain facts, ascertained within
recent years by vegetable physiologists, throwing important light
upon the phenomena which occur in the growth and nutrition of
plants. These are the more opportunely bi'ought forward now,
since they illustrate that most important question, recently in
full debate, the influence of nitrogenous substances when applied
to hasten and increase the growth of plants. We shall endea-
vour to explain in language comprehensible without previous
acquaintance with technical terms (the " short-hand " of science),
the essential points in the development of vegetable structure,
without a knowledge of which we can have no secure basis for
the establishment of the laws of vegetable physiology. Scien-
tific readers may perhaps find some of the explanations too
rudimentary, but it may be observed that the most important
facts, those connected with the mutual relations of the cellulose
and the nitrogenous structures, will be new to all those who have
not made it their business to study the additions to knowledge
made in the department of physiological botany during the last
few years.

We shall commence by a short discussion of the relations of
chemistry to physiological inquiries of the present kind, passing
on to the peculiar conditions of the phenomena to be observed
in plants ; and then, as necessarily involved with those, we shall
briefly state the methods we employ, and the nature and value
of the instruments with which we pursue them. We claim the
patient attention of the reader to this exordium, in order that he .
may be enabled to estimate adequately the importance of the
minute, and, as some might imagine, trifling particulars of
vegetable life, into which we shall subsequently enter.

A distinguished chemical writer * has expressed an opinion
that " it is chiefly to chemistry that we must look for the exten-
sion and improvement of physiological science." With the very
highest appreciation of the importance of chemistry, as one of the
indispensable foundations upon which physiology must rest, or,
if we may so express it, one of the quarries from whence it must
derive the materials for its construction, we cannot admit that

* Gregory, ' Outlines of Chemistry,' p. 564.

Vital Force. 63

this preparatory branch of knowledge should usurp the position
of tlie guiding light in physiological inquiries. In the investi-
gation of the laws governing the phenomena of life, the chemist
must condescend to present himself as the assistant of the phy-
siologist, just as mechanical and physical philosophers appear as
the assistants of the chemist when furnishing him with his
balance, his furnaces, his electrical, optical, and similar instru-
ments of research. To attempt to deal with facts which present
themselves in living bodies according to rules derived exclusively
from chemical science, would be mere empiricism. It would
be a treatment of symptoms, and not a rational practice directed
by knowledge of the governing principles. But there is a de-
finite order of progress in all these things, and it is inevitable
and indispensable that the development and application of
chemical science should precede that of physiology. The facts
of vegetable and animal life are compounded of physical and
chemical phenomena, modified and directed in their operations
by a higher guiding power — the vital force ; but under this
superintendence the chemical l«ws display themselves in accord-
ance with their own universal characteristics ; so that while the
laws of physiology cannot be discovered by chemical research
alone, it is evidently more advantageous and more rational to
investigate and determine the chemical parts of the inquiry freed
from the consideration of the complications resulting from the
interference of life.

At certain points, however, in every investigation of living
things the chemist finds himself arrested, and this by pheno-
mena to which his method of inquiry is inapplicable. He can
refer to chemical laws, for example, the changes going on in the
substance of living and of decaying, dead plants, but he cannot
tell why the same air and water, on one hand, nourish the
living stem and enable it to unfold itself continually in new
growth, and on the other hand destroy and decompose the fallen
trunk from Avhich the living parts of bud and root have been
removed. Before we reach this point, moreover, even without
advancing our inquiries so far as the chavr/es exhibited in and l)y
living structures, simple chemical analysis of the substances
forming or contained in plants, cannot be thoroughly and accu-
rately performed without a knowledge of the anatomical con-
dition, the material l)asis of physiological science. For, as
needs scarcely ho said, though the ultimate constituents ol which
minerals,- as well as plants and animals, are composed, the
primary elements, are the same, or of the same kind, yet, while
all lifeless bodies may be studied thoroughly by tracing up their
compositions to their chemical elements and their laws ot com-

€4 Vegetable Physiology.

bination, such an analysis of vegetable or animal substances
would miss their most essential characteristics.

When we meet with a mass of mineral substance, such as a
block of marble, a ' nugget ' of gold, or the like, we know that
to ascertain the composition, it will suffice to scrape off a small
portion from any part of it and analyse this to acquire a tolerably
accurate knowledge of the whole. We can ' sample ' it by
fragments. It is far different when we have to deal with any
kind of living thing. We may analyse any plant in mass, and
thus ascertain its general chemical composition ; but if we take
separate portions of this same plant, we shall find the com-
position varying in every part ; that of the roots will differ
from that of the stem, which again will differ from the leaves,
flowers, seeds, &c., and the elements will, moreover, be found
to differ in each of them respectively at different seasons of
growth.

This is, indeed, no more than we should expect, since plants
and animals are not fixed and permanent bodies like minerals,
subject only to change from the accidental influence, as it may
be called, of external agents ; they are objects which present
continual change so long as they retain the prime characteristic,
life. This change every one knows to be connected in almost
all cases with a flow of liquid matter through the mass, convey-
ing nutriment, removing useless matter, or otherwise importantly
contributing to interrupt and restore the equilibrium or equable
composition of the whole.

But this is not all ; even the solid constituents present differ-
ences of composition, not only in the clearly distinct parts of
the individual objects, but even within limits which can only be
comprehended after a microscopic examination of the textures
composing the body ; and we may find widely different chemical
substances collected together, lying undisturbedly side by side
and maintaining their independence, in the most minute frag-
ment of vegetable or animal substance which our instruments-
enable us to isolate or to perceive.

The reason of this is plain. Chemistry teaches us that all
matter, dead or living, is derived from some sixty primary
elements, that is, substances which, according to our present
knowledge, must be regarded as simple, because we cannot de-
compose them. Such are the metals, for instance ; but by far
the most important to the physiologist are those which con-
stitute the principal bulk of animal and vegetable substances,
"the three gaseous elements, oxygeiu hydrogen, and nitrogen,
and the more variable element carbon, which is most familiar
to us in the form of charcoal. Those who have studied what

Life — Vital Or</ans. 65

as called organic chemistry know that the substances consti-
tutins^ the structure, and contained in the liquids and solids
of plants and animals, are in large proportion composed of
peculiar combinations of the simple elements, formed only in
foodies which possess or have had life, and which cannot be
prepared artificially by the chemist from purely mineial con-
stituents. Of these may be mentioned cellulose, the substance
composing the main bulk of the solid parts of vegetables ; alhumen,
fibrine, and others, whicli occur in modified forms both in vege-
table and animal bodies ; gelatine, an important constituent of
the bones, skin, &c., of animals; together with various matters
solid or liquid which occur in tlie interiorof the substance of animals
and vegetables, such as starch, oils, fat, gums, &c. A knowledge
of chemistry teaches us that these matters belong exclusively to
bodies which have possessed life. Thus we see that living things
have what we may call compound chemical elements, known to
chemists as proximate principles. But how these present them-
selves in the first instance, and what their relation is to the
phenomena of life, chemistry by itself can but partially ex-
plain.

The terms organic and inorganic are now tolerably familiar to
every one as used in reference to the various kinds of bodies
forming the earth and its inhabitants. The word organ signifies
an instrument or apparatus, and in natural science it is used in
the especial sense of an instrument by which some vital function
is performed. Thus in man and the higher animals we have
<Mgans of sense ; as the eye, the instrument by which we receive
most of our sensations of form, but more particularly of colour ;
the ear, the instrument which conveys to the mind the sensations of
sound, &c. in man and the higher animals life is so complicated
a phenomenon that the organs are very numerous and diverse,
and tliey admit of classification under many different heads ; the
firinctions are for the most part distributed to different and sepa-
Tate organs ; this being in general a mark of perfection in the
■scale of organization. Down to a very low point in the animal
kingdom, we find systems or classes of organs, of different kinds,
associated in the same body : organs of digestion, respiration,
&c., of motion, and of sense, localised in particular parts of the
frame, and, although acting in concert, incapable of taking on
the functions of each other.

When we pass over from the animal to the vegetable kingdom,
we leave behind the organs of sense and motion ; tliose connected'
■with nutriticm and reproduction alone remain— that is to say,
speaking in a general sense, and without reference to certain
minute and imperfectly studied forms, which are revealed to us by

VOL. XVII. Y

66 Vegetable Flujswlogtj.

the microscope. A further peculiarity is, that while in animals
it is a jjeneral rule for the organs connected with the support of
the individual life, namel}-, those of digestion, respiration, &c., to
be situated in the interior of the body — and the more completely
so the more complex the apparatus — in plants the organs of
absorption, respiration, &c , are turned outwards and displayed
on the surface of the body ; so that as regards general organiza-
tion, plants have no internal anatomy ; the study of their external
forms corresponds to the study of the comparative anatomy of
animals.

The exposure of the vital organs on the outside of the frame
in vegetables is in agreement with the peculiarity of their con-
dition as regards external objects. Animals endowed with
organs of sense and motion can seek their appropriate food and
convey it to an internally-situated stomach, by the surface of
which, and of the rest of the intestinal canal, the nutritive
matter is absorbed. Plants, fixed to the earth, devoid of organs
of sense and motion, are provided with organs which in their
natural growth make their way into media whence they can
obtain food by simple absorption at their surface : as when roots
grow into the soil, and leaves expand themselves in the
atmosphere.

It has been noticed above that when we chemically examine
fragments of any of the organs thus characterized, we do not find
them of homogeneous or uniform constitution, made up of one,
even of two proximate principles or compound elements, or of
tv/o or more of them chemically combined. We find two or
more of these principles co-existent, and their relative amounts
varying according to circumstances. The microscope alone can
help us here. By its aid we discover that the organs which we
perceive and distinguish by ordinary vision are composed of
other extremely minute structures, which being, to a certain
sense, complete in themselves, but associated for a common pur-
pose, may be compared with the large organs, of which they form
part, the latter being in like manner associated to constitute the
entire body.

As in chemistry we arrive in our analyses at elements which
cannot be further decomposed, so in microscopic anatomy we
arrive at certain forms of structure which do not admit of further
subdivision or separation without losing their distinctive charac-
teristics as constituents of particular kinds of living bodies, and
falling into the condition of mere organic substances, distinguish-
able only by chemical characters. For example : a potato-
tuber, when in its natural state, appears nearly solid, and to the
naked eye its internal substance exhibits no very complex con-

Microscopical Anatomij. 67

dition : yet chemical analysis would reveal the presence of
starch and of cellulose, besides certain nitrogenous principles, &c.
When the potato is boiled, it becomes more or less crumbling,
much of it falls into the ' floury' state. A portion of this ' flour,'
placed under the microscope, is found to consist of minute
roundish or oval bags, of a delicate membrane, which have be-
come more or less separated by boiling. They may be obtained
in a still better condition for examuiation by soaking a fragment
of potato for several days in water, until it appears softened and
almost liquefied. These little sacs or bags are formed of the cel-
lulose, and contain the starch and the nitrogenous principles.
If we tear these sacs or crush them down, they lose their dis-
tinctive character as constituents of the particular structure of
the potato-tuber, and become mere fragments of cellulose, recog-
nizable as such by chemical tests, and ther.'by known to be
of organic origin, but deprived of all the characteristic pecu-
liarities as constituent parts of a particular organization.

All animal and vegetable organs are composed of microscopic
constituents more or less resembling the sacs or cells just re-
ferred to in the potato. Tbese are the final points at which we
arrive in our dissection or anatomical analysis of organic struc-
tures. Hence we term them the elementary organs, for, like the
large and conspicuous organs, they have a definite and charac-
teristic form and construction, while they cannot be subdivided
without passing from the condition of organs into that of mere
oro:anic substances. The larijer organs verv commonlv contain
several different kinds or forms of elementary organs in their
composition ; these, however, are not then intermixed at random,
hut combined according to particular laws of arrangement. Such
collections of elementary organs, known by the name of tissues,
are divisible into simple and complex tissues, according as one
or more kinds of elementary organ enter into their construction.
In animals, where the functions are multifold, diverse, and much
localized, the modifications occurring among the elementary
organs are very important and the tissues very distinct in
character. In the higlier animals, moreover, the large organs are
so individualized that the broad general laws of pliysiology may
be comprehended without much acquaintance witli the pheno-
mena occurring in the minute structures, on which, jiowever,
these same laws are ultimately founded.

In plants, on tlic contrary, the functions are not only much
more simple, but they are even to a great extent diffused through-
out the whole frame, and almost any part may be modified by
circumstances so as to perform any function. In ac. ordancc
with this, the elementary organs do not display that diversity

r 2

68 Verfetahle Flujsiohujy.

which exists in animal tissues, and they may, in all vegetables,
be readily referred to one type, of which they are very simple
modifications.

This simplicity of vegetable structures, while it renders the
study of their anatomy more easy, makes tliis the more indis-
pensable to the vegetable physiologist ; since it is evident that
if the different external organs, such as the leaves, stems, and
roots, can all exercise any of the functions of vegetable life, the
general anatomy or study of external form can be of little use in
guiding us, and we must make ourselves acquainted with the
characteristics of the elementary tissues of which any given
organ is composed.

To illustrate this, we are not liable to mistake when we say
that in Man and the higher animals respiration is performed
by the lungs. We could not say in the same general way that
the leaves constitute the respiratory organs of plants, for this
function is not only ordinarily performed in part by green shoots
of the stem, but in some cases, as in the Cacti, the leaves are
represented by hard spines, and the stem assumes entirely the
respiratory function ; and yet the Cactacea? belong to the
highest class of plants. Again, the stomach and intestinal canal
of animals in general are the organs for the absorption of food ;
and this function is only combined with others when the whole
organization is very low in the scale : but in plants we not un-
commonly see the roots assuming additional or different functions
even in the highest forms of vegetable life ; for in the turnip,
carrot, and other analogous cultivated plants, the root becomes
an organ not simply of absorption, but for the deposition and
•temporary preservation of assimilated food. In the ivy, tufts of
adventitious roots spring out from the stem to form merely me-
chanical organs of attachment to the bodies on which the plant
climbs ; while the constant occurrence of adventitious or acci-
dental roots, developed from the stem under the influence of
-peculiar circumstances, proves still more strikingly the modifi-
able character of the general organization of plants, even of those
standing highest in point of anatomical structure.

Modification and change are Indeed the most striking attributes
of living objects, those which best mark their difference from and
pre-eminence over lifeless matter : and such being the case, it
must at once appear evident to every thinking mind that the study
of forms or conditions existing at any one point of time can lead
but a little way into the secrets of the laws of life. To trace
these to their converging points, to penetrate to the inner con-
nexion which exists in the midst of the multiformity of appear-
ances, it is necessary to follow step by step the gradual unfolding

Development. 69

of the forms from the simplest to the most complicated. This
leads to the recognition of the general plans upon which the
whole phenomena march, and enahles us to comprehend, when
thoroughly studied, the difference and apparent discrepancies
which are constantly observed in comparing isolated obsci'-
vations.

Two methods exist by which these laws of variation and com-
bination may be studied, both of which are used by the physio-
logist, each assisting to clear up the difficulties of the other,
and, as it were, demonstrating its problems by a different pro-
cess — these are, Cowparative Phjjsiolof/y and the study of Deve-
lopment. In the latter we pursue the unfolding of the individual
body from the earliest and simplest recognizable stage, when it
is a simple microscopic germ ; in the former we are enabled to
detect an analogous (but by no means similar) series of forms,
with variations on different types, in the countless varieties of
individual kinds which lie between the microscopic infusorium
and man, or between the yeast-cell and the forest-tree.

The study of the development or unfolding of structures, con-
stitutes the only safe foundation for a knowledge of the pheno-
mena of life, both in the animal and vegetable kingdoms ; but it
stands on relatively higher ground in tlie latter, from the circum-
stance that vegetable life may be said to consist wholly of deve-
lopment. Almost all change here consists of the production of
new structures or tlie completion of older, without anything
which. can be compared with the reparation or renewal of struc-
tures occurring in tlie nutrition of animals. Man and the higher
animals exhibit unmistakeable examples of the effects of the
nutrition of which we speak. They attain at a certain period
their full growth, and, remaining for a siiorter or longer period
\n i\\e\v prime, \\\ex\. begin to descend into decay. Tliroughout
all this period two processes run side by side, — development of
new structure and absorption of part of that previously formed ;
tliroughout the first part of the life development exceeds absorp-
tion, in the latter part absorption exceeds development ; but both
are in more or less active operation throughout life. In plants
there is no analogous set of circumstances ; there exists no similar
process of absorption of used-up parts. The life, excej)ting of
course during the hybernating periods, when all the processes are
at rest, as during the winter in our latitudes — the life consists of
constant new formation of substance, and the form of the entire
individual is undergoing constant change. In annual plants we
cannot say that the nidividual is in its prime at any ejioch, cer-
tainly not at the period when it is usually most attractive — that
of flowering, and hardly at tlie tim(> when the Iruit is ripe, since
then the great body of the structure is on the verge of dissohition.

70 Ve(jetahle Phydologij.

In perennials the flowering' and fruiting^ may be repeated jear
after year, and in trees the life is capable of extension to an in-
definite period, apparently only limited by external circumstances.
In a long course of existence the tree does not absorb and excrete
the dead and worn out structures like an animal, replacing them
in the same spot and in the same condition, but in part throws
them off entirely, as in the falling leaves and the withering en-
velopes of the blossom, replaced on new shoots springing forth
beyond them — in part overgrows and buries them, as it were,
retaining them as a solid foundation for younger growth, as when
the heart-wood of the oak is increased by yearly layers of new
substance, or the crown of the palm is gradually elevated upon
its monumental column.

The study of development is the great business of the vege-
table physiologist. But the study of comparative physiology is
scarcely less important when guided and checked by the other
branch of research. For, as is known to every one who has
mastered the rudiments of natural history, the organic kingdoms
present us with countless different kinds of plants and animals,
in which we recognise almost every possible different degree of
complexity (or simplicity) of organization. And it is also well
known that the higher forms all pass through stages which,
although actually very different and with a different destiny, may
be compared, as regards the physiological phenomena they pre-
sent, to different perfect kinds standing fixed at successive poiiits
of elevation in the scale of organization.

The kinds belonging to tlie lower classes of animals and
plants, from the greater simplicity of structure, admit of our
examining them more completely and thoroughly in a living
state. It is manifest that we could not observe the conditions of
structure of a leaf or other organ of the higher plants without
dissection and consequent destruction. But there exist plants of
small size and simple organization, composed of merely a few
cells, the organic elements of which the leal is composed. These
minute forms of life are so small and transparent, that we can
see through and through them by the help of the microscope.
Therefore, when anatomy proves to us that the tissues are similar,
and chemistry tells us that the combinations and decompositions
which take place in them are the same, we fairly conclude that
our observations of the phenomena of growth and reproduction
in these lower plants afford us sound data for ascertaining the
laws which govern the life of the higher forms. Nature thus
not only gives us, as it were, dissections ready-made, but she ex-
hibits, as it were, fragments of life from which we may piece
together tl.e complicated sum of the life of the higher forms.

The pursuit of the development of the higher forms, from the

The Microscope. 71

condition of a simple cell or single elementary organ, from
which all take their start, through all their deviations and
complications, leading to a knowledge of the conditions of all
parts and at all periods, comes to our Lands as the process of
verification ; since, so far as we at present know, it is found that
the same changes and the same kinds of growth take place in
a similar manner in all plants, whether they be the principal
moments of life of a simple microscopic being, or subordinate and
passing phenomena in the life of the mighty giants of the tropical
forests whose periods of growth extend through centuries.

The elementary organs of plants are too small to be distin-
guished singly by the naked eye. For their investigation, thei'e-
fore, it is necessary to have recourse to magnifying instruments ;
and hence the Microscope is one of the indispensable tools of the
physiologist. The value of microscopic observations and the
certainty belonging to them are no longer subjects of question
among scientific men ; but there still lingers perhaps among tlie
uninitiated some of that incredulity and suspicion which almost
always attaches at first to any contrivance for extending the reach
of the senses beyond the ordinary range. A little I'eflection,
however, is sufficient to show how groundless are the objections
usually urged as to the uncertainty and discrepancy of the state-
ments made by microscopic observers. In the first place the
microscope is a tool requiring delicate and skilful management,
and can no more be applied efficiently without practice and skill
than the turner's lathe. In itself, a well-made modern microscope
is a very perfect instrument, and the physiologist depends upon
it as the surveyor does upon his theodolite or the navigator on
his sextant. The optical principles upon which a microscope
are constructed are now sufficiently understood, and the work is
now so well executed, that in the majority of ordinary observa-
tions there is little danger of deception, except from tlie want of
care in preparing the objects observed.

The utility and mode of action of the instrument may be very
simply explained. With the naked eye we see objects clearly
only witliin a certain range, not beyond a certain distance, and
also not within a certain distance. The absolute distances vary
with different persons ; but any one may observe that if a piece
of printed paper is held before the eye, so that the letters are
clearly seen, ami it is then brought gradually very close to the
eye, the letters become confused, and all distinct vision is lost.
The eye, in fact, consists of a set of lenses (or wliat arecommonlv
called ' magnifying glasses ') capable of much adjustment, but
incapable of being adjusted so tliat objects almost close to the
eye can be seen. The rays of light from such ()I)jects arc not

72 Vegetable Phyftiohffy.

hrouo^lit to a focus on the sensitive surface at the back of the
eye, and therefore vision is indistinct. When a small lens or
magnifvina: glass is interposed in front of the eye, it condenses
the rays of light (just as it condenses the rays of the sun when
used as a burning-glass), and brings them to a focus on the
retina, so that the object is seen clearly. At the same time,
however, from the mode in which the rays of light are bent by
the lens, the object is magnified ; it appears larger and at a
greater distance from the eye than it really is. All this may be
proved with any common magnifying-glass, and is indeed no
more than the ordinary action of the spectacles used by old per-
sons for reading and other purposes, when they suffer from dim-
ness of sight of near objects. The principles involved here are
as certain as any that have been ascertained in any department
of science ; and the construction of the more powerful magni-
fying instruments used by microscopic observers is regulated
by* the same laws, only in a more complicated application.

In most physiological observations with the microscope, there-
fore, where the instrument is good, little doubt need attach to-
those results which depend upon things which are clearly seen
by an experienced observer. But when it is considered how
delicate and minute are the objects investigated, compared with
those which we ordinarily see, and when it is remembered that
in many cases we are reduced to seewg alone, and cannot touch,
taste, smell, weigh, or otherwise examine, so as to control the
perceptions of the eye, it is not strange that in the earlier stages
of the application of the microscope much misapprehension and
many errors should have arisen. To work properly with the
microscope the eye requires a special education, affording it an
experience which compensates for the absence of those checks
which in the case of ordinary vision are supplied by the other
senses. Perhaps the greatest of the practical difficulties, how-
ever, of microscopic investigation in the present da^^, lie in the
dissection and preparation of the objects to be observed, which,
from their minute dimensions and often excessive delicacy, call
for the exercise of a manipulative skill demanding long practice
for its acquisition, and very considerable perseverance in its
application. This is especially the case in all those Inquiries
on which the most important physiological questions hinge.
But there is no greater obstacle here tlian is met with in the
pursuit of the other branches of natural science, and indeed in
any thorough application of human intelligence. Nothing solid
is to be learned or gained by man by the use of his faculties in
any field without serving an apprenticeship. Chemistry worJied
long through doubt and obscurity, and has now proved itself one

Structure of Plants. 73

of the most important of the aids to practical advancement in
almost every branch of human industry. Physiology has vindi-
cated its position in connexion with the art of medicine, and is
daily offering new material for the still more important art of
preserving health — hygiene. But in reference to agriculture its
importance is not yet thoroughly recognised : nor could it be so
while few of the general principles were clearly understood.
These waited for the aid of chemistry. Armed with the results
furnislied by the sister science, and the means supplied l)y the
great improvements made in tlie optical part of microscoj)es
within the last twenty years, much may now l)e expected from
physiology, on the laws of which indeed (the laws of life) f on-
sciouslv, or at present more frequently unconsciously, the whole
art of cultivation, the rearing of plants and animals mainly
rests.

We have said above that plants are com])osed of minute but
distinctly characterised parts which are called elemeutan/ organs.
All vegetable structures are made up of these, and increase in
mass by their multiplication and expansion ; all vegetable pro-
ducts are elaborated in the interior or deposited in the substance
of these elementary organs. The knowledge of these elementary
"atoms" then must constitute the groundwork of all knowledge
of vegetable life. The examination of the essential general
characters of vecjetahle cells, and their modes of multiplica-
tion, nmst therefore form the first step in all physiological
inquiries.

If we squeeze a leaf, or any other soft part of a plant, between
the fingers, we see liquid exude, showing that the substance is
not solid, but of the consistence which is commonly called .*.y;o?//7y.
But we should mistake if we imagined that the texture is similar
to that of sponge. Sponge is composed of delicate liorny
threads interwoven and netted together, and holds liquid in
the interspaces between these threads just in the same way as
a bundle of tow would do, or as the wick of a lamp soaks up
the oil.

The substance of vegetables is very different from this, and
the liquids tiiey contain are not merely diffused through a porous
texture, but are contained in closed cases, so that they do not
escape unless the parts in which they lie are cut or bruised. li
we cut an extremely thin slice of the substance of a leaf and
examine this under the microscope, we find that the sponiry struc-
ture is composed of a vast number of little l)ags filled with
liijuid, somewhat loosely j)a(ked together in the inside ol the
leaf, and we find air and not liquid in the interspaces between
these bags.

I'hese little bags are more easilv seen in slices of the soft

74

Vegetable Physiology.

parts of stems, especially of pith, such as that of the elder, where
they are very large, or in the pith of rushes, the substance used
for the wicks of rushlig^hts. Slices of these structures look like
pieces of network under the microscope, and might mislead a
person glancing at them hastily, but the deception is readily
detected ; it depends upon our seeing only part of the bags (the
sides) at a time, just as the joints in a piece of brickwork appear
as a network of lines upon the surface of a wall.

We cannot, indeed, better illustrate the mode in which vege-
table structure is made up than by comparing it with brickwork,
the single bricks being represented in the plant by the little bags
before-mentioned. We can imagine bricks to be of any shape,
such as oblong, square, flat like tiles, &c., and then they may be
packed close together ; sometimes the structure of vegetables is
of this form and arrangement, as especially in hark. If the

Fis:. 1.

Slice of the bark of a j'oung branch of Beech, magnifled 200 diameters.

bricks were made round or oval, however, they could not be
packed so as to touch at all points, but would leave passages be-
tween them, just as is the case when a number of cannon balls
are piled together ; the annexed drawings will represent the way
in which the loose and spongy textures of plants are formed.

Fig. 2.

Fragment of a cross slice from the stem of the 'Wliite Lily, magnifled 200 diameters.

We have spoken ot the minute parts of which substance is

Cells of Plants.

75

composed as " little bags ;" these have a particular name applied
to them, and are called cells, which signifies small chambers,
since0n fact, they are little chambers in the interior of the plant

Fig. a.

Fiff. 4.

Slice of the rind of the stem of Bur-Reed (Sparganium Tamnsum,'), composed of starlike cells with
wide interspaces, magnified 200 diameters.

like the chambers or cells in a honeycomb. Unlike the cham-
bers of a honeycomb, however, or chambers in a building, they
are not mere hollows in a firm
substance which forms partiti(ms
between them, they are really sepa-
rate, closed chambers, each having
its own distinct wall, so that the
partition between any two is al-
ways double, and the single cells
may even be separated from one
another.

The substance of the potato,
which seems solid to the naked
eye, appears, in a slice under
the microscope, as a mass of
vesicles or membranous bags
(filled with starch), and if a j)icce
of potato is allowed to lie in water
for a day or two, until it Ijcgins to
soften and decay, on taking some

of the soft portion and placing it Cells from a macerated rolali, alniobt .-cpa-
1 .1 • ,1 rat^d, ami showiiiir Stnnh-granulcs iiiblde,

under the microscope, we see the magnimd 200 diameters.
cells separated from each other,

76 Vcffetable Phijsiologi/.

each still entire, inclosina: its mass of starch grains, and looking,
when highly magnified, like a bagiuU of oyster-shells.

The easiest way, however, to obtain a clear idea of the Atture
of these cells of plants, is to examine microscopic plants, lox the
size of the cell does not diminish in equal proportion to the size
of the smaller plants ; these are composed of fewer cells, and we
can descend so far that the number is reduced to the lowest point,
so that in the smallest and simplest plants we aie acquainted
with, the whole individual plant consists merely of a single
little bag, or cell, like one of those we see in such numbers in a
slice of the substance of an ordinary plant.

Most persons must have noticed the green powder which
covers the bark of trees, wooden palings, damp walls, &c., look-
ing like a mere stain. Its green colour indicates that it is of
vegetable nature, and it is well known to botanists as depending
upon the presence of countless millions of specimens of a very
curious and interesting plant, each single one of which consists
simply of a membranous bag of globular form, l-6000th of an
inch in diameter, filled with liquid containing green colouring
matter.

The history of this plant is very instructive as regards the
nature and mode of growth of vegetable structure, and we shall
therefore describe the most important features of it.

When a small quantity of the green substance is examined by
a \ov{ magnifying power it appears to con-
'^' * sist of fine grains ; but if we use a high

power we find that each grain consists of
a colourless bag of membrane, like a little
bladder, and that it owes its colour to
green substance lying in the thick liquid
contents, which may be squeezed out by
pressure. If acids are applied, the con-
tents are seen to contract and become more
solid ; they then lie as a little mass in the
centre of the bag, the colourless character
Cew^ of Protococcm vivid!, in ^^ . wliicli is thus more clearly seen. These
diifeient stages and lovms, little bag's or cells cxactly represent the

magnified 60U diameters. . ^. . ri-iiii c

microscopic elements, oi which all the soit
green parts of the higher plants are composed. In a slice
through a leaf of the bay-laurel, for instance, we see that the
spongy texture between the skins of the upper and lower sur-
faces is composed of innumerable little colourless bags or cells
of exactly the same kind, which owe their colour, in like manner,
to green substance contained in the liquid with which tlie-v are
filled.

Since the large structures of the higher plants are formed of

Increase of Cells.,

great quantities of these cells, and not bv the mere expansion of
a few original cells, it becomes a question of great interest to

Fig. C.

a

Perpendicular slice of tlie leaf of the Cay-Laurel ; <i, ft', the sliin of the upper and lower surfaces ;
6, a rib running through the spongy substance. Magnified 200 diameters.

know how those cells increase in number in the growth of plants.
Our little Prot.ococciis^ or green dust, will furnish us Avith useful
information here. Most of the cells, examined with a high
mafrnifying power, will be found to exhibit an appearance
differing a little from the simplest state above described. They
will exhibit various stages of the increase of these cells. They
will be found to display a more or less distinct line extending
across and cutting thetn into halves, or two lines, crossing- one
another, and thus cutting the cells into quarters (fig. 5). These
are true divisions, and by watching the progress of growth we find
that the cells do becomt; really divided in these lines, and that four
cells are thus formed from each, these four at length sey)arating
nnd growing up by degrees to the size of the parent. This in-
crease of size begins before they have separated from each otlier,
so that tiie groups of four imperfectly divided cells are alwavs
larjrer than the singh^ cells.

The increase in this case ends directly in the increase of the
iiuml)er of sejiarate individuals, but it is evident that if the four
cells remained adherent together, and swelled and divided again
in the same manner, and went on repeating the process, the mass
of cells might continue to increase in size up to anv degree, and,
moreover, it is clear that the larger the mass the more quickly it

78 'Ve(jetable Flujsiolorjy.

would grow. Thus in tlie same length of time that the first cell
occupied in dividing into four, these four may repeat the process
and- produce sixteen ; then if each of these divides in the same
way, the next subdivision, effected in the same space of time,
will produce sixty-four, and so on.

It is exactly by this kind of operation that all vegetable struc-
ture grows, that all parts of plants increase in size : namely, by
a division of existing cells into two, four, or more parts, each of
which may swell up to the size of the parent-cell by which it
is produced. And since all vegetable structure is of this cellu-
lar nature, and no plant can exist except by origin from a cell
of this kind, having the power of increasing itself in this way,
of course the ideas that are sometimes entertained of vegetables
springing up spontaneously, without having had parents like
themselves, are altogether erroneous, for nothing but a living
plant can produce a reproductive cell capable of originating a
new course of growth of this kind.

If, however, we wish to understand thoroughly the mode of
increase and growth of plants, we must go even deeper into the
character of the cells and inquire hoio they divide when giving
birth to new ones. This can be observed more easily in plants
composed of cells larger than those of Protococais, but still
small enough and transparent enough to allow us to see into the
intei'ior with the microscope. In sunny weather the surface of
ditches and stagnant pools is usually more or less coated with a
yellowish green froth or scum. If we take a little of this and
place it in a glass of clear water we see that it is composed of num-
berless extremely fine gi'een filaments, like fibres of unspun silk ;
if we place these filaments under the micioscope we find that
they are hollow, and, in fact, are formed of little tubular cases
or cells joined end to end, so as to form a string of cells. The
cells of such filaments present a great variety of beautiful ar-
rangements of the cells and their contents, in the different species
of these plants (called Confervoids), which are very numerous.
Some are simple, thread-like rows of cells ; others are branched.
Some are filled with green substance ; others have the green
substance arranged in spiral lines or in a network on the inside
of the wall of the cell. Many of them are of considerable dia-
meter, so that the processes taking place in the inside of the
cells are very easily observed under the microscope, and thence
enable us to ascertain exactly how the cells of plants increase in
number by dividing.

A common group of Confervas, called Spirogyrce, have the
green colouring matter in the form of one or more spiral lines or
bands lying upon the inside of the wall of the cell. Wiien we
place one of these filaments under the microscope, we see the
cells (which are of the shape of the stones in a column) adjoining

How Plants fjroic.

7y

end to end and fixTnly fixed together. The wall of the cell is
coated inside by a thickish fluid in which fine granules float,
which fluid lies like a sheet of jelly on the wall. It may be
made to contract and solidify by applying spirits of wine, drawing
itself up into a more or less regular mass in the centre of the
cell, and at the same time bringing away the green band from the
wall. Chemical tests show that this internal thickish fluid is of
different composition from the membrane forming the wall of
the cell, being of a nature more allied to animal substance ; and
it appears to be enclosed by a soft and gelatinous layer, which,
during the life of the cell, forms a lining to the outer cell-
membrane, but if contracted, as when spirit of wine is applied,
shrinks up, and necessarily crowds together all the rest of the
contents of the cell within it. The thick fluid is called the
^^ pivtoplasm," meaning the orif/inal substance out of icliich the
orqans are made, since all the solid parts are formed out of this.
Ttie gelatinous layer which bounds it is called the iirimordial
utricle of the cell, because it is the first structure that exists,
but the term formative layer will be simpler and better for us.

Having made acquaintance with these structures inside the
cell, which exist in all young cells, and remain as long as they
retain the power of increase, we can now understand how cells
divide. The filaments of most Confervoids grow by simply in-
creasing in length, which is effected by the cells dividing cross-
ways in the middle, each half growing to the length of the
parent. In the Spirogrjrai and other kinds the mode of the divi-
sions has been accurately traced.
The lining of the cell-mem-
brane, the formative layer with
the protoplasm inside, becomes
gradually parted into two por-
tions, just as if a string had
been twined round it and was
gradually pulled tight, as when
a rocket -case is "choked."
This produces a fold in the
place where the division takes
place ; \.\\e formative layer when
half divided may be compared
to an hour-glass, and when
quite divided it forms two bags
instead of one, the new ends
of the two bags being in contact.
Wliilc tliis is taking place, the
whole outer surface of the for-
mative layer produces a sheet

Fiff.

A,

Cell of Spirogyra dividing into two hy tlio
formation or a parlillon. 11, tbe stum^, ireuted
with tincture of iodine to consulate tlif " [iro-
toplasm." Magnified 250 diameters.

80 Vcfjetahle Physiulof/y.

of firm substance of the same nature as the outer cell-membrane,
and thus the two new bags which it forms Vjecome encased in
proper firm coats, which render the walls of the old part of
the cells thicker, and form a double partition at the part where
the division took place.

We now see how the cell of the Protococcus divides into foui",
and how the multiplication of cells generally is effected. The
cell of Protococcus is filled with protoplasm (containing green
colouring matter). When the cell is about to divide, this pivto-
plasm breaks up into two or four portions, each of which coats
itself with a new membrane, and thus becomes a cell. As these
grow, they are, of course, at first confined by the membrane of
the original cell : this either stretches, dissolves away, or cracks
and peels off, in different plants. In Protococcus it dissolves ; in
a little plant of similar nature, called Schizochlamys, it cracks
and falls off. In ordinary vegetable substances it expands, being
stretched by the swelling of the new cells within, until it becomes
so thin as to be invisible. Thus, in the Spiroyyra before men-
tioned we may trace the successive encasings of the cells, the
oldest membrane, stretched by the growth of the new cells within,
becoming gradually so thin that it cannot be distinguished.*

We have said that all growth of plants takes place by means
of the division of cells in this way. In ordinary cases the new
cells are consequently at first of the shape of a segment of the
old one ; but in certain structures this is somewhat modified, or
at all events the old cell, when dividing into two, may produce
two dissimilar cells. This takes place in the formation of free
tellular structures, such as the branches of cellular plants, the
formation of hairs, &c., and in the increase of number of a few
plants. Thus, in the branching of some Confervoids, and of the
filamentous structure growing from the ' spores' of Mosses, the
parent cell grows out at the side, and then this lateral process is
shut off as a new cell. In the growth of the yeast-plant the new
cells bud out from the sides of the old ones, and are at length shut
off and detached. (Fig. 9.)

Moreovei', cells are in certain cases developed in a manner
slightly different from that above described, namely, in the forma-
tion of the cells which are to produce new separate plants ; but
it is onlv by a modification of the foregoing process. In that the
whole contents of the cell became parted into two or four
portions to constitute the contents of two or four new cells.

* This encasing of the cells is beautifully illustrated by what occurs when we
allow dead filaments of Spiroijtjm to remain in water. As the firm coat decays
from without inwards, the lamina; are successively dissolved, and the filament
breaks into strings of eight, tlien of four cells; these fall into pairs, and finally
the youngest generation remains alone in the state of single cells.

Imijortance of Nitrofjenous Manures.

81

Fragment of the confervoid substance developed from
tiie spores of a Moss, showing the mode of origin of
a leat'-biid, from a branch-cell of the filament, mag-
nified 2u0 diameters, a, b, c, fragments of the fila-
ments, sliowing successive stages of growth; in c,
the leaf-bud is formed.

In the formation of the cell which is to be developed into the
rudimentary plant (called the embryo), in the seeds of all
flowering- plants, only part
of the contents of the parent-
cell are used for the new
cell ; a small quantity of the
protoplasm is gathered up
into a little ball at one end of
the large parent-cell, and, ac-
quiring a membrane, lies as
a little loose bag there for
some time, and then begins
an independent course of
growth : so that the new
rudimentary plant is not tixed
in any way but only enclosed
in the seed.

We have dwelt at length
upon these points, because
they are of the highest im-
portance in vegetable physiologv. The knowledge of the
dependence of the process of growth upon the gelatinous lining
of the cell (the formative layer or primordial utricle, and the
protoplasm) explains at once the influence of manures con-
taining animal matter, or other nitrogenous substances. These
contents of the cell ai'e the really active living structure, which
resides in the outer membranous case like a mollusk in its shell,
and they are composed of su Instances closely analogous to animal
matter; in fact, are the parts composed of albumen, flhiine,
caseine, gluten, «S:c. The activity of the growth of a plant depends
mainly upon the free supply of nitrogenous substance for the
increase of this protoplasm. Plants can indeed appropriate nitro-
gen from the ammonia, and perhaps dirccthj from the air of the
atmosphere in their natural state ; but the effect of increased
supply of nitrogenous food is most strongly marked in all plants
brought under cultivation. Tlie influence of nitrogenous manures
can scarcely be questioned by any who is accustomed to observe
their effects upon the esculent vegetables cultivated for the mai'kets
of London and other large cities. By the help of organic manure
and contrivances to increase the heat or prevent the cooling of
the soil, vegetaldes are made to grow even to some extent iude-
j)('ndently of lujht, which we know to be of j)rime importance to
vegetation in a state of nature. That plants can grow inde-
pendently of light the botanist already knows, from the pheno-
mena so familiar to him in the vegetables of the class of Fungi ;
and it is most important to bear in mind, when considering tliis
VOL. XVI [.

82

Vegetable PJujsiology.

Fig. 9.

department of physiology, that those plants, the Fungi, growing
naturally under conditions as to heat and light analogous to those
by which we produce the unnaturally luxuriant and succulent
growtlis in such vegetables as seakale, celery, &c,, are charac-
terized perhaps most strongly by the fact that they are nourished
exclusively upon dead or living organic matters. Let us examine
the facts that have been satisfactorily ascertained with regard to
the composition, growth, and general vital phenomena of one of
the Fungi.

The Yeast fungus, forming, as collected in masses, the substance
known as yeast, consists of a microscopic sac or cell, such as we
have already described. The individual plant is a globular
vesicle, the membrane of which is composed (Mulder) of a " sub-
stance nearly approaching to cellulose in
its properties and composition;" in fact,
differs in no important respect from the
substance forming the cell-membranes
and hard parts of plants in general. This
membranous sac, however, contains a
substance of different composition " re-
lated to proteine " (Mulder). By the
microscope we ascertain that this internal
substance represents the ■protoplasm men-
tioned as filling the cell-cavity in Pro-
tococcus, and that it exhibits a dense layer
where in contact with the cell-membrane,
exactly corresponding to the " formative
layer" above described. In short, the yeast-
fungus is simply a Protococcus-cell, with-
out the green colouring matter. The yeast-fungus grows by new
vesicles budding out from the surface, into wl;ich a portion of the
proteinous or nitrogenous contents is simultaneously transferred,
and then the communication is cut off by secretive formation
of cellular membrane by the "formative layer." Such budding
takes place very rapidly and at various points of the surface when
the yeast-plant is well supplied with appropriate food, and what
is called fermentation in beer, &c., depends eniirchj upon such
multiplication of th.e cells of yeast, the alterations in the fer-
menting liquid resulting from the chemical changes connected
with the " digestion " or " respiration " of the plants. Now we
know from microscopic observation that the formative layer is
the prime agent in tlie processes of development and growth of
cells as above explained in Frotococcus and the filamentous Con-
ferva^, and it is the same here. We know on the authority of
Mulder and other chemists, that fermentation will not go on
unless a certain supply of nitrogenous food is afforded to the

(|mj|;

Group of cells constituting tlie
vegetating fonn of the ' Yeast-
plant,' magnified 800 diameters.
a, groups growing by budding
of ibe tells ; 6, cells (the lower
budding) treated with tincture
of iodine, which coagulales and
contracts the protoplasm, leav-
ing the outer wall free.

The Ycast-plant — Fermentation. 83

yeast-plant, and that the cessation of fermentation in the ordinary
course of natural operations is the result of the consumption of
the available nitrosjenous ingredients of the fermenting liquids.
If we remove a small portion of yeast from a fermenting wort, wash
it and place it in a solution of -pure mrjar, it will grow but for a
little time, until its own nitrogenous matter is consumed in the
•'waste" which takes place in cell-division. The new cells
dwindle in size and their growth is soon arrested. By supplying
nitrogen, on the other hand, the growth may be kept up until all
the sugar disappears.

During the growth of the yeast-fungus, it is this nitrogenous
formative substance in the interior which carries on the processes
of nutrition and growth ; as it elaborates the food imbibed in a
liquid form through the cell-membranes, it increases in bulk and
pushes out the wall into buds, supplies them with their propor-
tion of " protoplasm," and throws them off. It is found, more-
over, that the protoplasm gradually passes entirely into the
progeny of bud-cells, and the old parent cells are left as empty
collapsed sacs.

There is no reason to question the propriety of extending our
conclusions from the yeast-fungus to all other plants of that class
which live in essentially analogous conditions. And the con-
struction and character of the substance of Fungi, thus fed upon
organic matter, is quite in harmony with the gross, watery, and
perishable substance which is produced by the growth of the
higher plants when over-fed with nitrogenous manures, and at
the same time limited in their supply of light and air. VVe may
further extend the same set of conclusions to the early growth
of shoots from germinating seeds and tubers (like tlie potato),
where the protoplasmic substances at tlie growing points, when
stimulated by heat and moisture, commence and carry on the
cell-developinent without the aid of light, and produce from the
store of organic food laid up in the old tissue, soft succulent
growths, and continue to develop in tlie same way if supplied
with nitrogenous food and abstraited from the influence of light.
The remarks contained in the foregoing paragraphs afford an
explanation of the un(h)ubted fact that plants cannot grow without
a supply of nitrogen in some f(jrin or otfier, and that increased
supplies of nitrogenous matter a<t upon vegetation as a stimulus ;
for we have seen that the vital part of the structure is not the more
solid and permanent cellular substance of the ternary compounds
destitute of nitrogen, but the /'or nuUive substance contained in the
cellular chamljers, the jirofo/j/asni.

In tliese inquiries, iiowever, we have left out of view the in-
fluence of the most important of the external agents concerned
in the development of plants, namely, light. VVc have noticed

G 2

84 Ver/etahle Phijsiohgy.

that tlie growth occurring in the ahsence of light produces wealCy,
Avatnry textures, while the supply of light, ceteris paribus, is
marked by a corresponding solidity and vigour of the develop-
ment. We might figuratively say that plants supplied with
water and nitrogenous food, and withheld from light, are like
animals fed on substances deficient in nitrogen, which, as is.
often seen in badly-fed children, results in unhealthy fat and
want of vigour — since in animals the ternary compounds are
applied more especially to purposes of respiration or formation of
fat, while the nitrogenous compounds are required to form muscle
and solid structure. In plants the water and nitrogenous food seem
to favour expansion and development of new structure, while car-
bon, Avhich apparently can only be assimilated by the help of
the sun's rays, is the great element of the solid substance.

Nevertheless, the nitrogenous part of the plant, the formativ^
protoplasm contained in the cells, still maintains its place as the
living substance, when wc endeavour to follow out the changes,
iinatomical and chemical, taking place under the action of light.
If we examine into the cause of the green colour assumed by the
leaves and stalks of plants when exposed to light, we find it to
reside in granular structures or substances belonging to the proto-
plasmic cell-contents, which assume a green hue in consequence
of a chemical change effected through the agency of light. The
nature of this change is still unknown, but that the chlorophyll
consists of the protoplasmic matter coloured green, is certain.
Under a prolonged action of the chemical influence of light the
protoplasm goes on to secrete starch-grains, the more solid form
of assimilated matter of ternary composition, and the produc-
tion of the liqnine (woody) condition of cellulose, the substance
which forms the hard cell-walls, giving to the originally succulent
tissues the firm character of wood, is a result ot the modification
of the secreting action of the protoplasm dependent on the in-
fluence of light. The chemical actions which must occur in
these changes are at present very imperfectly understood. It is
only within a few years that the internal condition of the struc-
tures of plants has been thoroughly studied, and hitherto the
chemical inquiries have been made, as we may say, " in the
rough." The observations of Mulder on the yeast-plant are
almost the only examples of a thorough examination of the details,
in such inquiries ; in them the cell-membranes and the contents
were subjected repeatedly to analysis, the c;omparative accuracy
of the separation l^eing ascertained by the help of the microscope,
and the plants were exam hied microscopically in different stages
of growth, while the chemical change in the medium and in their
composition were ascertained by chemical analysis. But to
apply similar researches to the higher plants, those growing in

Chemical Ivjluence of Liijlit. 85

the sun's llglit, and producing chlorophyll and starch, would be
far more difficult, and it has not yet been seriously attempted.
Probably the investigation would be most satisfactorily pursued
in some of the simpler water-plants, such as the Confervoids above
referred to, and this in particular because the microscopist has
already ascertained the anatomical conditions in the successive
stages of growth.

We know that green plants consume carbonic acid and evolve
oxygen in daylight, but when we enter into the details of the
chemical processes occurring here we find ourselves in complete
obscurity, so great indeed, that it is not agreed among physiologists
as to the use of the terms respiration and digestion, the process
or processes which it is the chief office of green parts to periorm.
It is not our intention to enter now into a discussion of any of
the other vital processes of plants, beyond the simple ve</etative
reproduction, dependent upon cell-development, above described.
But as we have directed especial attention to the importance of
the nitrogenous constituents of the tissues, we may mention one
other point connected with this and with the processes of nutri-
tion. The recent researches of i\I. Viile, and, a priori considera-
tions, such as the reflection that animals are in the last resort all
dependent on plants for food, render it extremely probable that
vegetables assimilate nitrogen directly from the air. If so, it
will probably be by the green parts, and hence the chemical
changes occurring in the protoplasm of the cells of leaves will be
-even more complicated than has been hitherto suspected.

A knowledge of the ascertained facts of vegetable physiology
leads to a recognition of our excessive ignorance, scientifically
speaking, concerning the most important of the vital phenomena.
Here, however, if anywhere, the motto " Science with Practice,"
should be adopted, for a large portion of the data of the science
have still to be established by experiment : while the many crude
notions that exist in the popular mind respecting the more
obscure processes of vegetable life, render a kind ot clearance of
the ground necessary before the vast mass of " observing power"
existing in our agricultural community can be turned to thorough
account. It is our hope to present to the readers of the Society's
Journal at a future period an account of anatomical and physiolo-
logical researches on some of our most important cultivated
plants, with a view of exhibiting the connexion of vegetable
physiology with the practice of agriculture.

( §3 )

IV. — A Report upon the Ar/riculture of tlie Counti/ of Durham.*
By Thomas Geokge Bell, LL.D.

Pkize Eeport.

In a general view of the agriculture of the county of Durham
there are so many points present themselves for consideration, all
more or less closely connected with the subject, that it is diffi-
cult to condense the information, so as to express all tliat is
necessary or useful within the limits set for this Report, This,
however, I shall attempt to accomplish, and will only premise
further, that nothing shall be herein stated which has not been
matter of personal experience, actual observation, or information
acquired from time to time during a long and extensive practice
as a land agent.

General Characteristics of the Counti/. — These are altogether
of a varied nature, whether we look at tlie surface, the strata,
the climate, or the inhabitants. In the surface there are great
inequalities There are no great mountains, as in some dis-
tricts, nor large level plains as in others ; but in every direction
we have hills of gentle acclivity, intersected by broad valleys ;
the average inclination of the whole being an ascent from the
sea, which borders the county on the east, up towards that range
of internal mountains which runs along part of the borders of
Scotland, and through England as far as Derbyshire. This
county does not, however, rise up to the full heiglit of this range
of mountains, but stops short at a spot called Kilhope Law, in
the midst of as desolate and bleak a moorland scene as Ave could
possibly look upon.

In respect to the strata, we have not, as elsewhere, great bodies
of the primitive rocks lying with something of their original re-
gularity, but throughout nearly the whole county we have the
disjointed and upheaved masses of the coal formation.

In the south-east corner of the county there is a tract of the
new red sandstone ; adjoining to it on the north and north-west
there is a range of the magnesian limestone. It enters the
county from the south at Winston, and runs diagonally across it
by Selaby, Morton, Eldon, Merrington, &c., to the sea-coast at
Hartlepool, from Avhence it proceeds along the coast to South
Shields. All the county south and south-cast of this limestone is
on the new red sandstone, and the whole of the central portion
of the county lying to the north of it is on the coal-measures.

Throughout the whole of the western or moorland portion of

* It may be only right to state that this Essay -was written and received the
p?ize in 1854, and that soa.c portions of it have l)(;en omitted.

Agriculture of Durham. 87

the county, mountain limestone prevails, and in the same district
are those numerous veins of lead which have produced so much
wealth to their proprietors, and furnish still the subsistence of
nearly the whole of the inhabitants of the district.

T!ie climate of the county is very uncertain and variable. In
the sheltered valleys it is often some degrees warmer than in the
more elevated regions, and the mean temperature appears to be
reduced in proportion as we leave the sea-coast. Amongst the
moors of the Teesdale and Weardale districts the winters are gene-
rally very severe and of long continuance. The mean tempera-
ture of the county, during the several months, is as follows : —

January .. 33 -2° July .. .. 58-3°

February .. 40-5 August.. .. C4'0

March .. .. 40 "G September .. 53 "2

April .. .. 43-6 October.. .. 47-6

May .. .. 55*5 November .. 40*9

June .. .. 55*2 December .. 40*1

Whole year .... 46-9

It will be observed that the greatest heat is in the montli of
July. That temperature frequently does not last long, and is
often reduced by wet weather or prevailing east winds ; and
hence the more than ordinary risk which the farmer has often to
run in this county with his corn crops. These crops are the
natives of a warmer climate, and they take all the heat wliich
our changeable one will afford them to ripen and bring them to
perfection ; and when the mean temperature of July is brought
down by one or two degrees, the effects are at once seen both in
the quiintiti/ and quality of the crops.

Tlie elevation of the county at the highest part of its western
boundary has been estimated at about 3000 feet abore the level
of t!ie sea. As I have already observed, there are no hills within
the county of very great height : the highest is Collier Law,
1G80 feet, and the next Pontop Pike, about 1000.

Tlie population of this county was —

lu ISOl 149,384

1831 253,700

1841 324,284

1851 390,997

I have not been able to ascertain the extent of tlie agricul-
tural separate from the colliery, manufacturing, and trading
populaticm.

Ill the two divisions of the county there are 20G4 voters on
the Ift'gistcr of I'^lectors, who are qualified by the occupation of
Ian 1 of the value of 50/. and ujiwards per annum ; but this gives
us a very inadequate idea of tiic number of farmers in the

88 Afjriculture of Durham.

county, because there are a great number of tenancies of a less
amount than 50/., and there are also a large number of indivi-
duals farming their own lands, whose names are placed on the
registry as owners and not as occupiers. I cannot pretend to
give more than an approximate estimate of the area of the
county, where the different statements on the subject have been

so contradictorv.

*/

Acres.
By Mr. Bailey, in his Report ou the Agriculture of the County,

it is said to contain 582,4:00

By Mr. Surtees, in his History of Durham 610,000

By the last population returns . . . . , 622,476

From calculations I have made upon the best published map
of the county, I am of opinion that Mr. Bailey's estimate may
be taken as a correct one, if meant to express the area of the
agricultural parts of the county, leaving out the acreage of
tlie large towns, which are evidently included in both the other
estimates.

The rental of this county in 1815 was £791,359

1840 905,644

1853 1,148,096

Showing an increase hetween 1815 and 1840 of .. 114,285
And between 1840 and 1853 of 242,452

Total increase £356,737

I am not, however, in possession of any correct data from
which to apportion this increased rental, between the improved
value of the lands and an increased amount of houses and
buildings applied to other than agricultural purposes.

In the basis for the county-rate, which is the rental of the
several townships throughout the county, it is very difiicult to
estimate the portion of tlie rental derived from the land, distinct
from that derived from collieries, manufactories, buildings, tithes,
«Scc. ; but I have gone through each township with what local
knowledge I possessed or information I could obtain, and have
estimated the rental of the land at 459,000/.; hence, taking
582,400 acres as the contents of the county, we obtain 155. 9c?.
as tlie average rent per acre over the whole county.

But as this is rather an interesting subject of investigation, I
have endeavoured to arrive at a similar or more detailed result
by another mode ; and though I must confess to having very
imperfect data upon which to found my calculations, yet, after
bestowing much pains cm the comparing of valuations, aijd the
forming of averages in several districts, &c., I would venture
to present the folloAving as a somewhat near approximation to
the truth : —

Agriculture of Durham. 89

Acres. £•
92,800 of moorlancl, let on an average of 4s. per acre .. .. 18,560
71,500 occupied by woods, wastes, roads, rivers, &c. Much of
this is included in the acreage of the farms ; there-
fore, say on an average 6s. per acre 21,450

106,960 of old grass-land in the lowland districts, let on an

average of 15s 80,220

^11,140 of tilkge^lands, let on an average of 19s 295,583

582,400 acres. Rental £415,813

Soils and their Rent Value. — The orreat variety of soils to be
found in this county may be accounted for upon a little ac-
quaintance with the varied character of its stratification and the
irregularity of its surface. Hence, I have seen large tracts of
land in this county where there was very little depth of soil
covering the shale and hard shivery sandstone, which so often
accompanies the coal, and here thei'e was little to encourage the
agriculturist. No corn crops would grow, and the herbage,
Avhich barely covered the ground, was scarcely worth the pastur-
ing. We find it quite different on the elevated portions of some
of the limestone ; there we have a soil, not deep, but light and
dry, and capable of producing a good cover of grass. The
irregularity of the surface of tlie county has still more largely
promoted a variety of soils, for it has promoted an endless variety
both in the depth and quality of that alluvial deposit by which
the subjacent strata are covered. Accordingly, we find that in
all the valleys and hollows throughout the county the soil is
deeper and more productive than on the more elevated porti(ms ;
though even there its quality is very different, according as
the situation has tended to promote the deposit of silt and
vegetable matter brought down by the action of water during
the course of years. By the side of the three principal rivers
— the Tyne, the Weai", and the Tees — there is a good ex-
tent of flat or " haugh " land of a good loamy character. From
the mouth of the Tyne, Ijy Jarrow, Ilebburn, and Heworth, to
Gateshead, and from thence up the Ravensworth Vale, we have
strong soil on a stiff clay subsoil. I dug a tank in this district
not long ago, and after 2 feet of vegetable soil we went through
6 feet of stiff blue clay which cut like leather. Notwithstanding
this, the surface, where drained, is very friable ; it is generally a
good wheat-soil, and by pnqier management is, in many parts,
made to ])roduce excellent crops of turnips. A farmer in the
IIel)l)urn district tells me that the average produce of wheat there
will be'20 bolls an acre, but that with proper draining and good
management the district would produce more. Along the sea-
coast, from Whitburn to Hartlepool, the greater part of the soil
is ligliter, I)eing on tlie limestone, with a gravelly subsoil. In
parts of that district it has become richer by good management,

90 Agriculture of Durham.

yet the most of it is poor. On this range we have Dalton-le-dale,
about 800 acres, let on an average of 13s. ; Hawthorn, 1500 acres,
on an average of 1 5s ; and lands near Easington, about 6000 acres,
let on an average of 19s. per acre. Continuing by the coast, after
passing Hartlepool, we get on to the red sandstone, the easternmost
portion of which is a melU)w loam, partly on gravelly subsoil.
Of this there is about 13,000 acres, extending from Greatham
and Claxton round by Newton Bewley and Wolviston to Port
Clarence, worth on a general average of the whole 20s. per acre.
Of the interior j)ortions of the county, lying to the west of the
districts just referred to, it is more difficult to give a correct idea,
as the good and bad land is still more irregularly distributed.
Proceeding westwards from Hartlepool, we have first the El wick
district, where a large proportion of the land lets on an average
of 19s.; then Morton, averaging about 21s. ; next (keeping direct
west) we have Hollin Carr and other grounds, a great deal of
which is not worth more than 10s. South-west of them we liave
the Sedgefield district, let on an average of 25s., most of it strong
but friable — good potato and turnip land, and very capable of
being raised to a higher average by judicious draining. That
portion of the Sedgefield district which lies round Hardwick
Park has been much improved by draining and good manage-
ment. The whole of the district I have referi'ed to as lying to
the west of Hartlepool is on a clay subsoil of different degrees of
tenacity, the strata beneath being the new red sandstone. A short
distance to the south-west of Sedgefield is a tract of land, called
Morden Carrs, containing about 3000 acres, which Mr. Bailey
refers to in 1809 as being then of little value, but which he says,
" if properly drained, would in a few years be worth three pounds
an acre," Not a few only but forty-five years have passed away
since that opinion was expressed, and Morden Carrs still remains
in its undrained and almost valueless condition. It is all in grass,
and, though some improvement has been made by cutting open
stells, it is still very often covered with water, though it might
apparently have been easily drained into the river Skerne, which
runs through it : the soil is a deep peat. In the construction of
the York and Newcastle Railway, that part of the line which
runs through this ground sunk and the rails disappeared ; and they
say in the neighbourhood that rods 30 feet in length were put
down without arriving at sound ground. To the south of Sedge-
field and Morden there is a district of a deeper loam, but not
rich, and still on a clay subsoil. This includes Bishop top. Stain-
ton, Redmarshall, Sadberge, &c. Continuing to the south, we
come to another tract of land, comprising the westernmost portion
of the red sandstone. Here the soil is stiffer, being on a strong
clay. There are also evident signs of water hanging in the rock

Agriculture of Durham. 91

beneath, and deep draining mi2:ht be expected to make great
improvement. Tliis district comprises the townships of Sock-
burn, Dinsdale, Hurvvorth, and Neasham, and there is of it about
6000 acres, averaging in value about 28^. The clay subsoil, with
little exception, surrounds the town of Darlington, and from Hur-
Avorth continues towards the west until it reaches the river Skerne.
Tliis river, at the point where it enters into the river Tees, as
well as lor some distance northwards, seems to divide the strong
clay lands of Hurworth and Dinsdale from the light gravelly soil
prevailing about Coniscliffe, Carl bury. Pierce Bridge, &c. Of
the last mentioned there may be about 4000 acres, averaging 21."?.
an acre. The soil from here to Barnard Castle for a limited
breadth from tlie river Tees is a richer loam, which in some
places is worth 305. an acre ; but the soil becomes thinner and of
less value as we leave the river and ascend the rising ground
towards the nortli. At Arctideacon Newton and around that
place we have from 1200 to 1400 acres, averaging 18a\ an acre.
Beyond that we have a stripe of land of better equality, reaching
from VVhessoe by Denton to Killer by, perhaps about 3000 acres,
averaging 286\ or 29^. Vo the north and north-east of Barnard
Castle we have the Raby estates, belonging to the Duke of Cleve-
land, and Streatlam, balonging to John Bowes, Esq. On both
estates there is a great variety of poils and values. Upon the
Duke's estates there may be from 3000 to 4000 acres, averaging
20a-. an acre. At Cockfield, which lies to the north of Raby, and
from thence to Woodland, there is a tract of poor shallow soil,
lying partly on the shale and partly on the millstone grit of the
coal formation. In this district there is about 5000 acres, worth
on an average no more than 9s. per acre. I trace the same poor
unproductive soil across the whole county, from the district just
alluded to up to its northern boundary. It lies along the whole
eastern boundary of tlie limestone of the mining district, and
seems to form the more elevated portion of the coal formation,
upon which there has been the smallest share of alluvial deposit
or vegetable soil ; indeed in many places the shale and sandstone
" crop out to the day." It may be interesting to put down a few
of the townsliips which comprise this tract of barren land, with
their estimated acreage and rental : —

Tt)wnsliips. Acreage. Eental.

Cockfield an.l Woodland .. .. 4,4 IG .... £2,203

Laiiglov Dale 4,';85 .... 1,972

'Lyucsack and Soft lev .. .. 5,040 .... 2,703

Hamsterk'v .. .' 4,003 .... 1,500

South lic'diiurn (;,7(;5 .... 1,039

Mug:j;k's\vick 7,098 .... 1,738

Acres .. .. 32,913 £11,93-)

Or ujion an average 7s. 3 /. an acre.

92 Agriadture of Dnrltain.

The lead-mine district, wliich includes the whole of the
county lyinq: to the west of the tract of land just referred to,
contains 78,190 acres, let upon an average of 3^. 8rt. per acre.
As this statement may perhaps appear incredible to some, I will
mention four only of tlie townships in that district, with their
acreage and rental : —

Townships. Acreage. Rental.

Middletou in Teesdale .. .. 10,434 ....£3,037

Newbiggen 4,')27 .... 1,190

Forest and Frith 17,270 .... 1,366

Hunstanworth 10,380 .... 1,029

Acres .. .. 42,711 £6,622

Or an average of 3s. Id. per acre.

The soil of the greater part of this lead-mine district is poor
and thin, in places being composed of vegetable substances im-
perfectly decomposed. It presents us with large tracts of peat,
in which we find every here and there, from want of draining,
wet spongy flats, provincially called mosses or flows. Here all
is wild and uncultivated. It cannot be called an agricultural
district. The lettings are very small, and the moors not half
stocked. The chief dependence of the inhabitants is upon the
mines, and the care or cultivation of the land is with them a
minor consideration. A horse to bring coals for the family, a
cow to supply milk, or a few sheep, if he borders on the com-
mon, is all that the householder desires. The mining district is
known by the two general names of Teesdale and Weardale,
from the two rivers which run through it. The westernmost and
highest portion of Weardale is of by far the least value of any land
in the county. Kilhope and VYelliope are the two westernmost
branches of the river Wear, and the lands bordering on those two
streams skirt round the boundary of the county. They form an
estate held by lease under the Bishop of Durham, and contain
about 3800 acres. This estate was let at one period for 135/. ■
per annum, and was valued at the last renewal of the lease at
282/. iOs.

There are many portions in the interior of the county yet
remaining to be described, but I shall be obliged to dismiss
them in a few words. So far I have been describing the different
districts we have gone through rather with the desire of illus-
trating the very varied character, quality, and value of the soils
generally throughout the county, than with the hope of having
space to complete a description of the whole county in a similar
manner. I have only, then, further to observe, that in what re-
mains undescribed the soil is equally irregular in its value. " It
will have been observed, I think, from my previous description,
that the great bulk of the soil of this county is on a clay subsoil,

Agriculture of Durliarn, 93

and that the thickness of soil covering the clay is of an endless
variety of thickness and quality. Of gravelly or sandy subsoil
there is only a small proportion, and it is scattered in various
parts with much irregularity. I cannot form any correct idea
of the respective quantities of each of those two kinds of subsoil ;
in fact, the distinction between them is not so completely marked
as to cause farms to be managed (as in other counties) upon an
entirely different system, according as each may be situate on the
one or the other. The average values per acre in various dis-
tricts over the whole countv have been calculated from tlie best
information it was possible to obtain — namely, from actual
valuations ; of which not less than 2415 have been carefully gone
through.

Common Lands divided. — We shall do injustice to both land-
lord and tenant, if we form an opinion of the present state of the
agriculture of any county or district, without bearing in mind
what that county or district was in some former period, so as to
ascertain the progress or improvement which has been made. I
must therefore refer to the fact that, within a comparatively
recent period, a large portion of thi? county was unenclosed and
uncultivated, and lay either in wide tracts of desolate moor, or in
more sheltered, though equally neglected, " stinted pastures."
j\Ir. Bailey, in his Report on this county, gives a list of commons
divided between the years 175G and 1809, amounting to
114,071 acres. Since the last-named period the following addi-
tional commons have been divided and enclosed : —

A. K. p.

Gilligatfe Moor and To\^-n Fields 300

Beamish South Moor 478

Blackburn Fell 2,(;00

Egglcstoue Moor 5,987 1 3

Gatesliead Fell 631 21

Gateshead Town Fields 158 1

AVoodland, parish of Cockfiold 2,2G0

Whickhain Fell 451 2 IG

Barlow Fell, Bcda Hills, and wastes of the Manor of

Winlaton 521

Middlehope Fell, Weardaie 2,343

Middleton in Teesdale, in and out Fells 0,224 2 21

Boldon Common 03 2 14

Total 25,017 1 35

Thus we have an aggregate of 139,0(S8 acres of ((unmon land
divided Ijetwecn the years ITal't and 1853. 1 have (xamined the
papers connected with a number of those divisions, now in my
possession, and find tiiat the average value per acre placed on
those commons which were situated in the cc;ntral and more im-

94 Ayriculturc of Durham.

provcable parts of the county did not exceed 9.9. Much of the
same land, having been enclosed and brought into cultivation, is
now let at prices ranging from 305. to 6O5. per acre. Many
thousand acres of this common land, lying in the less improveable
parts of the county, did not average more in value, in their un-
improved condition, than from 4f/. to V)d. an acre. The fee-
simple of one allotment of 775 acres was sold for 820/., and the
fee-simple of another, containing 1000 acres, was valued at 750/.
I cannot say that this portion of the common land has been im-
proved in anything like the same proportion as the more improve-
able commons. Still, many patches by the sides of rivers, &c.,
have been picked out, and made into good pasture land, and
some has been brought into tillage. But the great want has been
draining and extensive planting for shelter; and, if I am asked
why this has not been accomplished, I must refer to the remaiks
I shall shortly make on church leasehold property, the greatest
part of the moors now under consideration being of that tenure.
Mr. Bailey calculates that, of the commons divided previous to
1809, 40,000 acres would not pay for cultivation ; and that
74,000 had been enclosed, divided into fields, and brought under
a regular system of cultivation. Of those divided since, one-half
the quantity has been also brought into cultivation. So that we
have in all, by those divisions, 86,508 acres of ground, formerly
lying dormant or almost valueless, brought into cultivation, and
raised to an average value of about IS5. per acre. If we had no
other improvement to notice in respect to the agricultural state
of Durham, this alone would be sufficient to excite our attention
and satisfaction. Before leaving the consideration of this point,
I may allude to the case of a small portion of land, part of one
of those commons, which may serve as an illustration of the im-
provement effected by their enclosure. The land in question
was an allotment of about 8 acres, about one-half of it being
valued at 2^. 6f/. and the remainder at 5^. per acre. It had on it
little herbage, indeed none of any value, but was principally
heath and coarse grass interspersed with bushes of whin. The
first operation was the draining. This was done effectually by
drains 30 inches deep and 8 yards apart. I often wonder at the
tenacity with which drainers hold to their favourite systems of
deep or shallow draining, as if either system would serve as a
fixed rule, to be alike suitable in every locality and under every
circumstance. My first object of inquiry, on looking at any
land requiring draining, is to ascertain whether the water is an
outburst from the strata beneath, or merely the rain hanging in
the ground for want of outlet. If it is tlie first, we must of
course go deep to catch the springs ; if it is the latter, shallow

Agriculture of Durham. 95

draining will answer in nine cases out of every ten.* In the pre-
sent case shallow draining reached all the requirements of this
enclosure, and we next had the whole of the surface pared and
the sods burnt. Lime was next laid on, and the whole ploughed
in. This was done in the autumn, and the ground lay over the
winter. In spring it was ploughed again, oats sown on it, and
well harrowed. Four bushels an acre were sown broadcast, and
the produce was about 54 bushels an acre. The next crop was
potatoes, well manured, of which there was also a most satis-
factory crop. This was succeeded by wheat sown down with
seeds, the land being intended for permanent pasture. In its
present condition it is equal to any grass-land in the county, and
lets for 4/. an acre.

T/ie icorMufi of the Minerals an obstacle to the improvement of
the surface. — Before proceeding further into my subject, I may
be allowed to point out the great obstacle to the improvement of
agriculture or the cultivation of the surface of this county, which
arises from the immense wealth which has been, and still is,
derived from the minerals beneath. No other county is so inter-
woven with a network of public and private railways. Ill no
other is there so large a cjuantity of land occupied by collieries,
manufactories, c^uarries, waste heaps, &c. ; and in none, perhaps,
is there a more extensive trade carried on in the working, manu-
facturing, and sale of coal, limestone, ironstone, and lead, — all
inducing a sacrifice of the interests of the surface for the sake of
what lies below it. There is an enormous amount of trespass
involved in all this trade. Tiie pitmen especially are notorious
for making roads for themselves in every direction, just as their
necessity rer^uires. Fences are destroyed, and crops are too often
trodden down. This is disheartening to the tenant, but he begins
to tolerate it when he finds that the collieries want to occupy a
large portion of his land. Fresh heap-room is recjuired, or it
may be new waggon-ways have to be formed ; and the farmer
begins to grow careless of agricultural improvement when he
finds, on the one hand, that all his improvements bid fair to be
destroyed by freali recjuirements of the colliery owners, or by the
trespass of a reckless population around him, — or, on the other
hand, that it is more profitaljle to receive liis " double damage "
from the colliery than to make increased efforts for the improve-
ment of his land. The " double damage " referred to is double
the rent pcT acrc^ which he pays for his land, which the colliery
owners are bound to pay him for the full quantity of it which

* If by shallow draining Dr. Bell means drains not less than three feet, the
statement may he adinitti.d. Three feet of soil above the wator-kvel is required
in all cases in which any draining at all is likely to do good. — Ku.

96 Auricullure of Darliam.

they may take, occupy, or damage. The landlord receives his
compensation for all tliis hindrance to agricultural improvement,
in the shape of heavy way-leave and other rents from the colliery
owners.

Size and Tenure of Estates. — A large portion of this county
is held in small properties, and many of them are frequently
changing owners. There are 12,370 names on the Registry of
Parliamentary Electors in this county ; and if we take away the
tenant voters and the voters whose qualifications are houses or
buildings alone, there must still be left about 4000 individuals
amongst whom the land of the county is divided. Bailey men-
tions two estates of from 20,000/. to 22,000/. per annum ; three
from 12,000/. to 14,000/. ; two from 7000/. to 8000/., &c. I
have now before me the rent-roll of one estate producing 8680/.,
and of another producing 6400/. per annum ; but there are not
many of such sizes. In a list of estates which we have had for
sale within a short period there have been, —

1 lietweeu 2000 and 3000 acres.

1 „ 700 „ «00 „

1 „ 400 „ 500 „

11 ,, 300 „ 400 „

15 „ 200 „ 300 „

22 „ 100 „ 200 „
27 containing less than 100 acres.

A large quantity of the land is of leasehold and copyhold
tenure held under the Church. The following is the average of
three years of the annual income the Church derives from this
property in the shape of fines on the renewal of leases, reserved
rents, &c. : —

Bishop of Durham £21,991

Dean and Chapter 35,071

Tlie Dean and Prebendaries in severalty . . 14,342
The Archdeacon 27

£71,431

The annual value of the second property alone, viz. that held
under the Dean and Chapter, has been calculated at 100,000/. if
let on rack-rent; and tliis sum is thus divided: — Land, 64,000/.;
tithes, 10,000/. ; mines and minerals, 26,000/. The lands belong-
ing to the Bishop are let on leases for lives, and some upon
terms of 21 years ; those belonging to the Dean and Chapter, on
leases for years, the terms being 21 or 40 years. The practice
has been to renew at the end of 7 years in most cases, though
there are others Avhere the renewal takes place at the end- of 4
years, and a few cases renewed each year. The property of the
Dean, and of the several Prebendaries and tlie Archdeacon, is let

Agriculture of Durham. 97

:at rack-rent. The manor of Westoe is held under the Dean and
Chapter, and so was a g^reat portion of South Shields ; hut a few-
years ajjo, under the authority of parliament, on the establishment
of the Universit}' at Durham, they enfranchised property at that
place by which they realized above 48,000/. It was wished to
have raised 95,000/., but many of the lessees refused to accept
the terms. The valuable manor of Gateshead is leasehold under
the Bishop, held for 21 years, a renewal being made each year.
The manor of Whickham is copyhold, also under the Bishop.
Large portions of freehold lands, however, lie in detached par-
cels within these two manors. I have felt it necessary to refer
more at length to this property, because I believe that the nature
and extent of it has been for many years a great bar to agricul-
tural improvement in this county. This fact has been more
than once proved, by the evidence of impartial and competent
witnesses, before Committees of both Houses of Parliament. The
buildings on this property are almoot invariably of an inferior
description, and include no more than will barely suffice for the
occupation of the land. The ground is just in a similar condition
in regard to draining ; indeed no man having this species of
property, and aware of the manner in which the fuies on renewal
are made to rise in proportion to all improvements, would think
of laying out more money on his estate than he could not
well avoid. But one particular by which these lands may be
readily distinguished from all others is their being almost
universally destitute of trees. This is owing, no doubt, to the
stringent reservation in the leases of " all woods and underwoods."
In some parts of the county there are thousands of acres of land
which would liave been planted if it had been of freehold tenure ;
but on this kind of property, if the lessee planted a thousand
ncres he could not cut down a single tree when grown up for his
own use without the leave of the lessor ; and the consequence is,
that many a Ijleak hill remains unplanted, and many a cold farm
remains unslieltered. The advantage to be derived from exten-
sive plantations has been repeatedly pointed out. Over a great
deal of the poor land of this county it has been shown that, if 20
acres were planted out of every 100, the remaining 80 would, in
a few years, be equal in value to what the 100 used to be ; and,
in addition, there would be the 20 acres of wockI rapidly coming
into a saleable state ol growth, in a district where the numerous
collieries created an almost unlimited demand for all kinds of
timber. Thus the estates would be increased in value more than
20 per cent. There is an increasing want of confidence in this
property. A 21-years lease at one time would produce 18 vears'
purchase; of late years much has been sold at IG or 17 ; and
within the last two or three years, since the subject was so nmcli
VOL. XVII. II

98 Agriculture of Durham.

under discussion both in and out of parliament, it has hardly
been saleable at any price.

By an Act, 14 and 15 Vict, cap, 104, this church leasehold
property was permitted to be enfranchised during a certain
period ; this period is just about to come to a close, and it ap-
pears that not above a dozen parties in the county of Durham
have availed themselves of this opportunity, although the number
of lessees will amount to many hundreds. This is not supposed
to have been caused by a desire for the continuance of such a
tenure, but rather from an idea that the terms of enfranchisement
were unfavourable towards the lessees.

Size of Farms. — Not only is the county divided into small
properties, but even the few large properties in it are divided
into small farms. By far the greatest number is under 200 acres.
A list of 575 farms which have been to let within the last few
years is thus divided : —

Above 2000 acres

> . • •

2

Between 300 and 400 .

. 24

Between 1000 and 2000 .

9

„ 200 „ 300 .

. 74

700 „

800 .

. 3

„ 100 „ 200 ,

. 190

600 „

700 .

. 3

50 „ 100 .

. 142

„ 500 „

600 .

o

Under 50

. 121

400 „

500 .

. 11

The question of enlarging the size of farms in this county, by
adding two or three of the smaller ones together, has often been
discussed. Some argue that farmers of greater capital would be
procured, and the land generally managed with greater spirit ;
but on the other hand it is urged, with great appearance of truth,
that men of capital like better soil than that of which the greater
part of the county is composed ; and it has been much ques-
tioned whether the landowner might not have to run greater
risks of loss of rent by larger farms than he now does with his
small ones, on which, if he has tenants of small means, he has
generally men of industrious habits, who are always struggling
on to pay their rent and maintain their families. Undoubtedly,
however, this is one of the causes of the " backward condition
of agriculture in Durham," that the farmers generally on the
small farms are deficient in that capital which is necessary to
carry them on, according to new and improved modes of manage-
ment.

Causes of hachcard condition of Agriculture in Durham. — I
may now be allowed to recapitulate what has appeared, from the
statements already made, to have been obstacles to the improve-
ment of agriculture in this county : —

1, The larger than ordinary proportion of poor unproductive soil.

2. The extent of land remaining in an uninclosed and " inter-
common " state up to a comparatively recent period.

A[/riculture of Durham. 99

3. The wealth derived from the minerals causing in many
places a sacrifice of the surface for the sake of what lay be-
neath it,

4. The prevalence of small properties, which are frequently
changing hands, as well as the large extent of land of leasehold
and copyhold tenures, under which there was not sufficient en-
couragement to impi'ovement.

5. The small tenancies into which most of the land is divided,
together with the want of capital so general amongst the tenants.

Conditions of Letting. — The great majority of the farms are
let from year to year. There seems a great prejudice against
leases, as much amongst the tenants as the landowners, though
some see an advantage in them, and leases are granted on some
estates for various terms, principally three or seven years. The
usual time of entry is at May-day, and the rents are made pay-
able half-yearly on the 23rd November and 13th May, though in
most cases there is a period allowed for payment after the same
becomes due. This is generally half a year, and is called the
'' running half year." The tenant on quitting has an away-
going crop from off one-half of the lands in ploughing with the
use of the stack-yard, barn, and granary for a certain period (as
agreed upon) after the expiration of his tenancy ; but he is
bound to leave the straw for the incoming tenant, and must
supply it to him as he needs it. In many cases the away-going
crop is sold, and is often purchased by the incoming tenant.

The usual stipulations in agreements with tenants in this
county are — Not to plough or break up any portions of the lands
laid down to permanent grass.

To manage the arable lands according to the system of hus-
bandry agreed upon.

To keep and leave in good repair all fences, gates, drains, »!v:c.

Not to sell any hay or straw from off tlie farm without bring-
ing thereon in lieu thereof live fothers of dung for every ton of
hay or straw so sold.

Not to depasture in the last half year a greater number of
stints than in the previous half years.

To permit the incoming tenant previous to the expiration of
the tenancy to sow with grass-seeds tlie lands sown with the
away-going crop, and to roll in the same ; and also to scale and
dress meadow grounds ; also to place lime or manure on some
convenient part of the premises for his own use.

To lead all materials which may be required for the re^ialr or
alteration of the fann-I)uil(lings.

To p?iy, in addition to the rent agreed upon, 5 per cent, on
the lancHord's outlay in draining any part of the fnrm.

The landlord reserves to himself or his ag«nt the privilege of

II 2

100 A(jricidturc of Durham.

entering upon the farm at all seasonable times, in order to see
that it is properly managed accoi'ding to the agreed scheme of
liusbandry ; ;ind there is invariably a penalty specified of a cer-
tain additional rent per acre for every acre of the farm managed
contrary to the stipulations or agreement.

Sijstem of Hushandri/. — The system under which the greatest
proportion of this county was managed at one time was that
which has been styled the " Two Crop and Fallow System."
The rotation then was —

1. Fallow. 1. Fallow.

2. Wheat. ^ 2. Wheat.

3. Oats. ^^' 3. Beans.

4. Fallow. 4. Fallow.

Bailey mentions both of these rotations, and I have heard from
various quarters that they prevailed to a great extent. They do
not do so now. Draining and a more liberal supply of manure is
enabling the farmers to introduce a better system, and this old
one is all but extinct. There was much excuse for it while it
lasted. The land was deplorably and universally in want of
draining. Turnips were a rare crop. Artificial manures were
unheard of. The farm-yard manures could not be had in suf-
ficient quantities ; for so little stock was kept that a sufficiency
was seldom produced upon the premises. Lime was certainly to
be had in some localities, but not in all ; for in those days the
roads all over the county were kept in bad repair, and railways
had not been introduced. In reference to the railways, what ad-
vantages we possess now, in comparison to what the inhabitants
of the county possessed so recently as 1809, when Mr. Bailey
could say — " There are no iron railways used as public roads in
this county " — a glance at the county map will show the great
number there are now. The advantage of these railways is very
great to the farmers of this county, both in enabling them to
convey their produce to market, and in the more plentiful and
cheap procuring of lime and manure.

The system of husbandry which now prevails is the four-
course system, under which, as a general rule, the rotation of
crops is made to vary much according to local circumstances —

On Light Soils.

1. Turnips, eaten off the ground with sheep.

2. Wheat, sown down with seeds.

3. Clover, either pastured with sheep or mown.

4. Barley or oats.

On Strong Soils.
1. Bare fallow. 2. Oats. 3. Seeds. 4. Wheat.

The above are frequently adopted. In regard to t!ic rotation

Agriculture of Durham. 101

on clay soils, I find a <^rcat clifTerence of opinion in the county as
to the comparative superiority of bare-fallowing, or the cultiva-
tion of green crops. The great arguments in favour of the bare-
fallowing is — 1, the stiffness of some of our clay soils, and the
necessity of more frequent ploughings and better working than
can be given with green crops ; 2, the difficulty of procuring a
sufficient quantity of manure ; and, 3, the great tendency of our
poor soils to produce weeds, which it is tliought the green crops
will increase. To this it may be said that the first objection
would be overcome bv draining and the use of clod-crushers and
other modern improved implements ; the second is a difficulty
more in imagination than reality, for in practice it would soon be
found to remove itself — cultivating green crops would enable the
farmer to feed more stock, and keeping more stock would pro-
duce him more manure ; to remove the third objection a little
care and industry would suffice ; and I may certainly say, that so
far as my experience of the county goes, the lands on which green
crops are most extensively grown are far cleaner than those which
are allowed to lie every fourth year in bare fallow. Still there is
a very general opinion that a great deal of the poorer clay soils
in this county are not calculated to grow green crops ; or as a
shrewd old farmer said to me the other day, " all the draining in
the world will not make turnip soil out of our stiff clays." But
all are not of this gentleman's opinion, for not long after I met
with another person, who declared that he never had a single
acre of bare fallow, and that he got most excellent crops ; they
never failed, and he accounted for it by saying that .he " had
good implements, and put the ground into good heart In' good
manuring, for which he was fully repaid by good crops." His
fields were all drained three feet deep and seven yards apart. I
believe draining would settle the whole controversy. If tlie lands
were all ])roperly drained, there would l)e found very little even
of the stifTest of our clays which would not soon break down and
])ulverise so fine as to be cajiablo of growing turnips. It has
been tried and (as I shall state more fully in a little) the experi-
ment has answered. Turnips are grown where they never grew
before ; and not only would turnips be produced in soil now
thought unsuitable, but by draining we should soon see the
averaije produce of all kinds of crop increased. A farmer stated
not long ago at a ])\iblic meeting of the Darlington l"'armers'
(,'lui), that- it was his ojiinion that the l)ulk of the land between
Darlington and Newcastle, which was now yieldinix Ironi '2.0 to
25 bushels of wheat per acre, would, if properly drained, yield,
with less labour and expense, from 30 to 40 bushels.

Upon the Duke of Cleveland's estates at Kaby (bclorc ;illudcd
toj there are some farms in excellent condition, 'i'hcy lie around

102 Agriculture of Durham.

the town of Stalndrop. The soil is loamy, and in general very
productive. A large proportion of the land round about the
town is in old grass for the use of the inhabitants. The tillage
land is worked on the four-course system, and the rotation is
generally — turnips, wheat, clover, and oats. The oat stubble is
ploughed in November, and again in the spring, when from 20
to 25 loads of dung per acre is laid on, or a proportionate quan-
tity of bone or other manure, and the turnip-seed is sown in
drills. The quantity of seed varies according to the soil ; 2 lbs.
per acre may be an average. The average produce of the turnip
crop will vary from 30 to 40 loads per acre according to the
season. The turnips are either eaten off by sheep, or pulled
and stored in pits for stall-feeding of cattle, &c. As soon as
the turnips are off the ground, the land is again ploughed, and
wheat sown ; the quantity of seed 2i to 3 bushels per acre.
The average produce of wheat differs very much in various dis-
tricts. On the poorer soils from 12 to 20 bushels. On the
district of which we are now writing, it may be from 20 to 30
bushels. As soon as the wheat has received one harrowing after
sowing, the grass seeds are sown. The quantity of seed varies
from 14 to 16 lbs. per acre. When the grass is to pasture one
year, there is generally sown 8 lbs. red, 1 lb. white clover, and
half a bushel of rye-grass per acre. If it is intended to cut for
hay, a larger quantity of seeds are given. The seeds remain for
one or two years either mown or pastured, and are generally
broken up before winter, and oats sown in February or March.
The oats are sown bi'oadcast. The quantity of seed is from 3 to
5 bushels per acre, according to the kinds, and the average pro-
duce from 40 to GO bushels. The rotation on the lighter soils
adjoining to the river Tees, west of Darlington, is generally
turnips, barley, clover, and wheat. Most of the tillage lands in
that district are drained and well pulverised. They produce
generally an excellent quality of barley, with an average yield of
from 3G to 42 bushels an acre. On the better class of soils,
where many horses and cattle are kept, the clover is allowed to
remain longer than on others — generally for two or three years.
Perhaps sufficient pains are not taken sometimes to have the
land in a clean condition, and well broken down when the seeds
are sown ; at least there are many cases where the clover comes
up full of weeds ; and there have been many more in this county
lately, where it either does not come up at all, or " goes off" on
the second year. I can reckon up six different places at which
I have just seen the fields in course of being ploughed up because
the clover had entirely failed. On such a thing taking place,
the fanner endeavours to get another crop into the ground as
early as possible. If it is the second year the clover fails, oats

Agriculture of Durham. 103

are generally sown ; if it fails to come away at all, beans or peas
are occasionally put in. If the clover remains three years, it is
generally mown one year, and pastured the other two. The
fallow crop is varied according to locality. In the neighhour-
hood of the large towns large quantities of potatoes are grown.
Tares, peas, and beans also occasionally form the fallow crop ;
the last named but seldom in this county compared with others.

Before leaving this branch of my subject, I may state that the
charges which have been brought against the agricultural con-
dition of this county have been —

1st. The abundance of weeds.

2nd. The extensive prevalence of bare fallowing.

3rtl. The too rapid succession of corn crops.

To these I answer : — '

1. The weeds are rapidly disappearing under increased drain-
age. By far the largest proportion of them consisted of " butter-
cups " and other bulbous and tuberose-rooted plants, which were
a certain indication of water. There are now many farms in the
county which, in point of cleanliness of the soil, may bear com-
parison with any farms in the kingdom.

2. There are some portions of our poor clay soils which, for
some time at least, cannot be expected to grow turnips ; but the
quantity of them is reducing every year.

3. The regular " four-shift scheme," which is (with slight
modifications) all but universal throughout the countv, has been
found most suitable to the character of our soils and local cir-
cumstances. Under this course the alternating of corn and green
crops is regularly kept up. As to the " two crops and a fallow "
system, about which so much has been said, I have already stated
that it is almost obsolete ; and it so happens that I can give the
period when it began to become so. The following short extract
may be interesting. It is taken from a letter dated "..ne, 1794,
and written by Mr. Silas Angus, land agent in tiiis county to
Sir William Appleby : —

" Agreeable to desire, I shall attempt to p;ivc you a sketcli of some of the
methods of husbandry jmictised in this neighbourhood. Tlie former 2^ract ice
was two crops and a fallow ; but for want of being changed, the land in
tillage became tired of growing corn, especially oats. In order to remedy
that inconvenience, a new system was established under a four-course shift,
or what is here calldl 'four adtrs'' — viz., wheat, clover, oats, and fivUow ;
and by that alteratiuu great benefit was at first derived. As clover then was
rather a novelty to tlie land in this quarter, it generally jn-odnced a jileutiful
crop, and was also tin- means of a good crop of oats succeeding it. iJut now
the present mode of some ]jlaces hereabouts is under the regulation of tive
aders, which is continuing the clover cro|) two years ; and this was tlmught a
probalile means of greater improvement."

Permanent Grass. — The proportion of old grass land is in

104 Agriculture of Durham.

some parts of tho county much too small. In the neighbourhood
of Gateshead, and up the Kavensworth Vale, there are good
fields of old grass ; but it is in the southern part of the county
that the best meadows and pastures are to be found. In the
Staindrop district the farms are nearly equally divided between
grass and tillage. In other parts one-third only of the lands are
in grass, and in some there is a still smaller proportion. Where
the old grass lands are mown they receive a top-dressing of
manure, generally al^out 15 cart loads to the acre. It is usual to
mow and pasture an old grass field alternately. The average of
the hay crop is generally \h tons per acre. The fog or after-
math is pastured. It is very common near the principal towns,
where a number of milch cows are kept by the inhabitants, for
the farmer to receive stints into his pastures. From 65. to 125.
per week is paid for a cow, according to the season or condition
of the grass. The quantity of land considered necessary for a
stint is about lA- acres, and it was usual to reckon the number of
cattle a farmer should possess by the number of stints his pastures-
would carry ; but this is no longer a criterion since stall or farm-
yard feeding came so much into use. As I have frequently had
occasion to point out that, in particular localities in this county,
the proportion of permanent pasture is too small, I have been led.
to give some attention to tlie laying down of land to grass ; and
particularly to an endeavour to ascertain, in several instances,
the causes which have led to a failure of the seeds. The grass
seeds are almost always sown away with a grain crop ; and it is
not an unusual thing, soon after the crop of wheat has been
cleared off the ground, to find that the grass will not be worth
allowing to lie. The causes of failure have been, bad soil ; the
ground not sufficiently pulverised ; the seed too deeply harrowed
in, or perhaps too little seed sown. It is common to sow only
ryegrass and clover, but where a little extra expense would not
be grudged, it is far better to sow a greater variety of kinds, as
we thereby make a failure less probable and secure a succession
of fresh herbage throughout the year.

Tlie following are the grass seeds often sown in this county,
with the cost per acre : — •

1 bushel rye-gi-ass £0 n 6

16 lbs. red clover, at 7i/ 09 4

4 lbs. white clover, at 8 J 2 8

4 lbs. rib-grass, at 5c^ 1 8

£0 19 2
And the following is a selection of seeds recommended to me
by my friend Mr. Drummond, an eminent seedsman in Stirling..
I have used this myself with such marked success that I venture-
to give the list here : —

AfjricultiLre of Durham. 105

Assortment and Proportions of Grass Seeds, recommended by W. Drnmmond
and Sons, for laying down permanent pasture, on medium soil, per acre.

^ bushel Pacey's perennial rye-grass £0 3

5 ,, Italian rye-grass 2 9

3 lb. of Timothy 16

3 lb. of hard fescue 19

4 lb. of meadow fescue 2 4

2 lb. of meadow foxtail 02

3 lb. of cocksfoot 16

1 lb. of rouLrh-stalkcd mcadow-aiass 9

1 lb. of wood meadow-grass 10

1 lb. of evcrizroen 013

1 lb. of trefoil 4

3 lb. of cow-grass 2 3

5 lb, of white clover 4 2

Price in 1854 £14 5

Hote. — Perhaps in estimating the price per acre, you should say ranging
from 23s. to 27s. We generally vary the mixture according to the nature
of the soil, &c. ; and where expense is an object, we woxdd probably keep out
a little of the expensive grasses ; and where expense is no object, -we would
recommend tlie addition of 2 lbs. of alsike clover, and keep out perhaps 1 lb.
of each cow-grass and white.

In the breaking up of old grass lands, paring and burning the
surface used to be invariably the first stop. This is still occa-
sionally done in this county, though not so much as formerly.
It has been more frequently ploughed up without paring ; well
harrowed after lying, and the weeds gathered and burnt. For
the first crop, after ploughing out, oats is preferred by some,
and turnips by others. It is not often that grass land is per-
mitted to bo ploughed out, and when it is, there is generally an
agreement for an equal quantity to be laid away in some other
part of the farm.

There is many a discussion goes on amongst the agriculturists
of this county on the subject of breaking up the old grass land.
A few are to be met with who would keep no permanent grass
at all, arguing that, with the present improvements in imple-
ments, and with the extent of draining that has been accom-
plished, it would be found far more profitable to grow a larger
extent of green crops, and bring up both horses and cattle by
stall or box- feeding, or in the farmyard. The greatest number
of our farmers are, however, only prepared to admit the advantage
of stall feeding so far as it regards l)easts to bo fattened off for
the butcher; and tiiev wholly deny that it can bo conducive to
the health of horses, or even of cows kept for milking. 'Inhere
is no questicm then, but our usual extent of permanent grass will
be kej)t up ; and, whilst this is the case, it ought to be our care
to bring the pastures into a good c<mdlti<)n. Throughout great
portions of the county they are not so at present. >k early all our

lOG Agriculture of Durliam.

efforts in draining have hitherto been expended on the tillage
lands, and a large extent of grass land remains in a cold wet
condition, producing the very rankest kinds of grass, and fre-
quently choked up with moss. It is the opinion of many ex-
perienced agriculturists that great benefit would accrue to the
county generally, if this land was drained and broken up, other
lands, which may have become tired of cropping, being laid
away in lieu thereof. A great deal of this wet grass land is not
worth above 9^. an acre, and yet much of it is situate in such
places as would lead us to expect that it might be made turnip
soil, and in a few years be trebled in value.

Live Stock. — Great attention has long been given in this
county to the breeding and rearing of all kinds of stock. We
are not so famous for our sheep as for our catde and horses.
The cattle, known by the name of the Durham short horns, or
Teeswater breed, are famed all over the kingdom. Mr. Colling,
a celebrated agriculturist in this county, has the merit of first
discovering the peculiar merits of the breed, and he, with others
in the county, bestowed great pains in improving the breed and
rearing various specimens of it, some of which were the wonder
of their day. Mr. Bailey, in his ' View of Durham Agriculture,'
gives a great deal of information as to the animals of wonderful
size, which were reared in the county from about 1780 to 1810 ;
as to the weights to which they attained, and as to the immense
sums of money which were sometimes given for them. It is
unnecessary for me to dwell on these points, any further than
may be necessary in order to draw a contrast with Avhat is
desired and accomplished in the present day. The breeders of
cattle in 1780, and for some years afterwards, looked too much
to the fattening of animals which should be esteemed curiosities
from their enormous size ; and those of the present day look
inore to practical utility and the rearing of animals, which shall
be the most profitable stock upon a farm, and supply to the,
market, at the most remunerative prices, the largest amount of
good wholesome beef for our increasing population. We seem to
think that we* have got that desideratum in the " Teeswater "
stock, for that breed is all but universal throughout the county.
I have just fallen in with a curious little book, published by
John Day in 1807, containing an account of " the late celebrated
Durham Ox." Mr. Day was the owner of it ; he bought it for
250/., and two months afterwards refused an offer of 2,000/. !
for his bargain, its weight, when he first got it, was '27 cwt.,
and in five years it increased to 34 cwt. Mr. Day in his book
gives the following particulars, which he thinks essential in the
form and shape of a perfect ox — particulars which he thought his
own possessed in the highest degree. " Head rather long, and

Agriculture of Durham. 107

muzzle fine — eyes bright and prominent — ears long and thin —
neck gently arching from the shoulders, and small close to the
head — breast broad and projecting before the legs — fore thighs
muscular and tapering to the knee — legs clean and fine boned —
back broad, straight, and flat — hips wide placed, round, and
rather higher than the back — carcase, on the whole nearly
round." These characteristics are generally developed distinctly
enough in the beautiful animals of this breed, to be met with in
the county at the present day ; and they have other good qualities
of perhaps more substantial consequence. They are moderate
eaters, quick feeders, soon come to maturity, and the beef is of
first-rate qualit}-. Tiiey are also excellent milkers, and, what
is of consequence in some places, they are very docile and quiet
to ^o about the onstead. I will not here speak of the plan of
fattening them in boxes, which is becoming so general, as I shall
have occasion to allude to it in another place.*

There are many horses bred in this county. In the midland
districts of it excellent cart or farm-horses are reared, principally
of the Cleveland breed. Further south, along the banks of the
Tees, at Gainford and other places, they breed a number of
blood horses, which often bring high prices for the saddle.
Many excellent hunters are reared in that district.

The sheep kept on the richer pastures in South Durham are
generally the Leicester ; on the iiigher and poor districts tlie
black-faced ; in the northern parts of the county the Cheviot ;
and in many places the farmers prefer a cross between the
Cheviot ewe and the Leicester tup, which has become very plen-
tiful. There is also a cross between the Cheviot and the black-
faced : indeed, an extensive cattle-dealer, who visits all parts
of the county, informs me that there are few sheep in the
county of any pure breed, but that he buys crosses of all the
breeds in existence. Some of these are greatly preferred to the
pure breeds. Pigs are bred and fattened in this county in great
numliers, not only by the farmers, but in all the colliery districts
every pitman feeds his pig, and throughout the county generally
there are few families who have not one or more. It is not pos-
sible, or jierhrips necessary, to specily the breeds, as there are
so many, and it may bf sufluicnt to atld that every kind is tried,
according to the fancy of the l)arty, and all due pains is taken to
promote their fattening ; it is a jjoint on yhich great emulation
often exists in a country village, who shall kill the heaviest pig.
Tiie general weiglit is from 20 to 30 stone, but they occasionally
reach much greater weights.

♦ This part of the report has Ik-oh oinitti'il, ilio ])laii of box-tWdiiig not being
peculiar to the county reported mi.

108 Afjr'iculturc of Durham.

A very great impetus lias been given to the breeding of stock
in this county, of late years, by the laudable exertions of the
Agricultural Associations, Avhich are very numerous throughout
the county. The Durhain Agricultural Society holds annual
meetings, and offers prizes for the best bulls, of diffei-ent ages,
of the short-horned breed ; for the best cow in milk or calf ; for
Leicester sheep, black-faced sheep ; horses, the best blood stal-
lion, the best cart and the best Cleveland stallion ; for the best
mares for breeding, saddle, harness, and draught horses ; for
the liest foals of different ages, c^c, cScc. There are Societies at
Stanhope, Barnardcastle, Darlington, Staindrop, Stockton, and
other places, which offer similar premiums.

Farm-Buildings. — In this county too many of the f^-m-
buildings are in a very indifferent state of repair, as well as in-
sufficient in size and unsuitable to the farm in their arrange-
inents. About fifty, or from that to one hundred years ago,
under the old system of farming, the buildings were generally
as poor as could well be imagined. Since then they have been
gradually getting into better condition, and much has been done
towards their impi'ovement, though they are still far from being
generally in a good state. I have now before me reports upon
47 farms on one estate, with detailed estimates of the cost of
repairs and additions required to the buildings, amounting to
the sum of 19,896/. : more than this was laid out upon them.
Besides the want of repair arising from age and neglect, the
principal cause of complaint was the insufficiency of the stabling
and byers, and their great Avant of ventilation. On many of the
farms stock could not be reared and preserved in that healthy
condition which was so requisite, in consequence of being
exposed to all the inclemencies of severe weather without
proper shelter. The principal improvements which have taken
place in the farm-buildings have been on the larger farms ; the
buildings on most of the small farms still remain in an unsatis-
factory condition. Out of 28 onsteads I have lately examined,
21 were reported upon as requiring alteration and repair.

The chief alterations which have been adopted in modern
erections, or improvements, have been to procure —

1. Additional accommodation for housing cattle, rendered
necessary by the greater number of cattle fed, and by the prefer-
ence now given by m»ny to stall-feeding over the ordinary mode
by pasturing.

2. Superior ventilation and light in stables and byers.

3. Tlie preserving of the stored crops of all kinds from
injury ; and

4. The keeping of all manure produced on the premises in its
full quantity without waste.

Af/ricultnre of Durham. 100

I will endeavour to point out how each of these objects has
been accomplished.

1. Accommodatiun for IIousiiKj Cattle. — On several farms boxes
have been erected, all well covered in, and so arranged as to
admit of perfect ventilation. A statement has been drawn up
respecting erections made on the farm of Barmston in this county,
which it may be worth while to repeat : —

" The house accommodation at present is inferior and inadequate. Where
so much has been done, it is very important that some economical mode of
construction be adopted ; and whilst we certainly should desire something of
a more permanent character, we subjoin the particulars of an estimate and
sjiccification which may be useful to landlords, as exhibiting a cheap method
of affording increased accommodation to their tenants. With care this may
last a considerable number of years, until a landlord is gradually ab'e to get
over his whole estate with buildings of a more permanent and substantial
description. The system of stall-feeding is adopted as the most economical
in first cost, and believed to be at least equally profitable, as compared with
any other in the progress of the stock. Close wooden sheds are proposed to
be erected, 15 feet wide inside, with a feeding passage in front, and a cleansing
passage behind the cattle. The sheds are to be made of home-sawn wood,
and roofed with the same, coated with coal tar. Inside they are to be fitted
in the usual nianner, with stalls, mangers, doors, &c. The whole may be so
erected at a cost of 10*'. per head, where the timber is got free on the estate.
If the value of the timber is added, the cost will be 30s. per head. A shed
70 feet long by 15 feet wid(! inside, aflbrding accommodation ibr twenty cattle
in stalls, 7 feet to each pair, will cost as follows : —

34,000 superficial feet 1-inch deal, at 12s. per 1,000 £20 8

50 larch posts, at S'7 1 13 4

40 couple sides, at 8'7. 168

20 bnulKs, at lOr/ 16 8

170 feet wall-plute, at 1'/ 14 2

170 feet runners, at A'' 071

2 barrels coal-tar, at 5s., in Durham .. .. 10

Nails 1 10

Workmanship 2 14 1

£30 0"

More permanent erections than the above for the same pin-posc
have already been erected in the county.

2. Superior Ve/iti/ation and Lif/lit in St(ib/es and Bijcrs. —
In no })art of our farm buihlin<^s has there been greater neglect
than in this. Many of tlie stables especially were without any
light or ventilation beyond what was given by the single door-
wav, «ind were besides botli small and ill-contrived. I went
through "some new stai)ling in the; county a few days ago, and
shall give a few hrief partii ulars by way of showing the imj)rove-
ments that are in course of being effected. The first point which
struck me on entering them was their "roominess." Jlu* width
was 14 feet, i> of which was the length of the stalls, .uid ."» the
passage behind the horses. There were (1 stalls, each .) leet l>

110 Agriculture of Durham.

inches in width : the height was 9 feet G inches. The floors of
the stalls have a descent of 2 inches in their length, and a
channel rUns the whole length of the stable, along which the
water passes and is conveyed by a pipe to the liquid manure
tank. The stalls are separated by a close partition, G feet high
at the head, and 4 feet 6 inches at the lower end. For ventila-
tion, cast-iron grated bricks are built in the wall at the level of
the ground in each stall, and at the head of the stalls the light
was admitted by round windows, moving on a pivot in the
centre, and therefore easily opened at any moment to increase
the ventilation. They were so placed that one served for two
stalls. The mangers, racks, and other fittings, were all of cast
iron. There was no loft above, but a coved ceiling, in which
were several passages communicating with cupolas of wood, with
sides of lattice-work, placed in the roof, by which the heated air
passed off. Another mode of ventilation, which has been adopted
with great success, is the introduction of 4-inch pipe tiles close
to the ceiling above each stall. This is a cheap and simple
method, and is said to answer perfectly the purpose, of causing a
current of air without any draught which might be injurious to
the horses.

3. The preserving of the Stored Crops. — To effect this there
have been new and improved barns and granaries for the grain
crops, and in some places sheds have been introduced to shelter
the hay. Turnips and potatoes are generally preserved in pits.

4. The keeping of all Manure imthout toaste. — Under this head
I may notice the tanks which have been constructed for the pre-
servation of the liquid manure which used (and yet is in many
places) to be all lost until a very recent period. These tanks are
becoming general, and are differently formed according to the
means or fancy of the landlord. The liquid is generally laid,
upon the grass land, and has been found very beneficial to the
fog when put on just after mowing. A plan has been introduced
in some places of laying up the manure under cover ; and gene-
rally throughout the country I see a greater disposition to pre-
serve the farmyard manure from the injurious effects of wind and
weather until it be laid into the land. I may remark here, in
regard to the use of manures, that a greater degree of care is
observed, not only in the preservation of the dung in a good
state, but also in regulating the nature and quantity of the
manure to the quality or character of the soils. For this purpose
bones in all their different forms of preparation, guano, and the
various kinds of artificial manures, are very freely used : the
latter generally with the turnip crop, though they are sometimes
sown over the land and harrowed in with other crops. For the
growth of potatoes dung is still preferred ; it is, however, well

Agriculture of Durham . Ill

mixed with ashes, where these can be procured. Lime is in
very general use, and is procured in most parts of the county
easily and of good quality. Lime, as far as I can learn, was
found of universal and inestimable benefit in all the cases of
improving common lands to which I have alluded ; and, indeed,
in the breaking up of old grass generally, it is almost always
applied : of course it does not produce the same benefit on land
which has not been drained, for it is soon washed through the
soil, and, if not taken away entirely, is deposited in a layer be-
tween the soil and the subsoil. I once heard of a curious instance
where a farmer, accustomed to go through his ordinary routine
without much inquiry as to modern improvement, or much study
as to the (to him) very " book-learned " doctrines of cause and
effect, who wondered very much that all the lime he laid on never
seemed to be increasing his crops in a similar way as those of his
neighbours. He was used to plough the usual regular depth
which his grandfather had ploughed, and he never went below ;
consequently, in the course of years, the plough had worn itself
a pretty hard road on the top of the subsoil at the poor man's
regulated depth. At length the mystery was cleared up, for
one year, venturing a little deeper than usual, he turned up a
thick layer of lime almost in the condition in which he laid
it on.

Fences and. Size of Inclosures. — There is great room for im-
provement in both these particulars. The fences are generally
growing ones, made of the thorn. In the western, or higher
district, stone walls are used. In some parts of the county they
are in good condition, but in others very bad. A great evil in
those parts of the county which have been the longest inclosed
and cultivated is, the smallncss of the inclosures (from two to six
acres) and the breadth of the fences. By both means not only
much ground is Avasted, but the drying effects of sun and air are
kept from the ground, and consequently the ripening of the crops
retarded. An antiquarian, referring to our past history, would
easily explain both the smallness of the inclosures and the pecu-
liar way in which we see the smallest of them gathered round
the various villages. Formerly the whole county was in one
vast uninclosed moor, excepting round about the towns or vil-
lages, each of which had an extent of ground round it, which
was called the " Town-field," or " Stinted Pasture," or " In- Ft 11."
The inhabitants did not do muc h in cultivating either grain or
green crops beyond what tin; stern necessities of nature would
enforce, tlierefore each individual inclosed his little patch of
tillage ground as near to liis door as he could get it ; and in addi-
tion to this tillage garth he had one or more "ox fjam/s'^ or
"stmts" upon the pasture; and an unlimited range upon the

112 Agriculture of Durliam.

"Out Fell" was open to liim if he possessed an adventurous
spirit; but the " Out Fell " was the " unsettled territory " in
those days, into which iew would venture their cattle for fear of
the " inroads of the Scots."

Implements. — There is not much to notice in regard to the
implements in use in this county, because, so far as I know, we
have nothing but what is already well known, from being in
■common use throughout the kingdom. I may say, however, that
under this head also considerable improvements are taking place
in the county, Tlie implements, which at one time used to be
of the plainest and roughest class, are beginning to assume a
different character, and those of modern invention or improve-
ment are getting into use. The ordinary swing ploughs are in
use, and seldom those with wheels. The ordinary rollers, made
of wood and stone, are made heavy and invariably drawn by a
pair of horses. Crosskill's clod-crusher is used and much
approved. If it could be manufactured at a smaller price than
16/. to 20Z. it would be a great benefit to the small farmers of
this county. The ordinary teethed-harrows are used, and the
improved grubbers and scarifiers have been introduced, though
not brought into general use. Turnip and other drills have long
been in ordinary use. There are few farms in the county remain-
in"- without a threshing-machine: the most of them are worked
by horses, but in a few cases steam-power has been introduced.
The carts are generally of light and improved construction. We
do not see one of the heavy waggons here which are in use in
more southern counties. The small implements are just as in
other places, and it would not be necessary to refer more par-
ticularly to implements, machines, or utensils of the most modern
invention, such as chaff cutters, turnip sheers, linseed and chaff
steamers, weighing machines, &c. &c., which have not come
into cominon use, but which have all been introduced into the
county by a few of our improving farmers.

Charges upon the Farms : Tithes. — I cannot give any correct
idea of the tithes without more research than I can spare time
for, and more space than it would be desirable to give in this
report, they vary so much throughout the county. In some
parishes or townships all kinds of tithe had been paid ; in others,
corn-tithe ; in others, no corn-tithe but hay ; in some, moduses :
in others, small tithes only ; so that there was no sort of regu-
larity throughout the county. The operations of the Tithe
Commutation Act were carried out in 297 townships or districts
within the county, and generally with great satisfaction. The
rent-charges were, upon the whole, settled with the best feeling
between tithe-owner and land-owner, there being little or no dis-
pute in all cases as to the amount of tithes paid during the seven

Agriculture of DurJiam. 113

years, tlie average of wbich was to form the data for fixln:^ the
rent-charge.

Summary of Tithes commuted in tlic County of Durliam i;p to
Jamiar}' 1, 1852.

Xumber of Townsliips commuted, 297.
ricnt-cliar2;es payable to

Clerical appropriators, or their lessees .. .. £11,273 2 2^

Parochial incumbents 28,070 11 82

Lav impropriators 14,118 1^

Schools, colleges, &c 4,702 1 4-i-

Total £58,163 15 5

Poor Rates. — These are not considered high generally in this
county, though the folloAving statement shows a very large
increase in the amount raised within the last seventy years. "^The
number of parishes in Durham is 310, all comprised in 14 poor
law unions : —

Total Amount raised in the County for the Relief of the Poor.

1776 £10,880 17 2

Average of 1783, 1784, and 1785 22,063 5 2

1803 67,517 16

1846 94,006

1851 94,793 16

1852 106,847 19

Hirihrcay Rates. — The highway assessment in this county is
generally for a sum exceeding 24,000/. The rates vary so much
in the different townships that I cannot pretend to give them. In
1850 tliere was 22,577/. raised in money, and 1,940/. in team
work and other labour performed in lieu of rates. The income
of the turnpike trusts in Durham, which is raised by tolls, a
large proportion of which is paid by the farmers, amounted in
1847 to 2G,71G/. ; and in 1850, to 21,985/.— a falling off caused
no doubt by the increased traffic on the railways.

Prices of Labour and Piece-work in this County.
A hind's wages — 12s. and L3.s. a-weck, with cottage found, and
sometimes a garden or potato ground.

A laliourer 2s. and 2s. 6^^ per day.

Women working in the field lOd. „

Children 4t/. and 6'/. ,,

A jilouKhing 7s. 0(/. per acre.

A double-horse harrowing 2s. 6(/. ,,

Cleaning and spreading dung 3s. 6(/. „

Kolling Is. Or/. „

Sowing seed Is. 0(/. ,,

Stoning and briishing grass Is. 6(/. „

Cutting clover 3s. 6(/. „

Manure 2s. 6(7. to 3s. C\d. ]>er loat'.

Slicaring and bin<ling wheat .. .. 10s. 0^/. jwr acre.

A sin'^le-horse cart 4s. 6(7. to 5s. Ot/. per day.

A double ditto Os. 0(7. to 8s. 0(7. „

VOL. XVII. 1

114 Agriculture of Dnrlicim.

Draining. — I have already mentioned incidentally, whilst con-
sidering other things, that there was a sad want of draining in
this county. It must not be supposed, however, that no efforts
have been made to alleviate this evil ; on the contrary, a great
deal has been done, but the misfortune was so much was required
to be done that it will be some time before our efforts will take
effect upon the general character of the county. There is some-
thing in the peculiar formation of the strata of this county which
seems to have a tendency to make it more wet than others. Mr.
Granger, an eminent agriculturist in his day, published a report
on Durham some years before Mr. Bailey's, and in his report he
has a map of the county coloured according to the stratification,
and 1 see he calls the strata of almost the whole county " icater-
shaken" doubtless from the peculiarly l)roken up nature of it,
and from its being filled with water. Where the coal has been
wrought near to the surface, and the water coming into the
colliery through the fissures in the strata has been pumped up
and conveyed away, then the district around is no worse than
others ; but if the coal has not been wrought or having been
wrought if the colliery has ceased, and the old w:orkings are filled
up with water which bars no sufficient outlet, then, in either case,
the water must find its way to the surface. There is a great \a,-
riety of modes of draining practised in Durham : the tiles and
pipes are generally used, but they are laid at almost all depths
and distances apart. A very experienced man who has been a
drainer upwards of thirty years recommends 30 inches deep and
18 feet apart, with 36 inches deep for the main drains. These
dimensions are, perhaps, most in use in this county. On the
estates of Lord Dui'ham 14,000/. have been expended in drainage
by the landlord, for which the tenants are charged at the rate of
5 per cent. ; besides which, the tenants themselves have occa-
sionally done something. A farmer, who occupies land belong-
ing to his lordship, stated not long ago in a public meeting, that
he had drained land himself at an expense of from 10/. to 11/.
per acre. Another tenant stated at the same meeting that for
some years he laid out from 100/. to 150/. a-year in draining.
Lord Durham finding only the tiles ; he thought, however, that
two crops paid him back all his money. On the estates of the
late Sir Thomas John Clavering, also, a large amount of draining
has been executed. Within a short time above 1000/. were ex-
pended : he also charged the tenants 5 per cent. On the estates
of most of the other large land-owners large sums have been
expended, but on none of them, perhaps, has there been a more
liberal expenditure in draining and improvements generally than
on the estates of John Bowes, Esq. ; and I think it only an act
of justice to make known his liberality, .both as an example to

Agriculture of Durham.

115-

others, and as a refutation, at once complete and undeniable, to
the often repeated calumny, that " there is little done in Durham
for the improvement of the land." Mr. Bowes possesses three
large estates in this county, and I am enabled to present the fol-
lowing particulars of his outlay in improving them : —

Streatlau Estate, in South Durbam, the property of John Bowes, Esq. —
Amount expended in the Improvement of this Estate from 1841 to 1853
inclusive.

Expended

ou

■ Expended in

Year.

Building

s.

Draining.

1841

£279 3

6

£230

8 1

1842

518 18

6

234

13 4

1843

1226 19

3

707

14 4

1844

1504 18

3

810

19 7

1845

284 2

9

544

17

184G

290 14

5

250

6 8

1847

13J6 6

3

583

5

1848

1349 5

133

18 9

1849

1196 16

1

3 8

1850

1160 17

7

53

18

1851

823 4

4

389

4 3

1852

, 856 4

9

813

5 9

1853

1256 5

8

1444

14 4

£12,073 16

3

£6,198

2

Amount of Government grant also expended]
in addition to the above, in draining on the
Streatlam estates during the five years pre- j
vious to February, 1853 -'

5,000

£11,198 2

GiBSmE Estate, in North Durham, the property of John Bowes, Esq. —

Amount expended in Improvements on tlie Farm Buildings, &c., from

1842 to 1853 inclusive.

Amount
Year. Expended.

1842

1843

1844

1H45

1846

1847

184H

1849

. 1850

1851

1852

1853

£607

3

Hi

1266

12

yi

582

19

1

251

13

9

411

14

8

156

16

24

1131

7

3

440

16

G

1586

14

7

484

2

3

551

2

4

245

3

11

£7716

i2

116 Agriculture of Durham.

Hyltox Estate, in North Durliam, the property of John Bowes, Esq. —
Amount expended in the Improvement of this Estate from 1842 to ISSS
inchisive.

Year.

1842
1843
1844
1845
1846
1847
1848
1849
1850
1851
1852
1853

£3176 7 9 £8777 2 9

Total Amount expended by Mr. Bowes on the Improvement of his
Durham Estates.

Expended on

Expended In

Buildings.

Draining.

£101 7 7

£345 4 6

206 2 1

745 16 91

182 17 8

735 16 2i

295 1 11

767 9

162 7 7

940 14 2

216 3 10

956 14 4-

100 9 3

1068 7 7

861 4 1

1016 15 11

514 9 1

810 15 8

292 13 10

701 13 9

106 11

566 1 3

137 9 11

121 13 8

Strcatlam Estates

/Buildino;s .. .. £12,073 16 3
\Draining .. .. 11,198 2

Gibside Estate . . .. BuiWings .. .. 7,716 7 3t

TT u -p w (Buiklinos .. .. 3,176 7 9

Hylton Estate .. in • • " Q^-'7'7 o

"^ IDrammg .. .. 8,(^7 2

9

Total .. .. £42,941 16 Of

At Streatlam, .during the first five years, the drains were cut
from 2 to 3 feet deep and from G to 9 yards apart. The remainder
was put in 4 feet deep and from 36 to 40 feet apart. The
tenants lead the materials and pay 7 per cent, on the landlord's
outlay. No interest is charged on the large amount expended
on the improvement of the buildings. The farms here are
generally let from year to year. This estate many years ago had,
from various causes, got into a very bad condition during the
lifetime of the late Earl of Strathmore, and the trustees, during
Mr. Bowes's minority, laid out from 20,000/. to 30,000/. upon
the estate, previous to and altogether irrespective of the above
liberal outlay by Mr. Bowes himself. Upon the Gibside estate
the draining has just been commenced under the " Private
Money Drainage Act." Not another word need be added to set
forth the laudable attention of this gentleman to the improvement
of that portion of the county of Durham which belongs to him.

The expense of draining is so very uncertain —altogether de-
pending upon local circumstances, that it is impossible to give
an accurate account of it. It may, however, be useful to give
some ideas respecting it by the following exact account of the
expense of draining a field containing 11a. 1r. 20p. executed in
this county not long ago.

Ayricultare of Durham. 117

The Actual Cost of Draining a Field in the County of Durham,
containing 11 acres, 1 rood, 20 poles.

Drain along top, 59 roods, 4 feet deep, at Is. Zd. .. £3 13 9
Tile drains —

24 roods of main drains, 3 feet deep, at Is. .. 14

406 roods of furrow drains, 32 inches deep, at 7 J. 13 6

50 do. do. 30 inches deep, at Qd. 15
"Stone drains —

30 roods of main drains, 3 feet deep, at 8(?. and Qd. 117
Cost of pipe tiles—

10,660 pipes, at IGs. per 1000 8 11

590 No. 3 tiles, at 3s. Gr/. per 100 10 7

420 No. 2 tiles, at 2s. 6t/. per 100 10 6

7 yards of socketed water pipes, at od. per

yard 19

Labour —

Leading materials G 11 4

£37 5 6

Before leavin^^ the subject of draining I would beg to direct
•attention to a point wiiich has, I fear, been partially neglected in
draining particular districts of country — I mean the condition of
the main or trunk drain. I do not refer to the main drains laid
in a farm or in a range of fields, but to tlie stream or river which
forms the main drain of an entire district. I would point out
"the evil I allude to by reference to a case in this county which I
have in view. Down the middle of a valley, with a large extent
of sloping country rising up on each side, runs a stream, wliich
is the main or trunk drain for many hundred acres of land lying
on either hand of it. On each side of the stream there is a good
"breadth of haugh land, which stretches across, pretty level, from
the foot of one sloping ground to the foot of the other. All the
drains of the district must necessarily have their final outlet in
this stream, which in turn has its outlet in a river up which the
tide (lows. Tlie velocity of this valley stream is very trilling,
with occasionally places (jf almost dead level, for two miles or
more previous to its reaching its outlet. Thence arises the
practical evil. The tide flowing up the river meets every wet
season a Hood of water rolling sluggishly down this stream and
dams up its outlet. The flood thus pent up spreads over the
haugh lands, and for many days together they present the ap-
pearance (>f a lake — very Ix'autiful to the eye, but most dis-
heartening to the I'armer, for liis lands are half covered, his drains
are all stopped, and they are often permanently disordered, filled
up witii sediment and stopped. A remedy, or at least an allevi-
ation of the evil is verv apjiarent. The stream twists through
the haughs like the writhiugs of a serpent. Cut off some of the
sfolds and you miglit shorten its length l)y one-hall, and thus in-

118 Agriculture of Durham.

crease the velocity of the current and carry the floods quicker
away.

General and concludinf/ remarks. — What remains to be said is
a summing up of the substance of my Report, including a state-
ment of the changes which have taken place since 1810, the date
of Mr. Bailey's Report, and of the further changes or improve-
ments which seem to be required.

I will attempt to do this very briefly, A considerable pre-
judice exists against Durham farming ; it has been styled the
worst in the kingdom, and the landlords have been accused of
doing: little or nothing: for their estates. I admit that the ave-
rage state of the farms in this county is behind the condition of
farms in other counties ; but I have broken down the force of
the charge — 1st, by alleging five good and substantial reasons
why we should have expected it to be so, or, as I before ex-
pressed it, five obstacles to the improvement of agriculture in this
county ; and 2ndly, by proving (which, I think, I have done very
completely) that a groat deal has been done in the shape of im-
provement ; and, therefore, that the charge of bad farming is
rather more applicable to our predecessors in the county, during a
generation or two ago, than to ourselves, inasmuch as we have made
great efforts, and are already treading upon the heels of more
advanced agriculturists.

The changes, in the shape of improvement, since Mr. Bailey's
time, I think to be these : —

1. A large extent of common lands divided, and a large por-
tion of them brought into a state of cultivation, and rendered
of very much increased value.

2. A large amount of draining effected throughout the county,
by which the average produce of ail crops has been increased,
and turnips and other green crops are now grown where out
forefathers never grew them.

3. A great improvement in the state of the farm-buildings ;
and

4. An improved course of cropping arising out of the draining,
which prepared the Avay for the introduction of green crops, and
made it possible to do away with the objectionable practice of
taking two corn crops in succession.

The improvements which we should earnestly seek in future
years may be said to be principally these : —

1. The enfranchisement of all the Church leasehold property.
I have received several letters asking me to urge this on the at-
tention of all concerned ; and, since writing the earlier portion
of this Report, I have had a long conversation on the subject

A'jriculturc of Durham. 119

with a <Tentieman who farms in the nei2;hbourhoocI of Gateshead ;
he tells me that his farm averages 3/. 155. an acre, the taxes
amountin!^' to another 1/. : and that another farm adjoining to his
being to let, he was asked to take it, and offered 21. an acre, on
condition that it should be 'drained. " No," replied the agent

immediately, " jMr. 7ieve7' icill drain those leasehold lands."

Here was at once a proof of the injury done to agriculture in
Durham by the existence of this property, in which nobody feels
possessed of any pei'manent interest,

Tlie lessee has no encouragement to improve ; for, though he
possessed a lease, he knew that upon his expending money on
the property he would (upon the next renewal) have to pay over
again for his own improvements in the shape of an increased
fine, fixed from the annual value of the property after the im-
provements are added.

In the case just alluded to, the lands being near to a large and
rapidly-increasing town, could, on being drained, have been
easily raised to the value of 4/, per acre, and now they cannot
be let for 21. Surely no further proof is required of the great
advantage likely to accrue from the enfranchisement of this
property.

2. Tlie extension of the draining operations, so as to include
not only the tillage lands, but all those held with them, which are
in permanent grass.

3. The improvement of the permanent meadows and pastures
after drainin/j by ploughing out large portions now badly laid
away, taking care that a sufficient quantity is laid down in lieu
thereof.

4. Tlie extension of the plan of Stall-feeding Cattle. — By this
method a great deal more stock can be fed on the farms than by
pasturing. There is a quicker turning over of the farmer's
capital. By an increased stock, and by the purchase of linseed,
oil-cako, and other food not produced on the farm, the quantity
of manure as well as its quality, is greatly increased ; and con-
sequently, the farmer is able to bring his lands into a richer
state.

All that is necessary to accomplish the general adoption of
this plan is the draininr/, by wliich turnips will be produced ; and
a little addition to the farm-buildings. From all the information
I have received I h.ave not the sliadow of a doubt of its being
pn)n table to the tenant, and therefore of advantage to the land-
lord too.

5. The planting of a large quantity of land in various dis-
tricts. — I should, according to proper order, have referred to this
before : I left it until now, because I had much to say upon it,
but it should foUow, and I liave no (loul)t icould follow, imino-

120 Agriculture of Durliam.

iliately after the enfranchisement of the leasehold lands. Even
on the freehold lands there might be much planted with advan-
tage. I have taken some pains to watch the effects of planting ixi.
other counties, and have for many years been of opinion that it
was a great oversight of the landowners in Durham to leave so
much of the county in that naked and bare condition in which it
has so long stood. I believe one reason why more has not been
planted is, that gentlemen who have planted have thought it an
expensive and unprofitable undertaking. But there has been, I
conceive, a grand mistake committed in most of the planting
Avhich has been undertaken, A proprietor, resolving on making
some plantations, sets out some long narrow belts, requiring, it
may be, some miles of fencing, the very expense of which is
enough to sink the undertaking at once, and having put in his
trees, there he leaves them to the care of Nature and the weather.
A different system should be adopted. We should set out with
two leading principles in our mind, or, as I might say, with two
important objects to be accomplished ; 1st. That if extensive
Avoods were reared in certain places, they would not only use up
a quantity of land which does not now pay for cultivation ; but
they would, by the shelter they afforded, raise the value of the
adjoining lands (as some think) 20 per cent. I have no doubt
that, if done in connection with the draining and other improve-
ments previously referred to, we might say, in certain localities,
from 30 to 40 per cent. 2nd. That, if properly attended to, a
crop of timber is just as profitable as all the crops of grain or
green food which might have been produced upon the land during
all the years that the wood would stand. This may be thought,
perhaps, a strong assertion, but I think facts and experience will
fully bear it out ; and the reason it has not been made more
manifestly apparent is just the fact already referred to, viz, : the
trees are not looked after as a crop worth cultivating, but are just
left, in too many instances, after being planted,, to care for them-
selves. It is the fashion in the county of Durham, when talking
on this subject, to refer to Chopwell woods, situate within the
county, as a standing example or warning against planting. I
may, therefore, be allowed to refer to them, and indeed the great
importance of the subject now under consideration will fully
justify a little more space before concluding my Report. The
Chopwell woods, situate in the Vale of Derwent, are the property
of the Crown, and contain 89G acres. They have been for years
notoriously under a neglected management. The trees are oak,
ash, elm, sycamore, beech, birch, and alder. The land is a
strong stiff clay with mixture of sand veins, and is full of wa4er.
These woods were in so bad a state that, on an examination made
a few years ago, 779 acres were recommended to be wholly

Agriculture of Durham. 121

cleared, in order that the land might he projicrly drained. The
net revenue derived from these woods was : —

£. s. d.
In 1849 75 2 3

1850 105 4 11

1851 237 15 9

1852 300 15

1853 C87 7

So far, then, from the state of Chopwell Woods being any good
argument against the recommendation I desire to make, it gives
us, I think, an argument of a contrary tendency ; for the facts it
fully bears out are: 1. That want of draining and neglect of
the trees has been the sole cause of ill success ; and 2. That
even with that great disadvantage the revenue is a progressively
increasing one.

In order to point out the advantage of that system of planting
which I recommend, 1 may refer to another locality in the
county, where the plan is being tried. In Quarrington, Coxhoe,
Thrislington, and the neighbouring district, there is a large pro-
portion of lands worth to rent 2^. 6f/. an acre. Tliey are
moderately dry and would not require so much draining as land
in some other parts. An acre would be sufficiently drained for
plantations by open drains at something like the following

cost: —

£. s. J.

380 yards, open drains, at ItZ. a yard 1 11 8

35 yards, main drains, at 2(/. a yard 5 10

1 17 6

At Thrislington about 100 acres were planted with larch
several years ago, the ex])ense of planting, including trees, being
bOs. per acre. VVlien the trees came to 12 years growth Scotch
kyloes were pastured amongst them : they were found to do no
harm to the trees, and 1 am told it is remarkable how well they
fattened, the pasturage was so good. I cannot say, however, that
I would recoinuicnd cattle being put in so early as 12 years; at
15 or 20 years more trees will have been tliinned out, and during
the last 20 years of the term of 40, during which the larch will
stand, the pasturage will be easily available, and undoubtedly of
value. At Tlnislington the larch were planted after clover, so
that the ground was in better state than after any grain croj).
One ordinary ploutjhing was all tlie work bestowed on the land
previous to planting the trees. Larch has been strongly recom-
mended by inanv competent judges as that species of tree which
will thrive best and grow tlie quickest in the soil and climate of
our county. There is also a great and increasing demand for
larch timber in the collirrv districts.

122 Agriculture of DurJiam.

Let me now conclude by giving a comparative financial state-
ment, which, I think, will very strongly enforce the recommenda-
tion, that large quantities of land in this county should be
planted.

Prospective Valuation of tlie Amount to be realized by planting 100 Acres of
Land with Larch.

Planted 1854, Avith 2,700 trees per acre, or in all 270,000.

£. s. d.
In 1864 thin out 500 per acre, sold at a net profit of

Id. each 208 G '

In 1869 thin out 500 per acre, at a net profit of 2d. each 416 12

In 1874 thin out 500 per acre, at a netprofit of 4fi. each 833 4

In 1879 thin out 500 per acre, at a net profit of 8(Z. each 1,666 8

In 1890 thin out 250 per acre, at a net profit of 4s. each 5,000

In 1892 thin out 250 per acre, at a net profit of 5s. each 6,250
In 1894 there would be 20,000 trees left standing well

worth, on an average, deducting expenses, of 10s. each 10,000

£24,374 10
Deduct —

£. s. d.
Loss of agricultural rent, 100 acres at 3s.

]ier acre, for 40 years 600

Expense of draining and planting 100 acres,

at, say 5Z. per acre 500

Woodkeeper's wages, 2080 weeks at 14s. 1456

Expenses of selling wood 118 10

■ 2,674 10

Extra profit derived from the 100
acres £21,700

If my estimate be correct, the proprietor, or his heir, at the end
of 40 years, will be in possession of no less than 21,700/. more
than he Avould have been under the old system ; and in addition,
after the roots are stubbed up, and the lands receive a moderate
degree of good treatment in the shape of manure, he will have
his 100 acres of land in a better condition for agricultural purposes
than it was when he commenced.*

I have now completed my task ; whether it shall be successful
or not I cannot tell ; but this much I may be allowed to state,

* With reference to the above estimate, it must be remembered that, on very
poor land, out of 2700 trees per acre, a large number would never grow to have
any pecixniary value. I am informed by an experienced planter, that in the
South of England ti'ees must grow very well for 500 to be taken out in the first 20
years worth on the average 3(/. each, vinless the best were taken out ; and that
•where carriage is expensive, poles of 40 years' growth do not often fetch more than
from 2s. to 3.s. &d. each. Proximity to railways, to the sea-coast, or to coabpits^
may perhaps raise the price in Durham, but it must be remembered that tlie land
here spoken of is assumed to be worth no more than 3s. per acre. — T. D. Acland.

Agriculture of Durham. 123

with all respect for the Royal Agricultural Society, that I have
been as much induced to undertake it, by a desire to set the
agriculturists of the county of Durham in a right position before
their brother farmers throughout the kingdom, as by any wish to
obtain the prize, however great may be the honour of doing so.
Gratitude and friendship weigh much with me. My family ^or
many (jenerations have been connected with the agriculture of
Durham and Northumberland. All that we have had, and all
that we now possess of earthly goods, we owe to it — to the kind
patronage of the landowners, and the good-feeling and hearty co-
operation of the tenants. Take them all together, there does not
exist a more honourable and liberal body of proprietors, or a more
honest and industrious body of tenantry than prevails in those two
counties, and I should not be worthy of the ability to take up a
pen, if I did not feel it at once a pleasure and a duty to use it
in favour of these, my best friends, so far as the sacred require-
ments of truth would allow me.

V. — On the Composition of the Waters of Land-Drainage and
of Rain. By J. Tll0:\rAS Way, Consulting Chemist to the
Society.

I HAVE for some time past been anxious to institute an exa-
mination of the waters of land-drainage v/ith the view of ascer-
taining whether the advantages derived Avere attended by an inci-
dental loss of manuring matter carried off in the drains, and if
so, to what extent this loss might occur. Such an examination
would seem to follow naturally the inquiries in which I have
been heretofore engaged, in respect to the absorptive properties
of soils for manure. It is the object of this paper to commu-
nicate such results as have up to this time been obtained. As
however an inquiry of this kind involves much time and labour,
the results now given must be considered as an instalment only,
and considerable caution will be needed in their application. I
propose to point out the general bearing which tl.ev have ; but
it must be left to future inquiry to settle questions of detail.

The valual)le cfrects of land-drainage are well known, and
have been repeatedly exjilaincd ; they are partly physical, partly
chemical. The chemical clfects, with which alone we have
now to- occupy ourselves, are consequent chiefly upon the free
admission of air which follows the removal of water previously
filling the interstices of the soil. This air, by virtue of the
oxygen it contains, gives rise to the decomjiosition of organic
matter, such as tlie decayini; roots of plants, c^t,, or that which

124 Composition of Waters of Land-Drainafjc and of Rain.

in the shape of manure has been added to the soil ; the carbonic
-acid so formed, assisted by that which naturally exists in the
xiir, gradually breaks down and decomposes the minerals of which
the soil is composed, rendering them soluble and available for
vegetation. In a similar way, of course, it affects such mineral
substances as may be added in manure. In this manner, there-
fore, drainage produces a more abundant supply of different
substances necessary for the growth of plants. But as the water
which passes through soils in its way to the drains would carry
away with it everything which, under such circumstances, it
was capable of dissolving, and as in the absence of any cause
operating to prevent it, this water would also remove all the
soluble matters of manure, it becomes of great importance to
*iscertain whether there really are any preservative causes at work
to counteract so very serious a mischief.

This question has been, to a great extent, answered in the
afhrmative, by the discovery of the absorptive property of soils,
which enables them to convert into comparatively insoluble com-
pounds all, or nearly all, those salts which are valuable as
manure. From these experiments we should predicate that
■drainage-water would contain a certain portion of all those sub-
stances which are necessary to vegetation, because some degree
of solubility is indispensable to everything which is to form the
food of plants ; but we should not expect to find them in such
<j^uantity as would be the case were there no provision for their
retention by the soil itself.

We shall presently see how far these anticipations are borne
out by the result. To obtain a clear notion of the effect of
drainage upon the soluble matters of the soil we shall do well to
consider separately the following points: —

First, The quantity of rain that falls, and how much of that
<juantity finds its way into the drains.
Second, The composition of this water.

Third, Where the substances (if any) contained in drainage-
water are derived from ; and.

Fourth, What circumstances are likely to increase or diminish
the waste from such cause.

1st. The quantity of rain fallinfi and percolating throur/k soils. —
The rain-fall, as every one knows, varies very much in different
places. As regards Great Britain, the quantity of rain falling in
the west considerably exceeds that which has been observed in
the east and centre. Thus I find the following stated as the
average annual fall of rain, in inches, in some of the western
counties, from north to south, of the kingdowi : — *

* Morton's 'Cyclopsedia of Agriculture,' article 'Climate,' page 475. I have
omitted fractions in the quotations above.

Composition of Waters of Land- Drainage and of Rain. 125

Cornwall, 38; Gloucester, 30; Lancashire, 34; Bute, 38i ;
Orkney, 41, These numbers would give us for the West of
Enijland, taken collectively, an average of something more than
364 inches per annum as the rain-fall.

On the other hand the quantity falling in the eastern and mid-
land counties is thus given : — Suffolk 23];, Middlesex 25, Notting-
ham 25, Fife 31, Perth 24 — giving an average for these counties
of 25^ inches. But besides these general distinctions which apply
more or less to the whole of the two opposite sides of this island,
there are local variations of every imaginable character due to
height above the sea, the neighbourhood of hills, or to the form
which currents of air assume at different places, &c. &c. It is
notorious to every one that the quantity of rain which falls, and
the way in which it is distributed — whether in large quantity at
distant intervals, or in continually recurring showers — are dif-
ferent in almost every different locality. The period of the year
has also an influence on the quantity of rain that falls ; it is
generally greatest in the autumn and least in the spring. But
although, no doubt, »11 these circumstances would have to be
taken into account, if we were attempting a very accurate estimate
of the result of drainage, they need hardly trouble us here, since
some general and wide deductions are all that we are at liberty
to form from the data at our disposal. I shall assume for the
sake of argument a rain-fall of 25 inches, both because it is a
convenient number and because it fairly represents the quantity
observed in the districts from which my principal samples of
drainage-water were collected.

By calculation we find that 25 inches of rain over an acre of
land is equal to 5<J7,1(>S gallons, or about 2532 tons a year — a
quantity which is enormous, but Avhich must be increased by
nearly one-half for the western counties and to a still greater
extent for Ireland.

Let us now see what proportion of this amount finds its way
into the drains under ordinary circumstances. There have been,
no doubt, direct observations of the quantity of water running in
tlie drains of a given area of land, and 1 have found some of
those mentioned in different books. If you could do it, there is
no question that tlie surest wav of getting at this result would be
to gauge the drainage-water escaping from a certain number of
acres of land at the same time that you ascertained by the
ordinarv rain-gauge tlie Cjuantitv of rain falling. But such a
method" seems open to mucii doubt from tlie uncertainty as to
whether in some cases part of the water mav not esiape by other
means than the drains, or, on the other hand, its quantity be in-
creased by soakage from external sources. It appears to me that
the best nu)de of forming an (stimate on this subject, is that

12G Composition of Waters of Land- Drainage and of Rain.

which was adopted by Mr. Parkes,* founded on the observations
of Mr. Dickinson, the eminent paper-maker. That gentleman
had for many years kept registers of the ordinary and Dalton
rain-gauge. The object of the last named instiument is to ascer-
tain the quantity of rain which peneti'ates the soil to a given
depth. Now it must be remembered that although all the rain
that falls must necessarily be disposed of somewhere, there is
another influence besides filtration at work, and that is evapora-
tion. In the hot seasons of the year a great deal of water is thus
thrown back into the air, and this is especially the case where,
as in ordinary agriculture, the land is covered with plants, which
taking up the moisture of the soil by their roots, exhale it by
their leaves, and thus most materially increase the ordinary
evaporation from the soil.f

The Dalton rain-gauge consists of a metallic vessel of about 3
feet deep, sunk into the ground, level with the surrounding earth,
but furnished with a rim to prevent the passage into it of any
water except that which absolutely falls upon its surface. It is
made — like other rain-gauges — of a givea superficial area, but
the chief peculiarity in it is, that it is filled with earth, so as to
represent the soil with which it is desired to compare the results.
In the case liow alluded to, the soil in the gauge was covered
during the whole period with grass.

An arrangement is made by which the water which penetrates
to the l)ottom of the earth — a distance of 3 feet — is measured at
stated periods, as in the ordinary gauge. Now as evaporation
from the surface will dispose of some portion of the water which
falls in rain, it is obvious that the quantity which penetrates to
the bottom of the Dalton gauge would be less than that collected
in an ordinary gauge. In fact the results of this gauge are the
measure of the quantity which, in a similar soil drained to the
same depth, would be disposed of by the drains. We have but
to compare the indications of the two gauges for any given period,
to know at once how much of the rain-fall is thrown into the
air by evaporation, and how much runs off by the drains. The
use made by Mr. Dickinson of this register was in no way con-
nected with agriculture, but the results are precisely such as we
should desire to possess in dealing with the question in hand.

In a Table, which I here take the liberty to reprint, Mr. Parkes
gives the quantity of rain and percolation in each year of a series
of 8 years, as ascertained in Mr. Dickinson's gauges. In the
5th column the quantities are given in tons per acre : —

* See his ' Essays on the Philosophy and Art of Land Drainage ;' Journal of
the Royal Agricultural Society of England, Vol. V., Part I.

t Messrs. Lawes and Gilbert, who have made some experiments on this subject,
found that the quantity of water thus exhaled from a given space of ground is
very large indeed, amounting to more than 100 times the weight of the crop at the
time of maturity.

Composition of Waters of Land-Draiiiage and of Rain. 127

Table I. — Pvain-fall, Evaporation, and Filtration in each of 8 years (Parkes).

Yc'iirs.

Evaporation. Rain per Acre.

1836
1837
1838
1839
1840
1841
1842
1843

Inches.

Per cent.

31-0

56 9

21-10

32-9

23-13

37-0

31-28

47-6

21-44

38-2

32-10

44-2

26-43

44-4

20-47

36-0

IVr ci'ut.

Tons.
3139
2137
2342
316S
2171
3251
2676
2680

Mean

20-61

42-4

57-6

2095

It will be seen that of the whole water falling in rain, 42'4
per cent., or, in round numbers, 2-5ths passes through to the
drains. This number is the average of 8 years, which vary
within rather wide limits, being in one case as low as 33, in
another as high as 57.

At first sight it does not appear why this should be the case,
but a little consideration makes it evident. In heavy rains,
and when the soil is already saturated with moisture, all the
water which fulls, if it does not flow over the surface, will find
its way into the drains, there being, at such times, little oppor-
tunity for evaporation. When, however, the rains are frequent,
and comparatively light, with intervals of warm sunshine, the
quantity of water which would suffice to saturate the land is
carried off by evaporation before the next shower, and none at all
reaches the drains. Thus, as each year has its own peculiar distribu-
tion of heat and sunshine, so it will be with regard to percolation.

This is well shown by the following Table, taken from Mr.
Parkes' s Essay be; fore quoted.

Table II. — !Mean llain-fall, Evaporation, and I'iltratiou and Evaporation in
each month (8 years). — (Parkes.)

Rain.

Filtration.

EvafKjrallun. l-iltration.

Kvaporatiiin.

•January

February

March

April .. .. ♦ ..

May

June

July

Au<5ust ..
September

October

November ..
December

Iticlies.
1-847
1-971
1-617
1-450
1-850
2-213
2-287
2-427
2-6:39
2-823
3-837
1-641

Jnclietj.
1-307
1*547
1-077
0-306
0*108
0-039
0-042
0-036
0*369
1-400
3-258
1-805

Inches.
0-540
0-424
0-540
1-150
1-748
2*174
2-245
2-391
2*270
1-423
0-579
0*164

I'er cent.

70-7

78*4

66-6

21-0

5-8

1-7

1-8

1-4

13-9

49-5

84-9

lOO-O

I'er cent.
29-3
21-6
33-4
79-0
94-2
98-3
98-2
98-6
86-1
50-5
15-1
00-0

Mean of ei^dit years

26-614

11-294

15-320

4.-4

57-6

128 Composition of Waters of Land-Drainar/e and of Rain.

In the 4th and 5th columns we have the percentage of filtration
and evaporation in the different months of the year, and we find
that in the three first and three last months in the year, the water
which is disposed of by filtration, greatly exceeds that which
escapes by evaporation ; whilst in the summer months, if we may
so call the six intermediate ones, the quantity of drainage-water
is reduced to a very low point, and in those of May, June, July,
and August, it is practically insignificant. Nor must this be
thought foreign to our subject, for, inasmuch as the decomposi-
tions which occur in the soil, are, in a great degree, modified by
the temperature and the degree of moisture ; and as these are
concerned in the liberation of elements of vegetation, which
might be supposed to be removed by drainage, it is impor-
tant to bear in mind that the flow of water through a soil is
not uniform in the different months of the year, but is in fact
very much greater at those seasons when the activity of vege-
tation and of decomposition in the soil is in great measure
suspended.

For our present purposes we shall, therefore, assume that 42'4:
per cent, of all the water falling from the heavens filtrates
through the soil. It is obvious, that if we kn^w the rain-
fall of any locality in inches, it is easy to calculate approxi-
mately the number of gallons of water which, in the course
of twelve months, will drain from an acre of land. I say ap-
proximately, because it has already been seen that it is by
the distribution of the rain-fall, rather than the quantity
which falls, that the amount of drainage-water is regulated.
It is well indeed that we should, once for all, observe, that
however elaborately an examination of this question of the
composition of drainage-water might be carried out, the results
at the veiy best can only be general. It is practically impossible
that any collection of specimens should furnish the data for a
rigid determination of the truth. We cannot collect the whole
drainage of the year of any considerable portion of land, and as
we know from reasoning that its composition must be continually
varying, samples taken from time to time, however frequently,
cannot by possibility be supposed to I'epresent the whole year.*

* It would be indeed possible, at a considerable expense, to accomplish this
object. A given area of surface-soil, lying on an ascertained clay-bottom, might
be isolated, by means of a puddled dyke, from the remaindet of the field, with
■which, in other respects, it would altogether accord. A tank, sufficient to hold
the drainage of the interval of time elapsing between the collection of the samples,
might be constructed in such a May that tlie quantities might be accurately mea-
sured. It is obvious that in this way, by taking from time to time samples for
analysis, we might ascertain, with tolerable accuracy, the total quantity of various
substances removed from a given area of land within the twelvemonth. The
same object might be accomplished, though perhaps less satisfuctorilj-, by means
of a large Dalton gauge.

Composition of Waters of Land- Drainage and of Rain. 129

Reverting; now to our previous calculations, we find that on
the supposition of a rain-fall of 25 inches (which we have found
to be equal to 5G7,168 gallons, or 2532 tons), and further
granting; that the averagje annual filtration is equal to 42'4 per
cent, of the whole, we shall have a quantity of 240,479 gallons,
or about 1073^ tons passing into the drains.

Such being the quantity of water which probably represents
the minimum running away in any one year by drainage, we have
now to consider —

2nd. The Composition of this icaf.er. — Analyses of drainage
waters more or less complete have from time to time no doubt
been made by different chemists ; hardly, however, it would seem.
Avith the objects which we have at present in view.* The only
recorded instance which I have been able to find is that of an
analysis by Mr. John Wilson, now professor of agriculture in the
university of i^'dinburgh.

In the autumn of last year, through the kindness of Mr. Dyke
Acland, Mr. Wren Hoskyns, and Mr. Paine of Farnham, I ob-
tained samples of drainage water from their different localities.!
It will no doubt be supposed that in commencing an inquiry of
this kind one would naturally make a selection of different soils ;
of the same soils under different treatment as to manures, &c. ; of
different depths of drainage and varying climate. My answer is,
tliat to accomplish such an extensive plan as this — although
indeed it may ultimately be very desirable — would, not to speak
of difhcnlty and expense, require years rather than months, and
that a preliminary inquiry, such as I have now the pleasure of
placing before the readers of this Journal, far from tending to
mislead, will clear off many of the uncertainties of the question,
and leave the points of future research far less numerous and
oijscure. For the reason that the waters were collected under
his own eye, that his agricultural operations are most carefully
recorded, and that his land is farmed very iiiglily, and would cer-
tainly afford a maximum of effects as referable to drainage, I
have employed the time at my disposal to make a more perfect
examination of the waters collected by Mr. Paine than of any
others ; which latter, however, I shall have occasion to recur to
at another o])portunity.

Before giving the results of these analyses, I would state, for the
information of the general reader, that the analysis of samples of

* T have, on several former occasions, examined the waters of land-drainape,
with the view of asccrtaininjj whether, in tiie particiiliir instances, tiiey were fit
fur domestic use, for which tiiey are fVc<|ueutly employed.

f Several other pentlemen, amongst whom I may mention Mr. Pailcy Denton,
Mr. Girdwood, and Mr. Scott, were {;ood enough to furnish me with samples,
which as yet I Lave not had time or op[iorlunily to examine.

VOL. XV H. K

130 Composition of Waters of Land-Drainage and of Rain.

water is much more difficult than that of minerals or other solid
substances, for the reason that whereas in the latter the chemist
will probably be able to have at hand any moderate quantity to
operate upon, in the former he will probably find not more than
30 or 40 grains of solid ingredients in each gallon of liquid ; and
as it is upon these ingredients that the examination is really made,
there is practically a limit easily reached to the quantity of
matter which can be brought under analysis. Now, when it is
further considered that the analysis will be made probably upon
a gallon of water, and that as nearly a c^uarter of a million gal-
lons run through the soil in the course of the year, it will be
seen how great an error may be introduced into any calculations
which are founded on an imperfect analysis.

One grain of any particular substance in a gallon of water will
in fact amount on the whole drainage of an acre of land in the
year to 240,000 grains, or about 34^ lbs.

Still more does this remark apply to such substances as are,
when even in considerable quantity, difficult of precise deter-
mination, as nitric acid and ammonia; and to ascertain the quan-
tity of which, in very minute proportion, is almost beyond the
present skill of the chemist. When the samples of drainage
water reached me I soon found that they contained nitric acid,
although sometimes in small quantity only. For the estimation
of this substance, in minute proportion, there was absolutely no
existing process ; and as it was obvious, from the beginning, that
a great deal of the interest of the subject would be dependent
upon the compounds of nitrogen, which are so very important to
vegetation, it became indispensable that some method should be
discovered, by which the small quantities of nitric acid in the
drainage waters might be accurately determined. To this ques-
tion I accordingly addressed myself, and in concert with my prin-
cipal assistant (Mr. E. O. Browne) succeeded, though only after
uninterrupted attempts for several months, in devising a process
by which very minute quantities of nitric acid can be most accu-
rately ascertained. I have given a full account of this method in
an Appendix to the present paper, but I call attention to the sub-
ject especially here, because it is well that agriculturists should
remember that the applications of a science are bound up inti-
mately with the progress of that science itself ; and that often it
becomes impossible to make a step in advance, which a superficial
observer might think easy enough, simply because that step pre-
supposes a state of knowledge or power in science which does
not presently exist. Thus in this case the acquisition of satis-
factory knowledge, with respect to the composition of drainage
waters for the purpose of agriculture, involved the necessity of a
new process of chemical analysis ; and whatever the time and

Composition of Waters of Land-Drainage and of Rain, 131

trouble required, nothina: short of the accomplishment of this
object would have been of any avail.*

I proceed now to give the analyses of samples received from
Mr. Paine; they were collected on the 26th and 27th of Decem-
ber in last year (1855) at Farnham in Surrey.

The foUowino^ is the description of the different samples as
given me by Mr. Paine. I place them together in order that the
analyses may be grouped as far as possible in Tables, by which a
saving of valuable space will be obtained.

Mr. Paine says —

" The drains had been quiet for a very long period, and in most cases you
have now the tirst rinsings of the land.

" The first six specimens were collected on the afternoon of the 26th, when
I and the men who were with me got a most thorough soaking. Nos. 7 and
8 were collected on the afternoon of the 27tb, and then the drains did not run
a tenth part so furiously as they did the day before, and as you will perceive the
water was much dearer. In the first place I must observe that during the
night of the 24th there fell half an inch of rain, but this had not much influ-
ence on the ranning of the drains, as the frost was not out of the ground, and
thus the water was kept on the surface. Between the night of the 2oth and
the afternoon of the 26th, upwards of another half inch of rain fell, at times
pouring down in torrents like summer thunder-showers. The ground then
became thoroughly saturated with wet, and the drains ran quite full, and the
Avatcr was very "turbid. I give you the names of the fields, that I may
recollect the water when I happen to be in your laboratory.

" No. 1. — From the main drain in Piping Lane Field. This field was drained
in 1852 when I purchased it. The land was then in the most impoverished
condition. After draining it was trenched (as indeed is the case in nearly all
my land). The subsoil is gault clay, over which lies drift gravel, varying
from one to five feet in thickness. In 1852 the field was well manured for
swedes with dried blood or guano and superphosphate, having been jireviously
limed at the rate of 160 bushels per acre. In 1853 the swedes were fed oil'
by sheep, with oilcake and hay, and gave a good crop of wheat. In 1854 no
manure for swedes : in 1854-^55 with 4 cwt. of guano for wheat. 'J'here has
been no manure put on the land since last winter — it is now under the process
of fallowing for swedes.

"No. 2. — From a long single drain in Manley Bridge South. This field was
also drained in the winter of 1852-53. It was then a wretchedly poor mea-
dow, producing scarcely any lierbage. 'J'he subsoil is gault clay, but there is
a good surface soil 18 inches deep. After draining, it was trenched and
]»lanted with liops. In 1853 it was manured with 5 cwt. of guano, and 5 cwt.
of huperphospliate per acre ; in 1854, 15 cwt. of horn shavings and 200

* Since I have been engaged upon this subject, M. Ville of Paris, who is Mell
known for his beautiful experiments upon vegetation, has also discovered a method
adapted to -the same end. My present process was far advanced towards the pei-
fection which k has now readied hefore the first notice of M. ^"ille's uietliod was
made in the French scientific i)eri()dicals. They are in no way at all alike, and
arc liascd upon totally different principles. It serves, however, as another proof
of the necessity which existed on the subject, and of tlie general concurrence
which is often observed between dill'ereiit minds, that two diemists sliould, at
much the same time, liave, indej)eiidently and unknown to eacli other, been
engaged successfully in the foiution of the same problem.

132 Composition of Waters of Land- Drainage and of Main.

bushels of lime per acre ; 1855, 20 cwt, of rabbit skin waste, and 3 cwt. of
guano per acre. The hops in this field grew most luxuriantly.

" No. 3. — From a long single drain in Holt Forest Hop Ground. Tliis en-
closure was drained in the winter of 1853-54. It was previously part of the
Holt Forest, lying as a poor commonage pasture, from which all the droppings
of the cattle were continually picked off. The subsoil is gault clay, with very
little surface mould ; it was manured in 1854 with 6 cwt. of guano, and G
cwt. of superphosphate ; and in 1855 with 30 cwt. of rags per acre.

" No. 4. — From a main drain in Broad AVell at Clay Hill. This field was
drained about ten years ago. This soil is a dirty gravel, lying upon gaiUt,
and in most places the drains did not penetrate into the clay. The last crop
on this field was wheat, having been previously manured with 4 cwt. of guano
per acre in the autumn of 1854. Prior to this the field was in a state of good
cultivation ; and has been chiefly manured for some years past with guano or
dried blood and superphosphate of lime, and was limed at the rate of 160
bushels per acre four years ago.

" No. 5. — From the main drain in Tanner's Turnpike Field. This was
drained and trenched in 1852-53. The subsoil is gault with an overlaj-er of
gravel, from 1 to 8 feet deep. At the above period this field was in very poor
condition. It was manured with dried blood and superphosphate for turnips
in 1853. The turnips were fed oft' by sheep, receiving oilcake, &c., and sown
with wheat in the spring of 1854. It is now sown with wheat, having been
manured with 4 cwt. of guano per acre. The drains in this field have not run
till now since this guano was applied.

" No. 6. — From the main drain in Marshall's Hop Ground. This was
drained about fourteen years ago. The soil is a rich loam 3 to 8 feet deep,
resting upon gravel. It has been under hop cultivation about twenty-five
years, and as regards manure, is in the richest possible condition, having re-
ceived every year either 30 tons of good dung, or 30 cwt. of rags or hair, or
some other equivalent. Last year it received 40 tons of dung per acre.

" The following were collected on the 27th December : —

" No. 7. — From a main drain in the B'urze Field. This field was drained
in 1846. It was then trenclied and planted with hops. Since that period it
has been abundantly manured every year. The manure in 1855 was 15 cwt.
of horn shavings per acre, and a good coating of silicate of lime.

" No. 8. — From the main drain in the Inner F'ield at Lower House. This
was drained in the winter of 1854-55. It was previously coppice or larch
plantation. After draining it was planted with hops, which were manured
last summer with 6 cwt. of guano per acre.

" All the above drains are from 4 to 5 feet in depth."

These different waters were placed in three j!:allon jar?, care-
fully sealed, and forwarded at once to London for analysis.
Some of them were tmbid, as Mr. Paine observes, but this was
principally with clay, althoui2:h no doubt some portion of organic
anatter in suspension may, under such circumstances as he de-
scribes, be carried off in the di'ainage water. It must be dis-
tinctly observed that all the analyses given in the paper were
made after the samples were carefully fltered and rendered
perfectly clean and bright. I have to do here with the sub-
stances which may be removed from the land invisibly, and not
with those which are palpable to the eye.

Instances could certainly be adduced where drains have been
known to run with water obviously coloured by manure, but

Composition of Waters of Land-Drainage and of Rain. 133

these are the exception, not the rule ; and it Mas my object to
detect the subtle and insensible loss which might occur to land
Avhere no indications except those furnished by chemical analysis
could have marked its existence.

The ibllowing Table exhibits the analysis of the seven first
samples described by Mr. Paine, so far as relates to the mineral
constituents properly so called. These are all the mineral
analyses of drainage-waters that I have yet made. The quantity
of ammonia, nitric acid, and organic matter, will be stated im-
mediatelj- : —

Table III. — Water of Lund Drainage — Mineral Contents.
(Grains in an imperial gallon.)

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7. ■

Potash

trace

trace

0-02

0-05

trace

0-22

trace

Soda

1-00

2-17

2-26

0-87

1-42

1-40

3-20

Lime

4-85

7-19

6-05

2-26

2-52

5-82

13'00

Magnesia

0*68

2-32

2-48

0-41

0-21

0-93

2-50

Oxide of Iron and Alumina

0-40

0-05

0-10

none

1-30

0-35

0-50

Silica

0-95

0*45

0-55

1-20

1-80

0-65

0-85

Chlorine

0-70

1-10

1-27

0-81

1-26

1-21

2-62

Sulphuric Acid

1-65

5-15

4-40

1-71

1-29

3-12

9*51

Phosphoric Acid

trace

0-12

trace

trace

08

0-06

0-12

Upon examining this Table we find that the substances which
■are found in drainage-water in largest proportion are lime, mag-
nesia, soda, and sulphuric acid. That the quantity of lime
should be ctmsiderable in some instances, especially where, as
in the district in question, the land contains so much of it,
should hardly surprise us. Carbonic acid, which exists in
rain water, and is furnished in large quantity by cultivated soils,
readily dissolves carbonate of lime, and the great bulk of the
water of the chalk district comes in this way to contain from 15
to 2() grains of this carbonate in the gallon. The sulphuric acid,
which to a great extent occurs in the waters in the form of sul-
phate of lime, may either exist in the soil in that form, or may
have resulted from the use of superphosphate, which alwavs
contains large quantities of sulphate of lime. It might also be
librTatcd from the various substances of an animal nature, such
as horns, hoofs, rags, &c., which Mr. Paine uses, and which con-
tain sulphur.

The quantities of soda and magnesia are in some cases rather
large. " They must, I imagine, have been derived from the soil,
for apparently no portion of either has been applied in manure.
It will presently appear that, in all probabilitv, the presence of
these substances in quantity is connected with that of nitric
acid.

134 Composition of Waters of Land- Drainage and of Rain.

In some instances we find a good deal of chlorine (as common
salt).

Oxide of iron and silica are found in the waters in small propor-
tion. They are not of much importance in a practical point of view.

But if we turn to the only two substances which from their
known influence as manure, and their relative deficiency in soils,
or cost when added, we should consider of the first importance
in this inquiry, namely, phosphoric acid and potash, we are gra-
tified to find that they are present in the waters in remarkably small
quantity only. In four out of seven cases the potash was so small in
quantity that it could not be estimated ; in No. 6, which contains
the most, it is only present to the extent of two-tenths of a grain per
gallon. The same is true of the phosphoric acid, which, in three
instances out of seven, could not be determined on account of its
smallness in cjuantity. No. 7, the extreme case, reaches only
one-tenth of a grain per gallon. It must not be imagined that
by the word trace it is meant to imply that there is no potash or
phosphoric acid to be found ; it is merely to be understood that
it is so small that there is no possibility of determining it ; and,
inasmuch as in the other cases the quantity has been ascertained,
it is obvious how small must be that portion with which Ave are
unable to deal.

I propose presently to show what quantities of the different sub-
stances named are carried off by the whole drainage of the year,
and it will then be seen how practically unimportant is the loss
of phosphoric acid and potash from this cause.

We will now see what are the facts in regard to organic matter,
nitric acid, and ammonia.

The following Table gives the quantity of these substances
in the eight samples of water received from Mr. Paine : —

Table IV. — Organic Matter, Ammonia, and Nitric Acid in Land Drainage
Waters, from Mr. Paine.

(Grains in the imperial gallon.)

Soluble
Organic Matter.

7*00
7-40
12-50
5-60
5 • 70

5-80 j

7'40 . !

not determined '

Nitric Acid.

14-

12-

1"

74

•95

3-45

8-05

11-45

3-91

0*018
0-018
0-018
0-012
0-018
0-018
0-006
0-018

First, of the " organic matter" contained in drainage-waters,
as exhibited by this Table. That it is in some instances very

Composition of Waters of Land- Drainage and of Bain. 135

considerable is obvious ; but it is to be mentioned that this
organic matter does not contain any, or at most very little,
nitrogen — a fact which I carefully ascertained in one or two in-
stances. It is, therefore, of the carbonaceous nature, that is to
say, resembles woody fibre and gum, or humus in a soluble con-
dition. And although it is pro tanto a loss to the soil, its im-
portance is not very great. I am inclined to think too that it
is in great part derived from the roots of furze, wood, or grass,
which must have been in the soil in large quantity when the
ground was first drained and broken up ; and this idea, which is
shared by Mr. Paine, from his knowledge of the nature of the
soil, is further corroborated by the fact that the largest quantity
(12^ grains per gallon) is found in No. 3, the history of which
land is tolerably evident from the name, " Furze field," which it
bears.

Leaving for an instant the question of nitric acid, let us turn
to the third column in Table IV., which exhibits the quantity of
ammonia. It will be found that the largest quantity of this alkali
in any of these drainage- waters does not reach tIu^^'S of a grain in
the gallon ; that this quantity is remarkably small will be seen
when we reflect that a gallon contains 70,000 grains ; and conse-
quently the ammonia will be equal only to 1 part in 3i million
parts of water. This circumstance also shows how accurate and
careful must be an analysis which can afford any satisfactory result
on such a subject. The fact is, and in tliis consists the secret
of the similarity of the figures above, that we are not able to say
absolutely what quantity of ammonia is present in such cases :
all we can say is, that it is more than so and so and less than so
and so ; thus the number 0*018 in the column we know expresses
the maximum of ammonia in several of the samples, but it may
be any less number between that and 0'012, and in like manner
with the others.

I cannot help feeling considerable satisfaction at a result which
so completely bears out my conclusions with regard to the ab-
sorptive powers of the soil for this alkali (ammonia) as does this
comparative absence of ammonia from drainage-water. That it
could not be entirchj absent, I have long ago explained ; but it
will be obvious presently, when we calculate tlie annual loss
occasioned h^j drainage-water, that at all events there is practi-
cally no loss of ammonia from this cause.

It becomes necessary now to revert to the column 2, in which
the quantity of nitric acid is given ; and here — knowing that
nitric acid is a compound containing nitrogen, that all-imporfant
element of vegetation —and ( onsidering liow very great in some
cases, in the Table, tlie quantities of nitric aciil are — we might
be seriously impressed witii the significance of the latt, were it

13G Composition of Waters of Land-Drainage and of Rain.

not t1ia.t wc know that these waters are extreme instances, and
that in all probability such a loss rarely if ever occurs in ordi-
nary farmin<i^. Instances will very shortly be adduced in con-
firmation of this fact ; and in the meanwhile it is to 1)e borne in
mind, that Mr. Paine is in the habit of using on his land large
quantities of such substances as hair, horn-shavings, woollen rags,
&c., to which in all probability this large quantity of nitric acid
is to be referred.

As far as our present knowledge goes, we must view the
nitrogen of nitric acid (nitrates) in the same light as to agricul-
tural value as that of ammonia. All recent experiments —
amongst others, those of the late Mr, Pusey — seem to point to
this conclusion. Indeed the French chemists are going further,
several of them now advocating the view, that it is in the form
of nitric acid that plants make use of compounds of nitrogen.
With this view I myself do not at present coincide ; and it is
sufficient here to admit, tliat nitric acid in the form of nitrates
has at least a very high value as a manure. What then must we
think of drains running gorged with water, every gallon of which
contains as much as 12 or 14 grains of nitric acid ?

Fifty-four parts of nitric acid contain the same quantity of
nitrogen as 17 parts of ammonia, or, in round numbers, 3 parts
of this acid represent 1 part of ammonia. Consequently, in the
samples Nos. 2, 3, and 7, we have a value equal to 4 grains of
ammonia or about 24 grains of guano in each gallon of water.

Before proceeding further in this calculation, it will perhaps
be well to take other instances, which will serve materially to
modify the feeling of alarm which such a state of things is likely
to create. The samples sent to me by Mr. Acland were a series
of twelve, judiciously selected ; of these I have only as yet been
able to examine six or seven, and those only for nitric acid and
ammonia ; indeed, as Mr. Paine's samples represent land of the
highest degree of fertility, and excessively manured, Ave may
almost ccmsider it as a settled point that no practical loss of
phosphoric acid or potash, the most important mineral substances,
occurs in drainage, and that further analyses for such substances
are unnecessary, unless it be to ascertain whether any deviation
from this rule occurs either in the case of shallow drains or poor
sandy soil.

The samples from Mr. Acland as yet examined are thus de-
scribed : —

" No. 1. — Poor clay tillage field. (Hatcliclose on" Newland.) — Drained
about six years since. Summer before this yoimg grass dressed with dung ;
fallowed for turnips ; present crop now in groimd manured with dung and
1-2 cwt. of super[ihosphate, also with guano and wood aslies ; drained with '1
inch pipes, about 3 feet deep ; water continually running for last three weeks."

Composition of JFaters of Land-Drainage and of Bain. 137

This sample contained in the imperial gallon, in grains —

Xitric acid 4-78

Ammonia 0'003

" No. 1, B. — Poor clay tillage field. (Gratton on Xewland.) — Xo manin-e
last year ; wheat about 7 bushels per acre this year, being very ])00r naked
fallow, drained with 2 inch pipes 3 feet deep ; continually running for last
three weeks."

This sample contained —

Kitricacid 2-99

Ammonia a tr

'99 )

V in the imp. gall,
ace j "^ =

" Xo. 2, A. — Shelving pasture on Xewland. (Clay.) — Xo manure ; not
watered ; drained last year with 2 inch pipes 3 feet deep, continually running
ever since."

^^^^o^^d ^•e^Hgr^.i, the gall.

Ammonia 0-012 ) ° =■

" Xo. 2, I?. — Clay water meadow. (Sprydon.) — "Well watered every day
Avith wash from a dwelling-house."

Xitricacid 0-12

Ammonia 0'012

" Xo. 3, A. — Pasture sandy soil. (Mr. Joe Salters, Ham.)— Xo manure ;
drained with 3 inch pipe 4 feet deep last year ; water not stopped running."

Xitricacid 0-485 per gall.

Ammonia trace.

Another sample from Mr. Acland (No. 5 A) contained TOT
grains of nitric acid in the gallon. Four samples of water from
Mr. Wren Hoskyns were analyzed for nitric acid — unfortunately
having been sent to the railway on a very wet day, the labels
were obliterated, and there were no means of distinguishing the
samples from each other. Tliese samples gave respectively ot
nitric acid in the gallon 4-()3, 4-40, I'lO, and 1-17 grains. The
following is Mr. Hoskyns' description of these saniples.

Xo. 1. "The Twelve-Acres."— A strong soil on clay bottom, very flat.
Drained (3i feet deep) in IH'A. Ridges lowered after drainage. A two-yiars'
clover-ley broken up for wheat in Xovember last. 2 cwts. of guano and an
ecpial Indk of salt, to the acre, applied after the drill. It had been sheeped
all the summer, but not dunged troia the fold.

Xo. 2. "The Croft." — A rather thin-soiled field of medium texture; drained
3 feet deep in 1845. Turnii^fallow after wheat ; liujed 15 qrs. to the acre
and dunged from the fold-yard. [Superphosphate drilled with the turnip-seed,
on the ridge.

Xo. 3. "Lower Brick -Kiln Close." — A moderately stiff soil, furrow-drained
3 feet deep in 1844. A wheat-stubble autumn-ploughed for beans. The
wheat had been dressed with 2 cwt. of guano, half at sowing-time and half
top-ilresstd in spring.

Xo. 4. " I'.laek l*it;ce." — A peaty soil on gravelly and sandy clay subsoil ;
ilraincd 30 inches deep in 1843. A clover-ley after wheat ; not manured.

The drainage-water was taken from the four lields on the same day, the
21st of January last, after and during very rainy weather.

138 Composition of Waters of Land- Drainage and of Rain,

It is pretty plain which were the samples from manured land.*

We have now before us the determinations of ammonia in
some 12 or 14 samples of drainage water, and that of nitric acid
in a considerably large number, and we may fairly come to some
conclusion on the subject. With regard to the former there can
be no manner of doubt — from soils rich or poor, manured or not
manured, it is all the same, the quantity of ammonia in no case
exceeds -rf ^ths of a grain in the gallon. I regard this as conclu-
sive, and believe that unless in very exceptional cases, and where
the manure visibly runs into the drains — probably through cracks
in the soil — we shall not find ammonia in quantity in the waters
of drains.

With nitric acid the case is different. In the instances before
us we have it in all sorts of quantities — from 14f grains in Mr.
Paine's sample No. 2 to Vo'tiths of a grain in Mr. Acland's
sample 2 B. The presence of nitric acid in some proportion in
drainage water would seem to be universal, for of nearly 20
samples examined not one is free from it. But we may well ask
at what point are we to fix the natural or ordinary quantity of
this substance carried off in drainage water. To that question I
am as yet not prepared to offer an answer, I have said before
that this must be considered in the light of a preliminary inquiry
— settling some matters and leaving others open for further inves-
tigation. Amongst these latter the principal are the variations
from time to time throughout the year and the manures which
more or less give rise to nitric acid.

Attention was called just now to the variation in the quantity
of soda and magnesia in Mr. Paine's samples, and it was suggested
that they would be found in all probability to be connected with
the proportion of nitric acid. In effect if we examine the Tables
we shall find that such is the case — wherever the proportion of
nitric acid is large, there also the proportion of soda and mag-
nesia is large — the converse being also observed. The remark
applies perhaps more truly to magnesia than to soda, which
latter alkali is dependent to a great extent on the quantity of
chlorine present, in combination with which it occurs as common
salt.

The connection of nitric acid with alkalies or earths in drain-
age water is simple enough — if a substance containing nitrogen
undergoes oxidation in the soil with the production of nitric acid,
this latter cannot be supposed to pass through the soil to the
drains without neutralization — it therefore unites with lime, mag-

* As the "wheat crop of last year had probably taken up the guano dressing in
No. 3, and the field was not manured before the autumn ploughing, I have little
doubt that the order in which I have numbered the fields corresponds with that
in which Professor Way has given the figures stating the results. — C. W. H.

Composition of Waters of Land-Drainage and of Rain. 139

nesia, soda, or some other base, and we find it in combination
with these in the drainage water.

The production of nitric acid and its removal by drainage
water may be considered as a double evil, inasmuch as it neces-
sarily carries with it some one or other of the alkaline bodies.
In the absence of those more common and to vegetation less im-
portant alkalies, lime and soda, this nitric acid would be the
means of carrying off from the soil a portion, and perhaps consi-
derable portion of its potash or even its ammonia ; but in all
probability such a result would be of rare occurrence.*

T have alluded to the importance of ascertaining by examina-
tion made at different seasons to what extent this removal of
nitric acid from the soil was constant or at all to be compared
with that which a sample taken at any one time might lead us to
suppose. We are not altogether without information on this
subject.

Mr. Paine's sample, No. 7, taken on the 27th December, con-
tained 11*45 grains of nitric acid in the gallon. On the 4th
April of the present year, or rather more than three months after-
wards, when the drains, having never ceased, were still running,
although of course in diminished quantity, the water was found
to contain 7*57 grains of nitric acid in the gallon.f It is evident,
therefore, that the quantity of nitric acid removed from the soil
by drainage was decreasing. But we have already seen (Table
I.) that in the month of April the proportion of water filtrated
through the soil begins to diminish, whilst in the next month it
is reduced to about 5 per cent, of the whole, and in the next
month to somewhat less than 2 per cent. We may fairly conclude,
therefore, from the composition of the drainage water at these
two periods (the latter end of December and the commencement

* I cannot help regarding these analyses of drainage-water as a strong con-
firmation of the general truth of my previous results with regard to the chemical
phenomena of absorption in the soil, not only for ammonia, but in griulatioii for
each base iu the soil. In a supplement to his ' Principles of Agriculture,'
Professor Liebig takes occasion to review the facts developed by my experiments
on the ' absorptive power of soils,' which facts he proposes to show, at once, were
well known, and have no f)undatioii in truth. My experiments on double silicates
are characterised as "theatre decorations," and such information is called giving
"a stone where bread is asked for" by the fanning body, which is, according to
Professor Liebig, justified " in taking shelter from such chemical teaching in a
wholesome empiricism."

The translation of these criticisms of Baron Liebig has for months been in cir-
culation iu America. I have every liope that when a second edition of the
'Principles', is published in Kngland, the Supplement will also appear. Should
there be no sign of any such publication, I shall take means to lay tlie whole
question before the agricultural public.

t Since the above was in tyi)e, I have received from Mr. Paine a third sample
of this same water. It was collected on the llth June, when the drain was
ninniug very slowly, about one <]uart per minute. Upon analysis it was found to
contain 7"02 grains of nitric acid per gallon.

140 Composition of Waters of Land-Drainape and of Rain.

of April) that the drainage of the whole year on this particular
soil would as regards nitric acid be somewhere intermediate
between the two numbers above given — 11^ and 7^ — that is to
say, about 9 grains in the gallon. For the sake of illustration,
I will suppose that in this field of Mr. Paine the annual
liow of drainage water (240,479 gallons) carried off in each
gallon 9 grains of nitric acid ; we shall find that this quantity
is equal to 309 lbs. of nitric acid, which would be contained in
about 515 lbs. (or about 4^ cwt.) of commercial nitrate of soda,
Avorth, at its present price, about 4Z. Supposing, however, only
one grain of nitric acid to be removed in each gallon of water
for the whole drainage of the year, we shall have a quantity of
rather more than 34 lbs.

Whilst we may assume that there is an indefinite but constant
loss to the soil in the shape of nitric acid, we find on the other
hand that the loss of ammonia, if calculated at its fullest, does
not exceed half a pound per acre in the drainage of the whole
year. This quantity is of course quite unimportant, and we
shall presently see that it is more than compensated by other
natural causes.

The quantity of potash removed from a soil in the whole
drainage is also very insignificant. The largest quantity indi-
cated by the analyses is 0'22 (or about one-fifth of a grain) in
a gallon, which, on the previous calculation, would amount in
one instance (No. 6, Mr. Paine's sample) to about 7i lbs. in the
whole drainage of the year^this being, however, very much
larger than in any other of the specimens exhibited.

It is to be remembered that as the drains are at a depth of
from 4 to 5 feet, all the soil to that depth is concerned in fur-
nishing the substances which we find in the water. Assuming
a superficial inch of soil, over an acre, to Aveigh 100 tons, and
that the drains lie at only 40 inches from the surface, we shall
have 4000 tons of soil, subject to the solvent action of the water ;
and . we shall find by calculation that the quantity of potash
removed from the soil in the year by drainage would be repre-
sented by the decimal '00001 per cent. — that is to say, that if the
whole of the soil were analysed before and after this quantity
(7 lbs. per acre) was removed, there would be found no greater
difference than the hundred-thousandth part of a grain in every
hundred grains of soil, supposing it possible, which it is not, for
analysis to detect it. Now, as there are probably very few
soils that would, on analysis, exhibit the presence of so little as
one-tenth per cent, of potash, it is plain that the drainage-water
would in effect remove only one part of ten thousand parts exist-
ing in the soil. It is only on a consideration of numbers and
quantity that we can appreciate some facts at their true worth ;

Composition of Waters of Land-Drainarje and of Rain. 141

and we see in this instance how very much we may be misled if
we neglect these circumstances in forming an opinion.*

The same remark holds good with regard to phosphoiic acid.
The largest amount of this substance which, in any of the in-
stances, would be found in the drainage of the year, is 4 lbs.,
which is equivalent to about 8 lbs. of phosphate of lime, a
quantity which the decimal just given for potash would equally
represent.

It may be thought that this reasoning should be extended to
nitric acid ; but apart from tlie fact that the quantity of this
substance is so enormously large, as compared with the potash
and phosphoric acid, it is to be remembered that nitric acid does
not, like them, exist in the soil, but is in all probability a pro-
duct of the manure applied, and as such a direct loss.

We turn now to tlie subject wliicli forms the next division of
our inquiry —

3rd. IVlience are these substances derived ?

Tliat all the mineral matters found in drainage-water are
derived either from the soil or the manure added to it there can
be no question. With the exception of some one or two sub-
stances (such as common salt), which are carried meclianicallv
in the air from the ocean, we do not find in rain-water any
appreciable amount of mineral matter. But this is not so obvi-
ously the case with ammonia and nitric acid ; in fact, we very
well know at the present time tliat both these substances do exist
in rain-water ; and should it so happen that their quantity were
sufficient, we might readily attribute the presence of these com-
pounds of nitrogen in drainage-water to the rain.

That the ammonia in rain equals in quantity that in
drainage-water seemed credible enough, but it would hardly
be anticipated that so great an amount of nitric acid should be
found in rain-water ; and indeed the circumstance that in one
sample of dramage-water there should be but half a grain or less
per gallon, and in another as much as 14 grains, seemed very
mucli op])osed to such a view. However, it was absolutely indis-
pensable that all doubt ontiiis point should be removed ; and for
this purpose it became necessary to institute a careful examina-
tion of rain-water itself.

I must briefly recall to the memory of my readers some cir-
cumstances connected with this cpiestion of the comj)osition of
rain-water, which 1 brought before them on a previous occasion.

♦ Wu must, however, in the case of highly cultivated soils be eqiiiilly pnarded,
on the other side, against niultipl} ing riinlitij In/ iiindiliti/. There are few soils in
England upon wliicii a calculation of the potash, or any otlur nianiirial substance
not specially abundant, could be assumed as constant, from the cultivated surface
to the (lei)tli acted on by 4-feet drainage. — C. W. II.

142 Composition of Waters of Land-Drainage and of Rain.

In France especially a great deal of attention has lately been
paid to the subject, and names of the highest note in chemical
science are associated with its investigation and discussion. In
a very able paper, M. Barral recorded experiments which for the
first time had been made by him for the estimation of ammonia
and nitric acid in the rain-water of Paris. M. Boussingault re-
peated M. Barral's experiments (so far only as ammonia was con-
cerned), and found them perfectly correct for Paris, but totally
inapplicable to rain falling in the country, which latter contained
very much less ammonia.*

Messrs. Lawes and Gilbert entered into the subject in Eng-
land with their usual spirit ; and having made special arrange-
ments for the collection of rain-water falling at Rothamsted, they
carefully examined the different methods of determining am-
monia in water, as practised at the time, and obtained a series
of results, which were reported to the British Association in the
year 1854. But, finding that the methods which were available
for the determination of nitric acid were anything but trust-
worthy, and that the results which they obtained were conflicting
and unsatisfactory, they very wisely forbore from publishing
them.

The possession of an accurate process for the determination
of minute quantities of nitric acid gave me, however, in the
spring of the present year, the opportunity of approaching this
question with some prospect of success ; and Mr. Lawes, with a
liberality which cannot be too much admired, placed at my dis-
posal a complete series of the rain-waters of each month of the
year 1855. Through his kindness, therefore, I am now in the
position of placing before the agricultural public for the first
time a reliable statement of the composition of the rain of a
whole year, so far as regards the ammonia and nitric which it
contains, as collected in the open country. However interesting
the drainage results may be found, I attach to this part of my

* I have examined samples of rain-water, falling at the back of my house in
London. The water was collected in a large painted sponging-bath. After
filtration, so as to remove the sooty matter, it was examined for nitric acid and
ammonia.

The first sample, collected on tlie 11 th of April, in the present year, during a
short shower, gave me 0*09 of nitric acid per gallon, or about the same as was
found in the water of June collected at Rothamsted, as will be seen further on.
The second sample, collected May 1st, gave me 0'12 nitric acid, or rather more
than the first, but it was found to contain 1"077 grains of ammonia per gallon, — a
quantity more than ten times as great as that found in the rain-water of the
country. So far, therefore, njy results on London rain do not bear out M. Barral's
experiments on that of Paris : and unless there be some cause connected with the
difference of fuel employed in the two capitals (one being coal and the other
wood), I should be inclined to think that M. Barral's determinations of nitric acid
were in error from the faultiness of the method to which he was compelled to have
recourse.

Composition of Waters of Land-Drainage and of Rain. 143

Paper a still greater importance, inasmuch as the facts now ascer-
tained have a large and comprehensive meaning, and are inti-
mately associated with both the philosophy and practice of
agriculture.

The methods which I have employed for the determination of
nitric acid and ammonia in rain-water will be found fully
described in an Appendix to this paper. We shall here there-
fore occupy ourselves only with the results.

The rain gauge used by Mr. Lawes at Rothamsted is of a very
large size, being of an area exactly roVoth of an acre. The
water falling in this gauge is accurately weighed morning and
evening. In the ' Gardener's Chronicle,' and elsewhere perhaps,
Mr. Lawes has published from time to time the results of his
observations, and it may be remarked in passing, that by com-
parison with an ordinary small gauge, the large collecting arrange-
ment is found to indicate a rain-fall larger by several inches in
the year. The gauge, which is of wood, lined with lead, is
placed in the centre of a field far from any source of contamina-
tion, at more than 20 miles from London, and about 4 miles from
the nearest market town, which is St. Albans.

The series of waters supplied to me by INIr. Lawes repre-
sented the whole rain -fall of each month in the year 1855. That
is to say, the water falling on separate days during each month
has been mixed together, and upon a portion of this mixture the
analysis has been made.

The following Table shows the amount in grains of nitric acid
and ammonia in an imperial gallon of the rain of different
months : —

Taf.le Y. — Xitric Acid and Ammonia in Rain-water, 1855.
(Grains in the imperial gallon.)

.January
February
March ..
April ..
May ..
June
July ..
August
September
October
November
December

Ammonia.

Xitric Acid.

()-002

0-017

0-104

0-042

0-086

0-021

0-123

0-035

o-oso

0-035

0-135

0-080

0-OCl

0-017

0-080

0-060

0-095

0-021

0-061

0-036

0-054

0-018

067

0'017

It will Ik- seen Iroin tliis Table that the quantity of ainnionia
in the rain of diflercnt months varies considerablv, l)eini; in June
as much as 0'135 grains in a gallon (I'Oo parts in a million), and

144 Comjwsition of Waters of Land-Drainage and of Rain.

in November only 0'054 (0"771 parts in a million), or liardly
more than a third. The mean quantity for the whole year is
008G grains in a gallon, or about 1*228 parts in a million of
water.*

A glance at the column for nitric acid will show how small
is the quantity of this substance brought down by rain. Con-
siderable variations are observable in this as in the other case,
the quantity being in June five times as great as in several other
months. The mean quantity is seen to be 0'0315 grains in a
gallon, or 0405 parts in a million of rain.

Before attempting to draw any conclusions from this Table it
will be well that we should place the matter in its true bear-
ings, by connecting the quantity of ammonia and nitric acid in
the rain-water of different months with the quantity of rain
which fell in those months. From data furnished me by Mr.
Lawes I am able to calculate the number of gallons of rain
falling on an acre of land at Rothamsted in each month of the
year 1855, and knowing the proportion of nitric acid and am-
monia per gallon, nothing of course is easier than to ascertain
precisely the total quantity of these substances which was
brought in aid of vegetation by this means.

The Table given below affords these particulars. I hat'e
added a column to show the total quantity of nitrogen in the
rain, whether existing as ammonia or nitric acid.

Table VI. — Nitric Acid and Ammonia in Eain-water, per acre, 1855.

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Total in lbs. -whole year

Gallons

of
Hain.

13,52.3
^2,473
52,484
9,281
52,575
41,295

157,713
59,022
34,875

124,40(5
55,950
39,075

Nitric Acid

in

Grains.

Grains.

230

944
1102

325
1840
3303
2GS0
3577

732
4480
1007

604

1244
2337
4513
1141
4206
5574
9620
4769
3313
7592
3021
2438

2-98

7-11

Total

Nitrogen lu

Grains.

1084
2109
3995
1024
3939
5447
8015
4870
2917
7414
2749
2180

0-63

The results in this Table are interesting not only on account
of the light which they throw upon the question of drainage, but

* The experiments of Mr. Lawes and Dr. Gilbert, in 1853 and 1854, gave as a
mean, as nearly as possible, 1 part of ammonia in a million of rain. Bous-
siiigault's result in Alsace was about 3-4ths that of Lawes and Gilbert.

Composition of Waters of Land-Drainage and of Rain. 145

from their connection with other subjects which have lately
attracted so much attention. If we are to believe these figures
(and my own faith in them, founded on the care which has been
bestowed upon the analysis, is complete) we must at once con-
clude that the various estimates which have been formed for the
last two or three years on the quantities of ammonia and nitric
acid in rain are totally erroneous. We have been under the im-
pression that this quantity might very fairly be held to account
for the natural fertility of an unmanured soil. M. Barral's ex-
periments in Paris first gave rise to this impression, and an
examination of the rain falling at Pusey, by myself, seemed to
confirm his results.* It seems now, however, that the methods
of analysis for nitric acid were defective, and that no reliance
can be placed either upon such analyses or the conclusion drawn
from them. In point of fact the quantity of nitric acid brought
down by rain, instead of being much greater than the ammonia, is
actually far less, and the total quantity of nitrogen in either form
does not, as we see, exceed 6| lbs. in the wliole year. This
quantity is equal to 8 lbs. of ammonia, and would be furnished
by o5i lbs. of sulphate of ammonia, or 47 lbs. of guano. We
can hardly, therefore, with these facts before us, continue to
believe that the rain brings down nitrogen enough to account for
a normal or natural fertility, or the growth of 14 to 17 bushels of
wheat from year to year.

I fear too that we must abandon the pleasant notion that the
refreshing effect of an April shower is due to these compounds of
nitrogen, since the rain of the whole month only contributes
1000 grains of this element, equal to about 1 lb. of guano to
each acre of land.

It must not be supposed that I mean to deny that the ammonia
and nitric acid in the air are all-important agents in vegetation,
or that they are sufficient, without recourse to the doctrine of
the assimilation by plants of free nitrogen, to account for all the
phenomena observed. What I do mean, and what I have fre-
quently before said is — that we must seek elsewhere for the
measure of this influence, that the rain-water does not form a
trustworthy guide, and tliat it is in the air rather than in the
water that we shall find the chief quantity of these fertilizing
agents. The rain falls at certain periods only ; in the intervals
the nitric arid and ammonia are not accumulating, they are
removed by vegetation and by the influence of the soil. I

* I regret that this analysis should have been published — at all events, without
the caution which, in my Report upon it, I reconiniemled Mitli re^zard to the
ado]ition of the fifjurcs. I was perfVctly aware of the unsatisfactory cliaracter
of tlie methiids which I employed, although they were the best then existing.
VOL. XVII. L

146 Composition of Watei's of Land-Drainage and of Rain.

attribute to such removal far more force than to the occasional
and uncertain influence of rain.

There is another circumstance that points to the same con-
clusion. Every acre of ground which allows water to percolate
freely, benefits equally by the nitric acid and ammonia of
rain. But whence comes the additional luxuriance which vege-
tation puts on when the land is abundantly worked ? whence
the Lois Weedon crops ? Obviously Mr. Smith cannot be satis-
fied with the ammonia of rain, he must have some from the air
also ; and he does get it from the air in far greater quantity than
the rain could furnish.*

If we examine the Table we shall find the facts to bear out
this view. There is a general, though not uniform relation
between the quantity of ammonia and nitric acid in the month,
and the quantity of rain that has fallen in that month. Thus in
July we have the largest rain-fall (157,713 gallons), and by far
the largest cjuantity of nitrogen (8615 grs.). In October the
next largest fall of rain, accompanied with a corresponding
(Quantity of nitrogen. In April we have the smallest rain-fall
and the smallest quantity of nitrogen ; and January follows it
exactly in the same relation.

That the rain-fall and nitrogen are not more closely related in
quantity is probably due to a modification, which the com-
parative number of times at which the rain falls would intro-
duce."!" The bearing which the figures in the foregoing Table
have upon the drainage question may be stated in two words.
In the first place, by comparing them Avith those given in the
Table of drainage-water, we find that, as far as ammonia is con-
cerned, the quantity falling in rain greatly exceeds that which
passes off by the drains ; thus, although in no case do we find
ammonia in drainage-water to a greater extent than 0"019 per
gallon, in rain-water we have no instance where it is less than
0*05 ; whilst the mean is 0'086, or four times as much as the
largest amount in drainage-water. It is obvious, therefore, that
instead of being an agent for the abstraction of ammonia from
the soil, rain, on the contrary, carries off (by drainage) less than
it brings ; a fact again proving the power of the soil in absorption.
But with nitric acid it is different. The quantity of this sub-
stance present in rain-water is not enough to account for that
found in any one of the drain- waters examined ; and if we take

* Mr. Smith habitually expresses his obligations to the dew, as a more steady
benefactor than the rain, in much the same terms as might express the relation of
" daily bread " to an occasional feast. — C. W. H.

t It has been usual to suppose that the nitric acid of the air is due to electrical
action. If so, it is obvious that this force is in continual exercise, since -we find
nitric acid present in the rain of every month of the year.

Composition of Waters of Land- Drainage and of Rain. 147

one of the instances of waters collected by Mr. Paine, say, for
instance, the sample No. 7, which contained upwards of 11
grains of nitric acid in the gallon, we shall see how very short
the rain-fall is of accounting for this quantity. In effect, the
whole quantity of nitric acid falling in rain at Rothamsted last
December was 664 grains, which would be contained in 60
gallons of the drainage- water collected at the end of that month
at Farnham ; Avhereas nearly 20,000 gallons of water must have
passed through the drains of each acre of land during the two
days when the samples were collected, a quantity which must have
carried with it upwards of 200,000 grs. (30 lbs.) of nitric acid.

One question for which these rain-waters were examined is
answered. Tlie nitric acid brought down by rain is totally
inadequate to account for that found in drainage-water. Is it
then formed in the soil from the nitrogen of tl;e air ? or abstracted
from the air by the soil ? or is it derived from manure ?

With the two former of these questions we need hardly trouble
ourselves, since the third supposition is capable of an answer so
decidedly affirmative.

There is no doubt that when air containing nitric acid in the
state, as it would be, of nitrate of ammonia, comes in contact with
the soil, tlie nitric acid would be retained by the soil, and thus a
quantity of this substance might be accounted for.

Again, it is possible that, under the influence of the porous
soil and the alkalies which it contains, the niti'ogen of the air
may be oxidated ; and, in the absence of better reasons, we
might fly to either of these for an explanation of the nitric acid
in drain- water ; but in the instances before us the effect is too
plainly traceable to manure.

It we conq)are the analysis of the samples from Mr. Paine
with the history of the fields, we shall find that the largest
quantity of nitric acid (namely, 14, 12, and 11 grains per gallon)
is found where the land had been heavily manured with horn-
shavings, rags, rabbit-sl<in waste, or some such animal sub-
stance. On the other hand, in two samples from Mr. A eland,
where no manure had been applied, we find tlie nitric acid barely
exceeding rj a grain in the gallon.

Again, of four soils, in other respects alike, from which water
was collected by Mr. Wren Hoskyns, the two, which had received
guano, furnish water containing 4i grains of nitric Jicid per gal-.
Ion, whilst those which had not been so treated contain only
about 1 grain each. I fear that this evidence is too strong to
permit a doubt that it is the nitrogen of manure that is thus run-
ning in the drains.*

* On the 12th of November, that is, six weeks before the samples of water were
collected, Mr. Paine sent mc several soils for exaiiiiii:itioii,iu aid of another inquiry

J- 2

148 Composition of Waters of Land- Drainage and of Rain.

The next question is, how is this production of nitric acid from
manure brought about ? This may possibly happen in several ways.
The substances may in the act of decomposition give rise through
their nitrogen to nitric acid, which may subsequently be washed
through the soil, taking with it any alkali it happens to meet.

Or, in the progress of its putrefaction the nitrogenous matter
may by filtration be converted, as Dr. Angus Smith has shown,
into nitric acid.

Or, lastly, the nitrogen may first form ammonia, which may
subsequently be oxidized into nitric acid. I believe the first of
these suppositions to be the most reasonable. The production of
nitric acid by filtration of putrid animal matter, as shov.'n in the
very interesting experiments of Dr. Smith, applies rather to sand
(and especially to charcoal) than to soil, because the latter arrests
such matters, and so soon as this happens the production of nitric
acid would, I believe, be out of the question. In fact I have
failed to obtain nitric acid by filtration of putrid matters through
soils. This subject, however, requires further examination.

The conversion of ammonia into nitric acid in the soil I am
very unwilling to believe. It is by no means easy to produce
this result when the ammonia is out of the sphere of other in-
fluences, and the strongest oxidating substances are unable to
effect it ; * but when it is united in the soil to substances, such
as silica and alumina, this action is still less likely to happen,
especially at common temperatures. I have filtered a weak solu-
tion of ammonia for days through a column of sand 10 or 12 inches
deep, and have not only got no nitric acid in the liquid, but by
analysis have recovered all the ammonia originally present. But
the production of nitric acid during the decay of highly nitro-
genous substances, such as those in question (bones, woollen-rags
and such animal matters) when in free contact with the air is
well understood, and I entertain no doubt that to this action we
must attribute the great quantity of nitric acid in those cases where
such manures have been liberally applied. The same remark
applies to guano, for it must be remembered that although we
are in the habit of speaking of guano as an ammoniacal manure,
it is by no means the case that the whole of the nitrogen in it
exists in the form of ammonia ; on the contrary, we know that

upon whicli I am engaged. In one of these, taken from a field from ■which a
sample of water was afterwards collected, I found as much as 0-672 grains of
nitric acid per lb. This quantity would be equal to 1505 grains (about l-5th lb.)
for each ton of soil, or 20 lbs. for each inch in depth of soil on an acre. If we
suppose only 12 inches of soil to contain this proportion, we should have 240 lbs.
of nitric acid per acre actually in the soil at that time : a quantity quite sufficient
to account for that subsequently found in the water.

* The permanganate of potash does not, I find, even when boiled with a solu-
tion of ammonia, give rise to any nitric acid.

Composition of Waters of Land-Drainage and of Rain. 149

one of its principal ingredients is uric acid, a compound contain-
ing nitrogen not in the condition of ammonia. It is therefore
quite possible that under certain circumstances guano may give
rise to the production of nitric acid which the drainage-\vater may
carry off; and this observation brings us to the last head of our
inquiry, namely —

What circumstances are likely to increase or diminish the icaste
from such causes ?

In a great degree this question must be left for ulterior exami-
nation ; a knowledge of the cause of the production of nitric acid
in the soil will naturally lead to a remedy for its prevention,
supposing such a remedy exists ; at present, however, as we have
just seen, the cause is not so obvious.

The two points to decide are, Does organic matter containing
nitrogen give rise to the production of nitric acid by filtration
through the soil? aind, Is ammonia oxidated by such filtration?
If these questions are answered in the negative, then I think we
shall find a practical solution of the only other difficulty, which
is, the oxidation of the manure into nitric acid during its decay.

It is generally agreed that the first stage in decomposition is
the production of ammonia, but that in the absence of any sub-
stance to unite with this ammonia, it passes, in the presence of
excess of air, at once into nitric acid. We can readily understand
then, that a nitrogenous substance undergoing putrefactive
fermentation by itself would give rise to nitric acid ; and such
would be the case with all manures, such as bones, rags, &c.,
which by their very nature cannot but lie in masses of more or
less size. It may be however, that if these substances could be
reduced to a comparatively fine condition and then intimately
mixed with the soil, that the production of nitric acid would in
great measure be obviated. In this latter case, the soil having
the power to unite with ammonia would arrest the action at that
point. It may seem possibly in opposition to this view, that
manuring with guano should give rise to nitric acid, as it is seen
to do in the case of Mr. Wren Hoskyns' samples ; but it may
well be doubted whether the mixture of this manure with the
soil in the ordinary system of broad-casting is by any means so
perfect as is desirable, and in all probability the cause is the
same in both cases.* As I said before it is better to leave this
matter open at present until further experiments have demon-

* This is one of the grounds on which I am led to the practice of mixing the
guano with an efiual hulk of salt, in the hopper, at the time of sowing it, after the
seed-drill. It certainly lulps the act of fliitribution greafly, especially if, accord-
ing to my practice, the guano be " pounded " very fine beforehand ; and the rapid
assumption of moisture by salt nmst, I conceive, favour its more minute dis-
semination in tile soil.— (J. W. II.

150 Composition of Waters of Land-Drainaije and of Rain.

strated the truth of the supposition or shown its fallacy. There
can, however, be no harm in urging, as I have often before clone,
the more extensive adoption of every method which will bring
manures into perfect contact with the soil. Foremost in this rank,
of course, stands the judicious use of manure in the liquid state ;
in the absence of this, the next best means of bringing about this
combination between the soil and manures, is the method of
compost heaps, and it seems to me that advantage might be taken
of this plan to a much greater extent than is at all usual. Even
in the use of artificial manures, such as guano and superphos-
phate, I think it would greatly increase the efficacy of their appli-
cation, if for some time before they were employed they were
mixed with a considerable portion of good soil and moistened.
In fact I would make a compost heap of guano as is ordinarily
done with farm-yard manure. Such an idea may, I have no
doubt, find plenty of objections on the score of difficulty, expense,
and what not. All the chemist can do is to point out princij)les —
if they are inadmissible in practice from some causes of which he
is unaware, that is a sufficient reason for not putting them into
practice; but if on the other hand his suggestions are not alto-
gether impracticable, sooner or later some intelligent enterprizing
farmer will find the means of bringing them to bear.

On the present, as on former occasions, my axiom is, that the
more perfect the contact of every particle of the manure with the
soil the better will be its effect upon vegetation. How that per-
fect contact is to be accomplished it is for the practical farmer to
realize.

Before concluding this paper it may be of advantage to re-
capitulate the principal points to which we have been led by the
present inquiry. We find then, that through every acre of land,
whether naturally or artificially drained, thei'e passes annually a
quantity of water ecjual to 42 '4 per cent, of the rain-fall, and that
where this latter is 25 inches the quantity of drainage-water is
equal to about 240,000 gallcms in that space of time. That even
where the land is very highly manured this large quantity of
water removes from the soil only inconsiderable quantities of the
most important mineral ingredients of soils, namely, potash and
jihosphoric acid. That the quantity of ammonia carried off from
land by the drainage-water is also inconsiderable, but that nitrogen
in the form of nitric acid is, especially in highly manured land,
to be found in very large quantity in the water of land-drainage.
That the quantity of nitrogen in the form of ammonia and nitric
acid in rain-water is very much smaller than has been supposed,
and quite inadequate, of itself, to account for the natural fertility
that has been ascribed to it ; and that it is to these substance?, as
existing at all times in the air, and absorbed from it by the soil

Composition of Waters of Land-Drainage and of Rain. 151

and by plants (especially the former), that we must look for an
explanation of such natural phenomena. That the quantity of
ammonia in rain is greater tlian in drainage-water, which suf-
ficiently attests the absorbing power of the soil for this alkali ;
but that the nitric acid in rain does not account for the quantity
found in drainage even in the instances where it is present in the
smallest quantity. That in all probability this nitric acid is due
to the oxidation of the nitrogencms matter of manures, and espe-
cially takes place where such manures are of a nature to prevent
their perfect admixture with the soil. That, lastly, the practical
means which occur to us of preventing so important a loss, are
the more perfect admixture of manures Avith the soil by any
method which may best accomplish that end.

I shall take leave of this subject, at present, by suggesting the
desirability, where it may be accomplished, of employing the
drainage-water of land highly manured, for the irrigation of
meadow land in its neis-hbourhood.*

APPENDIX.

Pkocess for Estimation of Minute Quantities of Nitric Acid.

The difficulties of determining nitric acid with any great
degree of accuracy are v/ell understood, and no process has
hitherto been known which could successfully deal with the
small quantities which are found in rain and other waters. t In
the autumn of last year (1855), the process which is now to be
described first suggested itself to my mind, but it was not until
after repeated attempts, extending over several months, and after
numerous modifications, that I was able, in conjunction with
my friend and assistant, Mr. E. O. Browne, to bring it to a
satisfactory issue. The process itself is based on Professor
Bunsen's volumetric method for the examination of oxidizing and
deoxidizing agents by the means of iodides, but it depends for its
success upon a number of conditions, the fulfillment of which
constitutes its merit. Professor Bunscn no doubt sought to
include nitric acid amongst the other substances to which he

* Such an employment of drainage (surface) waters is well known to exist at
Lord Hatberton's at Teddesley, and the Duke of Porthind's at Clipstoiic. Mr. Paine
informs me that the drainage-water of some of the fields, where analysis has
demonstrated so great a loss of nitric acid, produces the utmost luxuriance in the
grass of a meadow over which it is allowed to tlow.

t I have already alluded in the foregoing paper to Mr. Villc's method of deter-
mining this acid, which, according to the report of tlie commission appointed to
examine the subject, is sound in principle and successful in practice.

152 Composition of Watei-s of Land-Drainafjc and of Rain.

adapted his process ; but, as he makes no mention of it, we must
suppose that he did not accomplish its estimation, I shall
describe the process as it is practised in the examination of
waters ; the modifications necessary for other substances con-
tainino: nitrates, will readily occur to the reader. To prevent
confusion, it will be supposed, in the first instance, that the
water contains little or no organic matter in solution. A pint
of the water is introduced into a flask, and rendered alkaline by
a few drops of lime-water, so as to avoid all risk of the loss of
nitric acid in the subsequent evaporation ; the mouth of the flask
is then closed with a cork, furnished with a rather large glass
tube, and drawn out to a comparatively small opening, and by
means of a lamp it is evaporated to a small bulk. The object
of the tube is, by an abundant issue of steam, to prevent the
possibility of any circulation in the bottle of the air of the
laboratory, which might introduce nitric acid. A stream of
carbonic acid is now passed through the liquid, to remove the
excess of lime, which is objectionable in the later stages of the
process ; and the liquid, having been filtered, is transferred by
means of a small funnel to a small globular flask, which is figured
at a in the adjoining woodcut. This flask, as well as the rest
of the vessels used in the operation, must be able to support a
pressure from without of about one atmosphere, but it need nat
be at all thick for this purpose. The flasks which I employ are
globular, and of about 2i inches in diameter ; they are furnished
with necks about 2 inches in length, and -]%- of an inch external
diameter. They hold when full about 2000 grains of water, but
of course not more than two-thirds of this quantity is evaporated in
them at the time ; the flasks weigh, when empty, about 800 grains,
which will serve as a guide to their thickness. The concentrated
water is nov/ further evaporated in the flask a to perfect dryness ;
the last parts of the operation being, for the sake of precaution,
performed in an air bath, at a temperature not exceeding 350"
Fahrenheit. Into the flask is introduced a small quantity (gene-
rally for rain-water about 6 or 8 grains) of pure and dry iodide
of silver ; the quantity of this being of course increased in cases
where a larger amount of nitric acid is anticipated. The bottle is
now connected with the apparatus, as shown in the woodcut.
The little bottle, or tube, Z>, upon which it is convenient to have
a bulb, is partly filled with strong hydrochloric acid, which must
be free from chlorine ; the quantity employed may be from 150
to 200 grains. These flasks, as well as all the parts of the
apparatus, are connected by short India-rubber tubes, which, if of
proper size, are air-tight without being tied. In using them it
is necessary to bring the glass-tubes as nearly as possible into
contact, by which the India-rubber tube is prevented from collaps-

Composition of Waters of Land-Drainacje and of Rain. 153

154 Comj)osition of (''/aters of Land- Drainage and of Rain.

ing upon the withdrawal of the air. The acid-tube and globular
flask being now in position, a vacuum is made in them by a few
strokes of a small air-pump ; the amount of the vacuum can be
observed by the barometer tube c, which at its lower end dips
into a small vessel of mercury. The bottles d and e are
intended to supply carbonic acid ; d consists of a two-necked
bottle, of a capacity of about 2 pints, and containing fragments of
marble ; it is joined to e by means of the tube g, which reaches
nearly to the bottom of each, e is also a two-necked bottle,
holding about 4 pints, and furnished at one of its openings with
a cork and a tube, containing bi-carbonate of potash, for the
purpose of preventing any nitric acid from reaching the apparatus
from external sources. On pressing for a second the little
brass spring clamp A, which is placed on an India-rubber joint,
the carbonic acid diffuses itself through the apparatus, and the
dilute hydrochloric acid contained in the bottle e is forced over
into d, where it gives rise to a further supply of carbonic acid,
which forces the acid back into the bottle e. In this way any
unnecessary waste of the materials is avoided, and the apparatus
does not require renewal for a long time,* The carbonic acid
mixed with the small quantity of air remaining in the flasks is
now removed by the pump, and the vacuum is as before again
destroyed by recourse to the spring h. By repeating 4 or 5
times these operations, which do not occupy as many minutes,
the last portions of air are effectually removed. f The vessels
being now nearly vacuous, the acid in b is, by a little manage-
ment, made to flow into the bottle containing the nitrate and
iodide of silver. The T-piece connecting these is made of glass.
The parts m m m, where one tube joins on at right angles to
another, are short T-pieces either of glass or metal.

By withdrawing the bottle a about a quarter of an inch from the
tube connecting it with the rest of the apparatus, the operator is
now able to shut it off from the latter by means of the clamp z,
which is of course placed in readiness at the beginning of
the operation, Tlie bottle now containing the nitrate, the iodide
of silver, and hydrochloric acid, is placed in a water-bath, which
is conveniently supported on a retort stand, and remains in the
boiling water for about ten minutes. Under these circumstances

* The same object may 'he attained by the use of a double cylinder arrange-
ment, such as is employed in tlie Dobereiner lamp.

"t* It is quite possilde that the air might be removed, though perhaps hardly so
effectually by a stream of carbonic acid m ithout the use of a pump, but there are
many advantages in the employment of this latter which more than compensate
for the extra trouble which it involves in the fitting up of the apparatus, especially
that the vacuum enables us to boil the substances in the flask A without risk of
bursting, which otherwise would be almost certain to occur if, as it must be, the
flask is closed.

Composition of Waters of Land-Drainage and of Rain. 155

the nitrate and hydrochloric acid mutually decompose each other,
Avith the separation of nitric oxide and chlorine ;■ the latter acts
upon the iodide of silver, liberating iodine, the vapours of which,
when the nitrate present is considerable, will be seen to fill the
flask. When the operation is supposed to be complete, the
flask and its contents are allowed to become perfectly cool, or
may be dipped into cold water to hasten this period. The
clamp I is now shifted, and the neck of the bottle restored to its
place in the India-rubber tube, when the same alternate pumping
and admission of carbonic acid are gone through for the removal
of the nitric oxide as were before employed for abstracting the
air. When this is accomplished the flask is separated from the
rest of the apparatus (which is at the time filled with carbonic
acid), and the first part of the process is at an end. The second
part is an application of Professor Bunsen's method — namely, of
converting the iodine into hydriodic acid, by means of an excess
of a standard solution of sulphurous acid, and estimating the
amount of excess of this latter by a standard solution of iodine.
To save reference I will shortly mention the relative strength of
these solutions and the method of using them.

The test solution of iodine is made by dissolving 25 grains of
carefully purified iodine in 1 pint (7000 grs.) of distilled water.
In using it a burette containing 700 grs. is employed, and this
being divided into 100 parts, each part (or septem) contains • 025
(or Vu^h) of a grain of iodine, and represents • 00356 grains of
nitric acid. As it Is easy by practice to read to one-half or even
one-third of a measure, the estimation may be made to * 001 of
nitric acid.

The sulphurous acid solution is of no absolute determinate
strength, but is standarded every day or oftener when experi-
ments are in progress. It is made by mixing 1 part by measure
of a saturated solution of sulphurous acid with about 250 parts
of water. A pipette containing 100 septems (700 grains) is
used for measuring this standard sulphurous acid, and this
quantity will generally require from 30 to 35 measures of the
standard iodine solution for its neutralization.

The sulphurous acid solution is so weak that a portion thrown
on to the palm of the hand will hardly be detected by the smell.
To ascertain its standard value, a pij)ette-full diluted with water
is placed in a pint flask, a few drops of solution of starch arc
added, and the iodine solution is dropped into the mixture
till the* blue colour becomes permanent; a single drop is
enough to produce the change when the point has been arrived
at. When the solution becomes weak, a little more of the
strong sulphurous acid is added. It is conveniently kept in a
large loosely corked bottle, furnished with a syphon tulx", upon

156 Composition of Waters of Land-Drainage and of Rain.

Avhlch is an Indiarubber joint with a brass spring as in Mohr's
burettes.

To ascertain by means of these solutions the quantity of iodine
which has been liberated by the action of the nitric acid, the
contents of the small flask are washed out carefully (and by the
help of a little iodide of potassium to assist in the solution of
the iodine) into a larger flask, the quantity of liquid being made
up with distilled water to about 5000 or 6000 grs, A measured
quantity of the sulphurous acid solution is now added by means
of a pipette ; if sufficient it entirely destroys the colour of the
liquid. A few drops of solution of starch are now introduced,
and the standard iodine liquid is added drop by drop, until the
blue colour of the iodide of starch becomes permanent. A
simple calculation founded upon the known relation of the two
liquids, as before explained, gives the quantity of nitric acid in
the pint of water operated upon in the analysis. If iodine has
been liberated during the process, the sulphurous acid will re-
quire the addition of a smaller quantity for its destruction.
Supposing the standard to be 30 measures of iodine liquid, and
that in an experiment only 20 are required — then as each measure
indicates '00356, the ten measures not required will indicate
• 0356 of nitric acid present in the water examined.

Iodide of potassium was originally employed in this process
instead of iodide of silver. To this substance, however, there
were found to exist two objections : the first of these was, that if
the waters contained sulphates, which would be the case in nine
out of ten, a separation of iodine occurred even in the entire
absence of nitric acid. It is well known that the re-action upon
which Bunsen's process is founded, is reversed when the solutions
are strong ; that is to say, iodide of potassium or hydriodic acid and
sulphuric acid, unless very dilute, mutually decompose one another
with formation of sulphurous acid and liberation of iodine.

In the trials which were made with iodide of potassium, the
hydrochloric acid employed must have liberated sulphuric acid,
which was then acted upon by the hydriodic acid formed at the
same time.*

This objection to the use of iodide of potassium was indeed
successfully removed by the employment of caustic baryta in the
place of lime in the boiling dow;i of the water under examination,
as in this way sulphuric acid was removed from the liquid ; but
another difficulty still remained.

We found that a mixture of hydrochloric acid and iodide of

* This is an additional illustration of the law of Berthollet of the distribution
of acids and bases, as it is clearly seen that hydrochloric acid can decompose a
sulphate. There is no doubt tliat a very delicate process for sulphuric acid and
sulphates might be founded on this circumstance.

Composition of Waters of Land-Drainage and of Rain. 157

potassium gave rise, upon lengthened boiling, to a liberation of
iodine, slight indeed, but still suflicient to impair the delicacy
of the results unless great attention was paid to the duration of
the operation.

Iodide of silver is not subject to either of these objections ;
it is not affected by hydrochloric acid, neither is iodine liberated
from it by sulphuric acid when sulphates are present.* Iodide
of lead was tried, but with a less satisfactory result.

In the foregoing account I have supposed the water to be free
from organic matter, which is, however, seldom the case. The
presence of organic matter, by acting on the nitrate, would very
greatly interfere, unless steps were taken to counteract it. For
this purpose, in almost all cases, I have recourse to a solution of
permanganate of potash ; two or three drops of which are added
to the water in the act of boiling it down. The permanganate
effectually destroys the organic matter with the production of
peroxide of manganese ; it is added drop by drop, so long as the
amethyst tint imparted by it is destroyed ; when this, after some
time, remains permanent in the boiling solution, it is known that
the whole of the organic matter is oxidated. The excess of
permanganate is removed by adding a few grains of carbonate of
lead to the boiling solution, by which peroxide of manganese
and puce oxide of lead are precipitated. When the latter is
sufficiently concentrated, carbonic acid is passed into it as before
mentioned ; the liquid is filtered, and the evaporation is com-
pleted in the small globular flask. The complete dryness of the
product, and the absence, as far as can be, of carbonates, are
desirable on account of the necessity that the hydrochloric acid
should be as strong as possible, in order to act on the last
portions of nitrate.

I now proceed to give instances of the amount of accuracy
which attends this process.

The following are seven determinations of nitric acid in nitrate
of potash repeatedly crystallized. A weak solution of the nitrate
was employed, and a given quantity of it carefully measured by
a pipette, and evaporated to dryness. The quantity of nitrate em-
ployed was 1084 grains, representing 0-585 grains of nitric acid,
the results were — Citric Acid.

1st Experiment 0-582

2nd „ 0-585

Snl „ 0-584

4tli „ 0-581

5th „ 0-580

0th „ 0-584

7th „ 0-583

* In the instances given further on of the delicacy of this process for nitric acid,
-will be found one in which a sulphate was employed without altering the result.

158 Composition of Waters of Land-Drainaf/c and of Rain.

In the last instance 10 grains of pui'e sulphate of lime were
added with the iodide of silver, but without deran2;ing the result.
These results are not selected from a greater number, but were
obtained in seven consecutive experiments. The mean of these
results is as nearly as possible 0"583 (0*5827), as against 0*585,
the quantity of nitric acid experimented upon, or an error of
1 in 291 on the whole quantity. The greatest deviation is
less than 1 per cent, ; that is to say, that for 100 parts of nitric
acid the worst result would show 99.

If, as is very possible, the nitrate after all was not quite pure,
and that the deviations were equal above and below the truth,
they are then still further reduced.

I do not think it necessary to say a word in explanation of the
delicacy of a method, which deals with quantities as a whole,
which heretofore would have been exceeded by the differences of
two expei'lments.

The following are duplicate analyses of different samples of
drainage and rain waters given in the preceding paper —

Nitric Acid in Drainage Waters (Mr. Paine').

Ko.

In a pint.

No.

In a pint.

1st detei

mi nation ..

.. 0-7209

( 1st deterniiuation ..

.. 0-342

1. .

2nd

.. 0-7132

5. 2nd

.. 0-347

1

Mean

?)

.. 0-7170

1 Mean

5

.. 0-34.5

1st

)? ' *

.. 1-478

fist

5

.. 0-807

2. '

2nd

.. 1-470

6. j 2nd

5

.. 0-803

1

Mean

',',

.. 1-474

( Mean

5

.. 0-805

fist

.. 1-272

f 1st

J ' *

.. 1-149

3.

2nd

.. 1-290*

7. j 2ud

5

.. 1-142

Mean

;>

.. 1-281

1 Mean

55

.. 1-146

1st

.. 0-192

4..

2nd

.. 0-197

Mean

55

.. 0-195
Mr. Acland

's Samples.

Ko.

In a pint.

No.

In a pint.

f 1st dctermmation

.. 0-0623

( 1st determination

.. 0-0480

2 A. -! 2nd

.. 0-0633

3 A. 2nd

.. 0-0490

1 Mean

55

.. 0-0628
Mr. HosTiyi

( Mean „
is' Samples.

.. 0-0485

No.

In a pint.

No.

In a pint.

' 1st determination

. .. 0-464

( 1st determination ..

.. 0-441

1.

2nd

. .. 0-461

3. 2nd

.. 0-439

Mean

. .. 0-463 .

( Mean „.

.. 0-440

: 1st

. .. 0-114

fist

.. 0-117

2.

2nd

. .. 0-107

4. 2nd

.. 0-117

' Mean

. ., 0-110

( Mean „

.. 0-117

* The discrepancy here seen was accounted for by an accident to the pump,
-which delayed the experiment.

Composition of Waters of Land-Drainage and of Rain. 159

The foregoing are probably sufficient illustrations of the
accuracy of this process. They are fair instances of the actual
results, and wherever greater deviations are found to occur,
which is very seldom the case, the cause is generally discernible
during the process of analysis, and may be avoided by due care.

It is only further necessary to remark, that the possible sources
of error in this method have been carefully looked into. The
most probable would be the production of nitric acid by the
action of the permanganate of potash, either on ammonia or
nitrogenous organic matter in the waters. I have satisfied myself,
by direct experiments, that in neither case does such production
of nitric acid occur.

Determination- of Ammonia.

The accompanying woodcut will probably be understood
without much explanation. Into the bottle a, which has a
capacity of about 1 gallon (70,000 grains), a quart of the water to
be examined is introduced, together with a small quantity of
lime, and a quantity of recently fused common salt, the object
of which last will be immediately explained. This vessel is con-
nected with the bottle d by glass tubes c of about | of an inch
external diameter.

The vessel c? is a bottle with two necks, into which the glass
tubes are ground ; into this vessel is introduced a solution of
bisulphate of potash, for the purpose of collecting the ammonia
brought over by distillation from the liquid in a.

The tube c connecting these vessels cannot obviously form a
stopper, and at the same time continue of any length into the
bottle d, but a smaller tube is by means of an India-rubber joint
connected with it, so as to dip into the liquid in the vessel d.
The same is true of the tube h, which connects d with e, but
which stops short at about two-thirds of its depth.

The vessel e is surrounded by cold Avater in an outer vessel y.

At r/ the apparatus is connected with the pump at the point li
in the nitric acid apparatus. As these two operations have, in
the case of waters, to be carried on at the same time, it is con-
venient to have the respective apparatus attached to the same
pump.

Such being the arrangement, heat is applied to the water bath h,
and a vacuum is created tliroughout the apparatus by the pump.
When the liquid in a commences to boil, a trilling condensation
at first occurs in the tube c and the vessel d, but these soon come
to have a temperature equal or nearly equal to the liquid in a,
and from tluittime the bubbles of vapour pass througli the liquid
in d, just as would a fixed gas, and are finally condensed in c, so

160 Composition of Waters of Land- Drainage and of Rain.

t

&

Composition of IVaters of Land- Drainage and of Rain. IGl

that no considerable amount of condensation occurs in tlie pump
to impair its action.

In this way we are enabled as it were to icash all the vapour,
causing it to leave behind it any ammonia ^vhich it may contain,
without greatly increasing the bulk of the liquid to be sub-
sequently tested. The operation proceeds regularly and without
requiring much care or attention, except in the occasional im-
provement of the vacuum as a slight leakage may occur. We
may in this way, if we please, distil over the greater part of the
water operated upon.

The object of adding the salt to the liquid to be distilled is
to elevate the point of vaporization of the water, whilst at the
.same time tliat of the ammonia is diminished from the well-
known cii'cumstance that a liquid saturated with a salt has its
power of dissolving gases almost destroyed. We have found
that under these circumstances all the ammonia present is brought
over with one-fifth, and indeed in some instances with one-tenth,
of the w'ater ; but it is preferable to distil a larger quantity.
Bisulphale of potash is substituted for sulphuric acid as a means
of collecting the ammonia, as it may well be supposed to be less
volatile than the latter. The resulting liquid is tested witli a
standard solution of ammonia, of such a strength that each scptem
(7 grains) represents ■02714 grains of ammonia. A neutral solu-
tion of litmus is employed, as is usual in such experiments. It
is proper to state that when this apparatus was used in the way
described an apparent excess of ammonia was frequently ob-
tained, due, tliere can be no doubt, to a mechanical carrying over
of small quantities of the acid liquid in d by the bubbles of
vapour. I believe that Avith care such a result may be avoided.*
The results actually given were obtained by a modification of the
method of using the apparatus. The vessel d was kept cold by
means of an outer vessel of cold water, and the greater part or
the whole of the distilled liquid condensed there, and was tested
at one operation. Even in this form the use of a vacuous appa-
ratus is most desirable, as the process is so regular and so nmch
under control, whilst it is perfectly impossible to suffer loss by
escape of ammonia. Numerous direct experiments have been
made to prove the correctness of this process, but it may be
sufficient to give a few instances of duplicate analyses where the
quantities distilled over and other conditions have been unlike,
and the similarity of result cannot therefore be due to accident.
The following are sucli analyses of the rain-water of five different
months in the year 1855, as mentioned in the foregoing table.

* A plug of asbestos was inserted in the tube at k, but failed to prevent the
acid lifiuid from being carried over.

VOL. XVII. M

162

The Natural History of British Grasses.

The results are given on the gallon : as, however, only one quart
was operated upon, the actual errors are only one-lourth of what
they here seem : —

August ..

( 1st experiment .

2nd „
1 Mean „

Ammonia,
per gallon.

. ^0800

. ^0814

. ^0807

November ■

1st experiment

2nd

Mean „

Ammonia,
per gallon.

.. -0540
.. ^0542
.. -0541

September

( 1st
2nd
I Mean

33

33

. -0950
. ^0949
. ^09495

December ■

1st
2nd
Mean „

.. -0670
.. -0678
.. -0674:

October ..

[1st
2nd
' Mean

33
35
33

. -0610
. -0610
. -0610

The deviations in any two of these analyses are not greater than
those which are inseparable from the best methods of alkalimetry,
and it may well happen that no part of the difference results
from the distillation. In the case of December, for instance, in
which the largest error is seen to occur, the actual difference be-
tween the two determinations on a quart of water is only "0002
of a grain of ammonia — a quantity which is represented by a
quarter of a measure of the test liquid. Now, as this quantity
is little more than one drop, and as it is made as weak as is con-
sistent with the power of the eye to observe the change of colour,
it is obvious that we cannot expect to attain any greater amount
of accuracy. These duplicate analyses are all I can find in my
books as made upon waters ; they are, consequently, in no way
selected for the purpose : they were, moreover, made by different
experimenters.
15, Welheck-street, Cavendisli-square.

VI. — On the Natural History of British Meadoio and Pasture
Grasses. By James Buckman, F.G.S., F.L.S., Professor of
Geology and Botany in the Royal Agricultural College.

Introductiox.

In giving descriptions of grasses, it may be well to set out with
the acknowledgment that these plants form an exceedingly natural
group, which at once supposes that, although they have such dif-
ferences that species can be recognised by careful analysis, they
have yet such agreement in common that the most casual observa-
tion is usually sufficient to determine one of the family to be a
* grass,' or at least to enable us to refer it to the Graminacece, as
the natural order of plants to which it belongs.

Here, then, we see that there must be a great similarity of
parts in species of grasses, and, as these parts are often minute, it

The Natural History of British Grasses. 163

follows that in order to understand descriptions so as to enable us
to distinguish one species from another, or to analyse them, great
care must first be taken to master the minute distinctive characters
which such parts may present. This done, the student of grasses
may soon know them tolerably well, whereas, if neglected, he
may attain to the knowledge of names, but it will only be in a
traditionary manner, and therefore with a constant liability to
error, according as his informer is well or ill acquainted with his
subject.

This paper is intended to illustrate the following subjects : —

1st. An account of the structure of grasses ; and

2nd. To offer a system of classification or arrangement depen-
dent thereupon.*

1. Structure of Grasses. — In grasses we meet with the following
parts, all of which, though tolerably constant in form in indi-
viduals of each species, yet in their variations in species make up
the sum of those distinctive characters which enable the botanist
to separate one species from another. Such are —

The Root, or descending axis, consisting of root fibres and
rhizome.

Culm, or ascending axis, consisting of stem, with its nodes and
joints.

Leaves, the appendages of the axis, consisting of sheath, ligule,
lamina.

Floicers, or reproductive organs, consisting of floral envelopes,
stamens, and pistils.

Seeds, or Fruit, consisting of grains of various forms and sizes.

The roots of grasses usually consist of small fibres, which, in
starting from the seed, burst through the radicle, or seed-root,
like the inner valve of a telescope from the outer ; this, which is
called by botanists Endorhizal, from two Greek words signifying
icithiii a sheath, may be well observed in the germination of such
large grasses as are presented in the cereals, as wheat, barley,
&c. Roots are sometimes hard and wiry, especially in such
species as grow in damp and boggy places ; whilst in others they
are exceedingly flexile, the main roots often creeping great dis-
tances in search of food, and then branching off into innumerable
fibrils, or rootlets, the ends of which, consisting of the newest
cells or growth, form the .ywiir/ioles, or suckers, by which nutri-
ment is taken from the soil into the plant system. It is hence
necessary, in the cultivation of grasses, that the soil for the recep-
tion of "the seed should be of good tilth, and especially that its
mechanical consistency should be such as that it will not greatly

* The description of Species, with an account of their qualities, will follow in
our ne.\t Number.

m2

164 The Natural Historij of British Grasses.

expand in moisture, and so push the plants out of place, — or crack
in drought, in which case the rootlets, or active parts in life and
increase, are broken away just at the period when they are most
required. 'Roots are without buds, from which it will be seen
that all the parts of a grass which grow beneath the surface are
not always true roots, such, for instance, as the runners in the
common couch (Triticum repens). These receive the name of
Rhizome, or underground stems, and it is by means of these that
the couch tribe of grasses so quickly spread from a common and
small centre into large patches ; as, though they creep for a con-
siderable distance, yet their points ultimately rise to the surface
and then expand new leaves, and, in fact, form distinct and
perfect individuals, which, if separated from the parent, all the
more rapidly give rise to independent colonies, and indeed these
scions do as their parent did before them.

Several species of grasses have this tendency, and consequently
when it occurs it forms a good distinctive character. Hence
though the Triticum repens has a rhizome, the T. caninum is onl}^
furnished with a fibrous root ; some of the Peas, as Poa pratensis
and P. compressa, have rhizomes, whilst Poa anmia and P.
trivialis are without any tendency to a creeping habit of growth.

Agriculturally it is necessary to distinguish the different forms
of couch, as the species of one district may be absent from
another ; and as even the rhizome will vary in being large or
small, so will its eradication much depend upon its difference in
form and habit. However, we shall hereafter see that several
species of grass become useful from this very structure in keeping
together banks of sea-coast, canals, and the like ; and it is a
matter worthy of serious consideration and careful experiment
whether they could not be made available in consolidating the
slopes of railway cuttings, which give so much trouble and cause
such constant yearly outlay on some lines.

Culm — Stem (B). — The stems of grasses are usually hollow (y?5-
tular), to which, however, the Molinia cceridea (purple molinia) of
wet places offers an exception in its solid stem. It is rounded,
except in Poa compressa (flat-stemmed meadow-grass), in which
the trivial name has been given from the oval form on a transverse
section, as though it had been subject to compression.

The stem is separated into long or short lengths, c^tWed joints,
by the intervention of nodes (C) (knots), which are solid and tend
much to strengthen the structure of the plant, to which end they
will be found to be closer at the base, where the strain would be
greatest on account of these light plants swaying forwards and
backwards in the wind, and more remote upwards in the culm, from
which are suspended the newer and more active leaves.

Stems may vary in being quite smooth, ribbed, armed with hairs

The Natural History of British Grasses. 165

— which may be long or short — bristly or doivny, in proportion as
this kind of armature may be coarse or harsh, ox fine and soft.

The nodes again may be of a different colour from the culm,
or, like it, may be smooth or armed in a similar manner.

The leaves (D) consist of the following parts : —

D. The sheatli, = petiole, or leaf-stalk of other plants.

D". The ligule, or tongue.

D'". The lamina, = blade, or flat part of the leaf.

The sheath is the footstalk of the leaf. This takes its rise from
the nodes, one from each, arranged on alternate sides of the culm.
The whole length of the sheath, which is variable, is folded
around the culm, from which it can be loosened by unwinding
without fracture, a circumstance which serves to distinguish the
grasses from the sedges [Carex), as the sheath of the latter is a
continuous tube, in which the solid and often triangular culm
is inserted, not folded. This is a distinctive character of great
importance to observe, inasmuch as grasses and sedges are out-
wardly much alike — indeed some species of the latter are called
Cai-nation Grass — but greatly different in quality ; grasses being
for the most part highly nutritious plants, whilst sedges are not
only usually innutritions, but, from the harshness of their herbage,
are often a source of injury and annoyance to the creatures that
from starvation are sometimes doomed to eat of them.

The blade — lamina — D", is the expanded part of the leaf. It
is sometimes large and drooping, as in the larger or flag-like
grasses, but occasionally it is very minute, especially when com-
pared with the sheath, as in the Avena pubescens (soft oat-grass).
In some species the blade is long and the sheath short. The
blade is traversed by longitudinal parallel lines, which are called
the leaf-veins or nervures : these may be broad, narrow, riyid, soft,
armed with rough hairs, and so on, all of which are not only points
of distinction in species, but aid in making up the sum of those
differences which will ever be found in good and bad pasture
grasses : as, for instance, grasses in which the herbage is covered
with long downy hairs are mostly poor and innutritions in quality ;
on the other hand those of a harsh and rigid structure, with ser-
rated leaves, whose edges act as a saw and whose flat blades
perform the office of a file, even if nutritious, would nevertheless
be refused by cattle on account of their mechanical inconvenience.

The ligule, I)'. — At the point where the sheath ends and the
blade begins occui's a thin and usually white semi-transparent
meml)ratie, termed the liyulc, or tongue. This, as it varies so
much in size and form, will be frcc{uently referred to in diagnosis
by some such terms as the following : —

Short, in Poa pratensis, smooth-stalked meadow-grass.

Pointed, in Poa trivialis, rougl.'-stalked ditto.

166 TJie JVatiiral Historij of British Grasses.

Notched, in Bromiis mollis, soft brome or lop grass.

In pairs, in Ammophila arundinacea, common sea-reed.

Its value as a distinctive character may be drawn from an exa-
mination of Boa pratensis and B. trivialis, as it assists at a glance
to distinguish two grasses, much alike in appearance, though
verv distinct in habit and general properties.

The use which this part of the leaf subserves would appear
to be that of more securely fastening the upper part of the
sheath to the culm, as without it the wind would tear the leaves
downwards, in which case their functions would become much,
disturbed, and they would soon wither and die. The flower in
grasses consists of the elements of an entire plant, each bunch
or locusta of flowers being but a grass in miniature, consisting
of a central axis or stem with its alternately arranged leaves, the
stamens, pistils, and seeds in the axils of which are but buds ;
this fact may at once be seen in viviparous specimens, such as
are often found in the Lolium pereime (perennial rye-grass) and
Cynosurus cristatus (crested dog's-tail), in which, instead of
flowers, we have complete buds, which we have indeed detached
and grown as distinct plants of their respective species.

Now, in these examples the case is very different from that of
germination in the ear which takes place in laid and damp
wheat, as in the latter the seeds have been perfected, and ger-
mination takes place from heat and moisture in the usual manner ;
but in viviparous groioth the envelopes and their organs, instead
of growing seeds on the principle of arrested development, go
on growing into branches, and no seed is consequently per-
fected.

Flowers consist of the following parts : —

Glume = outer chaff-scales ] t-i i ^

„, , . ^ a- y ( -T loral envelopes.

Glumel =inner chati-scales J '■

Stamens \ t? ^m- •

T-,. ., ( r ertihzmg organs.

Pistils J * ^

Seeds = grain--=reproductive organs.

Floral envelopes, upon the theory just enunciated, consist of
metamorphosed leaves ; they are arranged in pairs, and each
scale starts from an opposite side of the central axis, but not
from the same point. The outer pair subserves the same use as
the calyx in other plants, and receives the name of calyx, glume
(E) ; the inner pair, or pairs — for sometimes several occur in a
single glume — is termed glumel, and the pieces of which either
are formed obtain the name of valves, the lower one being the
outer and the upper one the inner of each respectively.

The glumes differ in shape, and in the presence or absence of
longitudinal lines or ribs ; it may be large enough to include or
conceal the glumel, or it may be considerably smaller than the

The Natural History of British Grasses. 167

latter. Again, the outer and inner valve may vary in size and
shape, and, indeed, present many differences which will be ex-
plained in simple language in the descriptions of species.

The glumel ( F), corolla, is subject to like differences in form and
proportion, facts which can only be well explained with a speci-
men in one's hand ; and it should not be forgotten that in grasses
we have to deal with plants which, though simple in their struc-
ture, present such minute differences that the eye must become
by use accustomed to examine and trace them, and as so many
characters are necessarily derived from such important organs
as the flowers, which are often small, even a pocket lens will fre-
quently be required to assist the ordinary vision.*

The glumel is often found to be armed by a projecting spine
or beard ; this is of greater or less length, and is termed the
<2?o»,t and may be well observed in bearded wheat and in both
wild and cultivated barleys. This organ, when long and stiff,
and armed as it is sometimes with projecting spicule, renders
grasses where they occur exceedingly objectionable, especially
for hay, though the grass may be good if kept from flowering by
constant depasturing ; such are the species of Hordeum (wild
barley).

The fertilizing organs consist of the stamens (H) which
possess the following parts : —

a. The filament (H'), or thread which supports

h. The anther (H"), or case in which is secreted

c. The pollen, or fecundating dust.
The filament, Ijy reason of its length, may cause the anther
to be exserted or standing out from the flower, or from its short-
ness to be inserted or included in its valves, the anther may be
varied in its colour as follows : — J:

Colourless, Poa annua, annual meadow-grass.

Flesh colour, Phleum pratense, Timothy grass.

Rose in Alopecurus pratensis, meadow ioxtail.

Purple in Aira ccBspitosa, hassock grass.

Yellow, Bromiis mollis, soft brome, and most grasses.

Orange, Bromus erectus, upright brome.

The pollen is usually of a light straw colour, but as it cannot

be well examined without a tolerably good microscope, and even

then would offer but doubtful specific characters, it need not be

further mentioned here. In our British species of grasses we

* For this purpose a lens of ordinarj- power -will suffice, such as may be pur-
chased at the optician's for about 9(/.

t The awn, when present, may represent the blade of a leaf, whilst the glume
and glumel are the representatives of the sheath.

X The colour varies much in the same species, some being more liable to
variation than others.

168

The Natural History of British Grasses.

Poa pratensis.

find three stamens, with but very few exceptions, to each floret,
and hence grasses belong to the Linnsean class Triandria.

The Pistil (K) consists of a style, which is in one or as it
were split into two parts, each surmounted by a stigma (K^
either pointed or feathery ; they are mostly very pale in colour,

The Natural History of British Grasses. 169

but occasionally highly tinted. As our British grasses, with but
one exception in Nardus striata, heath grass, possess two
stigmata, so they belong to the Linnaean order Digynia.

Seeds are sometimes loose in the chafF-scales, as in the wheat ;
in others the glumel is adherent, as in barley ; — a circumstance
which may explain how readily wheat grain is shed when ' dead
ripe,' as the attachment of the seeds to the chaff-scales is much
less firm than that of the flower to the flower-stalk : these facts
fully justify the process of reaping, as involving more care, for
the former, and of the rougher method of mowing for the latter ;
this, however, is now calculated as a matter of expense, and not
one of mere waste.

For the sake of perspicuity the following resume of parts is
added, with references to our figure : —

-rj . /Fibres, A The true root fibres.

\Rhizome .... Creeping undergi'ound stem.

I Culm, B The whole aboveground stem.
Joint A single length from node to node.
Node, C The hard knot between joints.

I Sheath, ry. .. The folding portion of a leaf.
Ligule, D". .. The tongue of the leaf.
Blade, D'". .. The lamina, or free part of leaf.
Floral f Glumes, E. .. The oiiter chaff-scales, in pairs.
Envelopes IGlumels, F. .. The inner chaff-scales, ditto.

IjFilament, H'. .. The thread supporting the anther.
Stamen .. JAnther, H". .. The pouch containing the pollen.
(Pollen The fertilizing dust.
p. .., /Style, K' The support of the stigma.
*■ "IStigma, K". .. The receptacle for the pollen.

Seeds, I The reproductive organ.

N. A barren shoot .. ..A flowerless branch.

Inflorescence. — Thus far we have described the separate parts
of the structure of grasses ; we have now to point out the terms
used to designate these in aggregation, which will be briefly
considered under the following heads : —

a. Herhage, that is the leaf portion, principally concerned

in pasture.
h. Cuhns, or parts which grow upright, and make up so

much of the bulk and weight of hay.
c. Heads of flowers, the various forms which they assume.

a. The quality of grasses depends so much upon the quantity
and pliysical character of the lierbage, that for agricultural pur-
poses these should always be noted with great care ; lience, if
for liay, both bulk and qualit}- is much influenced by luxuriant
leafage, a character in which grasses will be found to difTcr in a
remarkable degree ; if however this be rough and unpalatable,

170 TJlc Natural History of British Grasses.

that is, the ' sour grass ' of the farmer, no matter how great its
quantity, such shouhl be discouraged. Again, if for depasturing,
it will be necessary to note such facts as lonrjevity, and how the
species succeeds in sending up herbage under continual mutila-
tion by feeding off.

Most grass meadows are sometimes mown for hay and then
depastured in the shape of aftermatli, whilst in some years no
hay crop is taken, so that it is necessary to encourage the growth
of all such species as will be found adapted to our soil, and
will there yield us the best return in both hay and herbage.
Connected with this part of the subject we must not omit dura-
tion ; as for permanent pasture perennial grasses are absolutely
necessary, annual species having nothing to recommend them.

h. The Culms of grasses, whether hard and iciry, or soft and
pliable, hitter or saccharine, scanty or abundant, should also re-
ceive attention, as hay, both in quality and bulk, will much
depend upon these circumstances.

c. Heads ofjlowers. — These are aggregated from single locustce,
spikelets, or smaller bunches or bundles of flowers which may
vary in the following manner : —

a. A single glumel to each pair of glume-valves.

h. Two glumels and sets of flowers to a pair of glumes.

c. Three or more glumels to each pair of glume-valves.

Each flower, or locusta of flowers, as h and c would be termed,
may be attached to the stem in various ways :

a. On short upright footstalks (pedicels), in which the flowers
unite into a compact head, called a spike — example, Foxtail
grasses.

1. On longer upright footstalks (pedicels) forming an upright
panicle, as in Bromus mollis, soft brome.

c. On long and flexile footstalks (pedicels) a drooping panicle,
as Bromus asper, rough-stalked brome.

2. Classification.- — In a large group of plants, like the grasses,
their study necessitates their arrangement into smaller groups or
bundles in order to facilitate their analysis, to which end various
charactei's, more or less minute, have been dwelt upon by different
authors. We here choose the method of arrangement that appears
to us as the most simple, making use of the foregoing descrip-
tions and terminology as our guide.

A. — Stamens, 2. Styles, 2.

1. AntlioxantJium — panicle spicate.

2. Hierochloe — panicle las.

B. — Stamens, 3. Style, 1.

3. Nardus — spike unilateral.

The Natural History of Bi-itisli Grasses. 171

C. — Stamens, 3. Styles, 2.

* Spikelets single flowered.
t Floivers sjpiked.

4. Leersia — glumes absent.

5. Alopecurus — spicate, glumes connected at the base, spike compact.

6. Phleum — spicate, glumes distinct, spike compact.

7. Ammopbila — spicate, glumes pointed, with a tuft of hairs at the base,

spike comijact.

8. Lagurus — spicate, glumes with long bristly 'points, spike short and

compact.

9. Phalaris — spicate, glumes broad, glistening seeds, smooth, spike less

compact.

10. Gastridiurii — spicate, glumes swelling at the base, spike less compact.

11. Polyjjogon — spicate, outer glutne awned, spike less compact.

ft FloAvers paniculate, more or less lax.

12. Milium — panicle spreading, glumes herbaceous.

13. Sti^m — panicle erect, glumes coming out to a fine point, inner glumel

with an uvea ten times the length of the flower.

14. Calamagrost is — panicle loose, glumes surrounded by silky hairs.

15. Agrostis — jianicle loose, glumes lancet-shaped, nearly equal.

ttt Flowers spicate, arranged on two sides.
IG. Eottbolia — spikclcts alternate, glumes equal.

tttt Spikelets arranged unilaterally.

17. Spartina — spikelets unilateral, glumes unequal.

18. Cynodon — spikelets in alternate pairs on one side, glumes very nnequal.

19. Digitaria — spikes branched, si^ikelets alternate on one side, glumes very

unequal.

** Spikelets with one or two perfect florets, sometimes with one or additional

florets, which are imperfect.

tt Fertile flowers, one ; imperfect flowers, one or two.

20. Setaria — jianicle spicate, flowers surrounded by bristles.

21. Panicum — panicle spicate, spike-branched glumels, with short hairs.

22. Molinia — panicle contracted but not spicate, glumes acute.

23. Melica — panicle lax, glumes rounded.

24. Catabrosa — panicle spreading, glumes obtuse.

25. Aira — panicle spreading, glumes unequal in size.

26. Triodia — panicle of few locustcp, which are large and tumid.

27. llolcus — panicle lax, florets soft, with do\vny hairs.

28. Arrhenatherum — panicle lax, glumes and glumels with bifid or notched

points.

29. Sesleria — panicle spicate, glumes with trifid, glumels with bifid points.

30. Cynosurus — panicle spicate,flowers hidden in a comb-like shield, involucre

of botanists.

*** Spikelets (locnstce), with three or more perfect flowers,
t Spikelets forming bilateral spikes.

31. Elymiis — spikelets (?.) in twos or threes, both valves of the glume on one

side of the spikelet.

32. Jlordeum — spikelets (/.) in threes, of which only the central one is perfect.

33. Triticum — spikelets (/.) alternate on the central axis {nickis), glumes

transverse to it.

34. Brachypodium — spikelets (7.) alternate on the central axis (rachis),

glumes transverse to it.

172 The Roots of the Wheat Plant.

35. Lolium — spikelets (?.) alternate, not transverse, each with a single glume,
•ft Flowers paniculate, jjanicle more or less lax.

37. Poa — panicle lax, glumes unequal valves, the inner glumel notched at the

extremity.

38. Briza — panicle lax, glumes equal, tumid.

39. Dactylis — panicle somewhat compact, glumes pointed, gluraels awnless.

40. Festuca — panicle lax, glumes finely pointed, glumel with a short a-mi.

41. Bromus — panicle lax, glumes more or less rounded, outer glumel with a

long awn, inner one edged with fine hairs.

42. Avena — panicle more or less lax, glumes thin, transparent membrane,

glumels adherent to the seed.

43. Phragmites — panicle more or less compact, glumes and gli\mels finely

pointed, the latter very imequal.

Now, in the foregoing Table, ^e have arranged 43 genera,
which will be found to include about 125 species. Of these
however only about 20 genera, containing not more than 40
species, will be found to possess any particular interest in an
agricultural point of view ; only these therefore will be fully
described in our forthcoming paper, and their properties and
capabilities pointed out, whilst sufficient reference will be made
to the remaining species to enable the student to refer them to
their proper places.

Cirencester, March, 1856.

y\\.—On the Roots of the Wheat Plant. By James Buckman,
F.G.S., F.L.S., Professor of Geology and Botany in the Royal
Agricultural College.

Prize Essay.

Wheat and all our cereals belong to that division of the endoge-
nous or monocotyledonous class, which, from their glumes or chaff
scales, have received the name oi gliimales. This class is distin-
guished by endogenous stems, non-separable bark, parallel-veined
leaves, and an ovary of a single cotyledon.

The natural order includes the carex or sedge family {cyper-
acece) ; but the grass family {graminacea) is distinguished as
follows : —

1. Graminacece. — Evergreen herbs, Avith cylindrical and usu-
ally fistular stems closed at the joints. The stems are covered
with a coat of silex and are sometimes solid. Leaves narrow,
undivided, with a split sheath, and a membranous expansion
{ligule) starting alternately from the joints {nodes).

2. Cy2)erace(B. — Grasslike herbs, with solid stems, seldom with
partitions at their nodes, frequently angular. Leaves narrow, un-
divided, and when wrapping round the stem it is with a tubular
and not a split sheath.

The Roots of the IVheat Plant.

173

. a

The corn or cereal grasses are cultivated for their seeds, which
consist of the following parts : — the perisperm (diagram 1 a),
which supports b, the embryo,
with its radicle, c, from which in
germination proceed the roots ;
and d, a plumule or bud, which
forms the ascending axis to
support the leaves, and ulti-
mately flowers and fruits or
seeds. These parts are in-
cluded in an integument of two
membranes (e), which, after
grinding, in wheat, is left as
the bran.

e .

h ,.-"

,- ./

- c

Diagram 1.— Grain of IVheat \.

Now, in a perfectly well-formed grain of wheat, the exterior
will be plump and rounded, the integuments unbroken and not
shrivelled. But grain of all kinds is liable to be poor and thin,
and so capable of yielding but little feculent matter, a principle
upon which its feeding properties and commercial value mainly
depend. And it is also subject to many forms of disease, one of
which, ergot, results in a most exaggerated form of the grain,
and converts what would otherwise be nutritious constituents
into matter that is said to act as a virulent poison.

Amongst all the cereals, wheat takes the highest rank, a posi-
tion to which it is entitled from the quantity and agreeable
nature of the nutritive seeds, as also from the strength of consti-
tution of the plant, being suited to almost every climate, and
cultivated in most degrees of latitude from the torrid to the
frigid zone.

This general adaptability to different climatal circumstances
is not, as might at first be supposed, due to a long list of distinct
species, as it is doubtful whether all wiieats ought not to be com-
prehended under one specific form ; but its very liability to
change of form and habit, that is, its facility of making varieties
under different methods of cultivation, such as sowing in atitumn
or spriitg. Its distinctive ccmstitution, such as hard// and delicate,
derived from the difference in climate of its accustomed place of
growth, and, indeed, even the varied proportionals of the che-
mical constituents of different forms, are all so many changes,
induced by the action of external circumstances upon a species
of plant highly susceptil)le of such influences, with, at the same
time, a wonderful facility of j)reserving tlie identity of each form
where such conditions are constant.

It was for some time considered that wheat belonged to the
genus triticum, perhaps from the form of its spike of flowers and
the peculiar flavour of its herbage : tliis latter fact, which be-

174 The Roots of the Wheat Plant.

comes apparent upon crushing the leaves of a young wheat plant
or leaves of the couch — triticum repens — in a peculiar disagreeable
odour, is, doubtless, derivable from the presence of an essential
oil, to which we may perhaps attribute the medicinal properties
which cause the emetic action on dogs ; and this unison of
quality in the herbage of wheat and the wild triticums would
at least lead to the inference of the affinity of the plants pro-
ducing it.

Wheat has of late been decided upon as belonging to the genus
j^ffilops, perhaps all our forms having been produced from the
^gilops ovata. Upon this subject a beautifully illustrated paper
will be found in the Royal Agricultural Society's Journal, with a
detailed account of the experiments by which the changes from
the wild grass to the cultivated wheat were produced by M.
Fabre.

There can now, therefore, be no doubt as to the origin of our
cultivated cereal, and as the author of this Essay has the aegilops
in cultivation he would add that he sees no difficulty in receiving
M. Fabre's conclusions.

These prefatory remarks have been made as concise as
possible consistently with tracing the botanical position and
origin of wheat. I shall, therefore, now proceed with more par-
ticular details in an essay on the development of the roots of
wheat in cultivation, adopting the following divisions, as pro-
posed by the Royal Agricultural Society, in the consideration of
the subject.

1st. Characteristics of roots of autumn and spring sown
wheats.

2nd. Acclimatization.

3rd. Development to what extent affected by top-dressings
at various periods of growth.

4th. Lifting action of frost, commonly called throwing out.
1. Characteristics of Roots, ^t. — In describing this subject it
will be well to point out the facts connected with seed-sowing-
and its progress in the following order : —
a. The preparation of the seed,
h. The processes connected with germination.
c. The after development of winter and spring wheat.
a. There is no plant more liable to attacks from epiphytes,
commonly called blights, than wheat, and experience has taught
the farmer that various chemicals — such as the caustic alkalisy
salts of copper, iron, and arsenic — if used as a pickle to the seed
previous to sowing, prevents blight; and this is attempted to be
explained upon the assumption that these matters kill the
sporules of the fungi, but my own experiments upon this subject,
together with careful investigation, seem to wari'ant the conclu-

The Roots of the Wheat riant.

175

sion that the beneficial action of these substances depends upon
their destroying the germinating power of malformed and dis-
eased seeds.

About three years since I planted four plots of wheat in the
followine: order : —

Mucli diseased

wheat, without

pickle.

2.

Much diseased,

treated with

sulphate of copper.

3.

Perfect picked

seed, without

pickle.

Perfect picked

seed, with

sulphate of copper.

The results of these experiments were as under : —

Plot 1. Much of the seed germinated, but the crop vvas
much blighted, both in straw and grain : in fact, scarcely
a perfect ear of the latter.
Plot 2. A very small quantity of the seed germinated, the

few resulting: ears were free from blight.
Plot 3. Germinated, with a good and clean resulting crop.
Plot 4. The same result as Plot 3.
These experiments show that the pickling of wheat destroys
the seed so as to prevent germination when the seed is diseased
or ill-formed ; but if perfect seed were always employed, no
pickling is at all necessary, it being perfectly true that a
diseased progeny must result from an imperfect stock in plants
no less than in animals.

In committing the seed to the ground, theory confirms the
practical propriety of sowing neither too shallow nor too deep,
as the former renders it exceedingly lialjle to be eaten by birds ;
and if so shallow as to be exposed to light and air, the chemical
changes attendant upon germination are not so carried on as to
ensure the best results. If, again, it be sown too deep, though
the first evil be avoided, yet germination beyond a certain deptli
is next to impossiljk", and if brought about the foUowing evil is
sure to result, namely, the re-rooting takes place at the u])pcr
joints, and the lower parts of the original stem and roots die
away, thus causing a great loss in the vitality of a plant so cir-

176

The Roots of the Wheat Plant.

circumstanced, as may be seen in the annexed diagram, where
the rooting process is just commencing.

r^

Diagram 2 (two- thirds of the actual size).— Blade of wheat rooting badly from deep sowing,
a a, joint roots.

This evil, however, rectifies itself to a considerable extent in
winter sown wheat, but in spring wheat deep sowing always
irretrievably weakens the crop, as there is not time to remedy
the evil in the way pointed out.

Upon this subject the following experiments by Petri may not
be inaptly quoted : —

Seed sown to
the depth of

i inch

1

2
3
4
5
6

Came above
ground in

Number of plants
that came up.

11 days iths.

12

18
20
21
22
23

All.

iths.

•Iths.

4ths.

Iths.

*th.

Tlie Roots of the Wheat Plant. 177

This table demonstrates what I have found in my own experi-
ments in wheat planting — that from 1 to 2 inches is the best
depth ; beyond this the plant becomes liable to joint-rooting, and
besides losing much time in coming up they become thin and
attenuated and do not stool or tiller, or if so this process is weak
and irregular, inasmuch as the lateral buds proceed from the
axils of the leaves, as in diagram 2 a a ; and if one bud succeed
another from below upv/ards, decay of some buds and irregularity
in the growth of others is the result ; if only the upper bud suc-
ceeds, which is the general case, much time is lost in the rectifi-
cation of the plant by the decay of its lower parts.

b. The seed having been sown as evenly as possible at the
required depth the following changes take place. The grain
begins to obtain moisture from the soil, and consequently en-
larges in size : in a few days the embryo shows a great change,
in that it has become enlarged both above and below, the lower
part soon protruding as a rootlet, the upper as a bud, quickly to
develope leaves. Coincident with this proceed the chemical
changes in the cotyledon, from which the germ is supplied with
its food until the roots on the one hand, and the leaves on the
other, become capable of acting, the one as purveyors, and the
other as eliminators of that food with which the plant may be
surrounded in the soil and the atmosphere, and upon which
depends its after welfare.

If wholesome plant- food be in the soil, it progresses favour-
ably ; if the reverse, disease or death will be the result. If the
supply of these be insufficient, the produce is small ; if too
great, we get blighted leaves and straw, with too sm.all a pro-
portional of corn. If bad seed be sown, we have a diseased and
malformed plant, resulting in thin, diseased, and consequently
blighted grain. All this, however, depends upon the air the
plants get to breathe ; if full of noxious vapours, they die ; a
small quantity of such gases as sulphuretted hydrogen, sulphurous
acid gas, and muriatic acid gas, acting as a poison, and thus
preventing wheat from being grown in the neighbourhood of
some chemical and manufacturing works.

c. We now enter upon a more minute description of the sub-
sequent changes that take place in the growth of wheat roots.
After the radicle a, diagram 3, has burst through the in-
tegument lateral rootlets begin to develope themselves to its
right and left, which, in their young state, are but sheaths from
which protrude tlie true roots Z», this method of growth being
distinguished by the botanist as endorrhizal, from the Greek
word Evoov, witlnn, and is a characteristic of endogenous plants,
especially of the grasses. These roots elongate for a greater
or less length without branching, when slight projections mani-

VOL. XVII. X

178

The Roots of the Wheat Plant.

fest themselves, through which shoot branches { fibres), which
themselves go through the same process of branching, giving
rise to (fibrils), a process which will be
the better understood by examining the
following diagrams.

Now during winter this root develop-
ment is fast or slow, according as the
weather is open or mild, and cold and
fi'osty. In cold weather it is nearly
quiescent ; a few mild days, however,
result in one or more fresh rootlets bud-
ding from near the base of the old ones,
coincident with which a bud starts from
the axil of the first leaf.

If the plant be hardy, each of its early
leaves may develope a like bud, when
new roots Avill also start for their nutri-
tion, until we have the initiative of
several heads of wheat from a sinarle
seed. (Diagram 5, figs. 1, 2, a, a.)

Thus we have in the early growth
of wheat the two organs, roots and
Diagram 3.— Germinating Wheat. leaveSj keeping pace with cach other in
a. Radicle. W.j^ootiets. ^^^-j, ,|e,,eiopment, new buds always

Fi!;. 2.

Fig. 3.

Fig. 1.

f Diagram 4 (one-tliird of the actual size). — Winter wheat sown at different times.

Fig. 3. September, 1855. Fig. 2. January, 185G Fig. 1. February, 1856.

a. Kootlets. h. Root fibres. c. Fibrils.

The Roots of the Wheat Plant.

179

causing the starting: of new roots, whilst the older roots branch
into fibres and fibrils : still farther removed from the centre of

Fig. 2. Fig. 1.

Diagram 5. — a, a, a. Buds starting from the axilla of the root-leaves, which ate turned back
to show them.

growth, the older rootlets providing for the necessities of the
primitive plants, whilst the newer ones take care of the more
recent buds.

This process of tillering is much interfered with by the follow-
ing causes. A too thick sowing, like thick planting of trees,
causes the plants to grow up thin and emaciated, and thus the
central axis is elongated ; in which case the lateral buds are not
usually brought to perfection, or, if they do grow, it is only thin
and irregularly, and without a disposition to rebranch ; for it
must be remembered that when lateral branches are strong they
in turn give off others.

Tlie thin mode of growth is induced in even thin sowing with
a very mild autumn and winter, when the wheat is called winter-
])n)U(l. Here, then, the winter has not succeeded in sufficiently
crij)pling the upward growth of the plant ; that is, its develop-
ment has not been arrested, and this explains the principle upon
which a liard winter is often beneficial to the wheat crop, and
which has hitherto been attributed to slucrs and insects bein<x
killed by tlie frost. Upon tliis point, however, it may be re-
marked, that the winter of 1851-5 was one of the severest of
late years, yet insect life in the siiinnier of 1855 was more

N 2

180

The Roots of the Wheat Plant.

of
in
is

prolific than usual, the fact being, that for many weeks the
ground was so hard and frozen that the natural enemies of these
creatures were starving-, such as birds, whilst the dormant insects
suffered compara-
tively little, and
were thus ready to
come forth in my-
riads in early sum-
mer.

The foregoing re-
marks upon winter-
proud wheat, or
otherwise a poor
crop, explain the
action of feeding off
thin or improperly
tillered wheat by
sheep, a mode
farming which
some districts
atten(^d with the
most oeneficial re-
sults ; whilst even
the most unsparing
use of the scythe
we have seen to
work wonders from
a like cause.

Now as the processes hitherto described are dormant or active
in proportion as the weather is colder or warmer, no sooner does
the open weather of spring commence than a renewed action sets
in in the grovvth of the wheat-plant. Many of the older fibres
die in the winter, but in the spring new rootlets are pushed out,
fresh fibrils branch from the fibres, and new buds are produced.
This action goes on until the central axis has considerably
elongated itself, when tillering ceases and the whole energy of the
roots is devoted to supply the plant now rendei'ed larger by
increased leaves and increasing stems, when tillering altogether
ceases, and the tillered stems, varying from 5 to 20, or even
more, according to circumstances, produce ears of grain, which
ripen pretty much at the same time.

In oats, lateral branches start from the axils of the leaves above
ground, and hence tillered oats are mostly mixed with ripe and
unripe branches.

These, then, are the circumstances usually attendant upon the
growth of autumn-sown — usually called winter-wheat — it now

Diagram G. — A lengthened axis of growth.
a, a, a. Buds. h, b, b. rvootlets.

The Roots of the P/heat Plant.

181

remains to consider the difference in these respects in that so\Yn
in spring.

In dealing with this question we must not forget that spri/iff
and autumn wheat are not specijically distinct, and that both the
one and the other may be sown in any month of the year ; a
subject upon which I have experimented again and again, and
thus given a spring wheat the habit of a winter one, and the
reverse.

The following experiments with Red-Lammas wheat was
carried out by myself in 1851-2. A plot of 5 yards square
was drilled at 9 inches apart on the 14th day of each month
of the year: if, however, that fell on a Sunday the next day
after : —

Table of the Growtli of Wheat in each Month of the Tear,

Years.

aionth.

Height

Length of
Head. .

Eemarks.

Ft. in.

1851

June

3 5

3

Clean straw.

July .. ..

2 10

2

Ditto.

August . .

4 1

4

Ditto.

September

3 11

4

Ditto.

October . .

3 10

4

Rather blighted.

November

3 9

4

Ditto.

December

3 10

3i

Much blighted.

1852

January . .

3 10

H

Ditto.

February . .

3 6

4 k

Ditto.

March

■■

(Failed as a crop.

but some

April

May

■■

j ears ripened.

The winter was mild and wet. All the samples were gathered
in August. The September, October, and November plots gave
the best samples. That sown in March, April, and May was by
far the worst of the series. Blight, both in straw and ear, was
most prevalent from December through the spring months. That
sown in June, July, August, and September was clean in the
straw, but the ears of the July sample, though they ripened, were
remarkably small.

From this experiment we see that although our wheat sown in
the autumn months certainly succeeded best, yet that of the
spring months gave a yield ; and indeed winter varieties of wheat
are often not sown until as late as the latter end of February ;
and we must remember that if winter wheat be left until the
spring for sowing, it Ijchaves, in its rooting and tillering, mnch as
spring wheat ; and hence, then, the difference is merely one of
growth, and which may be described in a few words.

182 The Roots of the Wheat Plant.

Winter wheat sends out new roots and fresh fibrils in spring-,
and at the same time tillers and forms tufts, each shoot of which
also roots like the central blade, and all this second growth
occurs just when spring wheat is coming up.

In spring wheat there is little disposition to tiller, as the growth
is quick the root has no period of rest, and therefore its fibres and
fibrils are developed regularly, and have no fresh impulse of
growth like wheat that has stood the cold of winter, and is pre-
pared to meet the milder season of spring, with an invigorated
constitution and appetite that requires new roots and fresh root-
lets to supply. It is on this account that winter wheat can be
transplanted in spring with but little check to its growth, and
even the tufts can be divided into slips, which is indeed a useful
mode of augmenting our crop in experiments upon new and rare
varieties.

In April of last year, 1855, I transplanted a plot of nursery
wheat from a field on the farm to one of my experimental plots :
it was put in rows eight inches apart and about two or three
inches in the rows ; the result of the experiment was, that scarcely
a plant failed, the straw was good, and the ears of corn of unusual
length, and besides, this plot became ripe not later than that in
the field from which my plants were taken.

Another experiment with wheat may be here detailed as tending
to show the general hardy nature of the wheat-plant. In October,
1849, I planted a small patch of wheat, which I kept constantly
cut down during the summer of 1850, so as to prevent the forma-
tion of flowers: it stood the winter of 1850-1, and became a
tolerable crop in the summer of 1851.

Now although the difference in growth of spring and winter
wheat is merely one of degree, it yet entails upon the farmer a
different mode of treatment. Winter wheat may be sown thin,
especially if provision has not to be made against a superabund-
ance of insects, such as wire-worms, slugs and the like.

A Aveak plant or a thin crop can often be repaired in their
effects, by adopting processes to cause tillering, such as mowing,
eating off with sheep, treading, and rolling. A new growth
and fresh vigour can be imparted by special manures, to be
presently more especially adverted to. And even transplanta-
tion may be had recourse to where it would pay for the trouble
and expense.

With respect to sprhif/ sown icheat, as each seed only brings
forth three or four ears, it should be planted thicker in the row
and drill to insure its covering the ground, than in winter wheat;
a treatment required in part, to prevent the ill effects of drought
which is not unlikely to supervene. And as the soil has not a

The Roots of the Wheat Plant. 183

winter before it to mellow and crumble it, it should be more
carefully prepared, and if possible a more even and uniform depth
of sowing should be adopted.

2. Acclimatization. — From what has been already advanced it
will be seen that although wheat is adapted in its varieties to
almost every degree of temperature, succeeding better in tempe-
rate than in tropical heat, it is yet derived from a wild grass
whose natural habitat may be said to be that of a warm climate.
Hence, then, the wheat-plant has great powers of adapting itself
to circumstances, and this is not only so as regards the world at
large, but we shall see, on inquiry, that even the slight inflexions
of difference presented in our own island, nay, even in the up-
lands and lowlands of a single county, have a decided influence
on the growth of the wheat-plant.

If we review the geography of a central county of England, for
example, Gloucestershire, we shall see that it is divided into two
districts — hill and vale : the flat valley of the Severn, extending
from south to north for about 30 miles in length, and nearly
20 broad, has a range of hills on the eastern side, rising from
the vale with a steep escarpment, thus forming the Cotteswold
district, which presents variations in height to as much as 1,200
feet above the level of the sea. Now on these hills the prevail-
ing sorts of wheat will be the hardier red varieties, whilst in the
vale the finer white kinds are those planted on good, well-
drained land ; but in the stiff unmitigated lias clays the heavy,
woolly-eared winter wheat is much cultivated on account of its
enormous yield.

In choosing wheat for seed, attention should always be paiil to
the circumstances of climate and soil. I have many times tried
to grow the spelt wheats from India, but have not succeeded in
ripening it, though at first it grows away freely and gives great
promise. Experiments now pending with yEr/ilops threaten
failure from the difficulty of ripening the seed ; but here, as I
have the wild grass to deal with, and my object is to change it in
form and habit, acclimatization will be an expected result of a
continuance of the experiments.

Seed wheat should always be chosen from a poor soil for growth
on a richer one, and from a cold climate for cultivation in a
warmer : acting contrary to this rule often induces disease and a
shortness in the yield. In Gloucestershire the hill farmer chooses
seed from the exposed chalk wolds of Wilts, whilst the vale
farmer g^ts liis seed from the hills. But in the same manner as
spring wheat may be cultivated into a winter varietv, so may any
sort of wheat Ijccome ac( limatised by careful cultivation : this,
however, sometimes entails a slight change of form, and hence
have arisen tali and dwarf varieties, early and late forms, and

184 The Roots of the Wheat Plant.

others far too numerous to be entered upon in this place. New
varieties of wheat are constantly becoming the fashion with the
agriculturist, but it must not be concluded that this is the result
of caprice, as it is the nature of derivative plants to lose some of
their qualities after a long career of changes, and hence varieties
are always useful as a change ; and the more distinctive these are,
if adapted to our soil and climate, the better.

3. Development : to what extent affected hy top dressings at
various periods of growth. — It would be useless to reproduce in
this place the many analyses that have from time to time been
made of wheat, both as respects its straw and grain, or to attempt
to show from these that the wheat-plant must obtain the in-
gredients of its structure from the media by which it is surrounded,
as these are points which are settled both by practical experience
and theoretical reasoning. We now know that where chemical
matters are constantly being taken from the soil in crops, so must
they be as constantly returned either by direct or indirect means,
and in the growth of wheat we can apportion such substances
either with a view to straw or grain in particular, and indeed
almost determine for the production of an excess of a particular
substance in either.

With respect to crops in general, direct manurinr/ to encourage
their growth is usually adopted. For the cereals, however, and
especially wheat, this plan is seldom deemed advisable ; but pre-
vious crops or a dunged winter fallow Avith roots are usually but
preparatives in practice for the wheat crop, while special manures
ai'e used in various stages of growth or exigences in the progress
of w*heat.

Again, without attempting to decide the question in dispute as
regards the mineral theory of the Baron Liebig, or the nitrogenous
vianures as experimented and written upon by JNIessrs. Lawes
and Gilbert, we yet cannot avoid the conclusion that special
nitrogenous manures applied to the growing wheat are for the
most part remunerative, while the pure mineral manures are not :
indeed the dictum, laid down of mineral manures being best
adapted for roots and nitrogenous kinds for cereals, may, I think,
be deemed a settled matter in practice. Admitting, then, this
conclusion in its simplicity, I would here beg to point out a
reason for the employment of special nitrogenous manures in
cereal crops founded on an examination of the structure of the
wheat leaves on the one hand, and of those of the turnip on the
other, which, though it may in all probability affect future dis-
cussions upon this subject, arc yet not meant as arguments in op-
position to, or support of, one theory or the other.

If we examine the epidermis of the leaf of wheat both from the
upper and under side with a magnifying power of about 250

Tiic Roots of the JJlieat Plant.

185

diameters, we shall be able clearly
to make out the stomata or breath-
ing pores by Avliicli the leaf is
dotted. — (Diagram 7.)

Now what we should here
notice, is that as the wheat-plant
grows upright leaves, and does
not, like the turnip, present a flat
under-side of these organs to the
ground, so the stomata in uiheat
arc as thick on one side of the leaf
as on the other, a condition com-
mon to other upright growing
plants, as the iris, pink, and the
like.

The first sight, however, of a
turnip-leaf shows that it differs
greatly in this respect from that
of the leaf of the wheat : the
lighter colour of its under part
evidencing that a very large ma-
jority of these pores are situate
on the under as compared with
the upper side. — (Diagram 8.)

If, then, we for a moment con-
sider that the leaves are
the respiratory organs
of plants, that they are
concerned in the fixa-
tion of carbon and per-
haps we may add of
nitrogen, and that it is
through the stomata
that the carbonic acid
for the carbon if not
the ammonia for the
nitrogen is respired,
we shall, 1 think, be
able to explain why the
surrounding the wheat-
plant with ammoniacal
manures -at the season
of its most vigorous
growth may be produc-
tive of benefit ; and
though we may in part

Diagram 7 — Stomata of Wheat,
about 250 diameters, 2^9.

Diagram 3— Stomata of Turnip, under side,
about 250 diameters, ids.

186 The Roots of the Wheat Plant.

admit the conclusions concerning the rationale of the action of
these as explained by the chemist, namely, that the ammonia
given off in the chemical changes of the manure is absorbed
by the soil or moisture surrounding the plants and from which
they feed by their roots, yet I cannot help thinking that here
is a new element in the argument.

While we look over a wheat-field on a fine sunny day as
summer advances, and see the dazzling dancing in the atmos-
phere a few feet over the plants, which is caused by the eva-
poration of water through the cellular system of the leaves, we
may know that the crop is pumping up its food from the soil,
but as this is just the time for liberating ammonia also from the
soil, there is, I think, reason to believe that the atmosphere
charged with carbonic acid and ammonia is at this very time
being eagerly respired, and the reason for the development of
root keeping pace with that of leaves, is that the functions of
these two important organs should be duly balanced.

Wheat, in its groioing histoi^j is completed in a few weeks,
although the production of strong plants for growth occupies, in the
winter varieties, many months : and it is just as the neio growth com-
mences that ammoniacal manures are so beneficial, as the nitrogen
therefrom has to be eliminated in a short time, and as the leaves
are small and upright : if we suppose ammonia to be respired by
them, they will require a quicker, and more constant and greater
discharge of this gas, commencing too at a certain time, than is
the case with a plant with large leaves which grow without any
serious interruption from their birth, and whose under surface is
the only inhaling one, and which is so arranged as to insure the
due but more gradual and more certain performance of this office
without loss ; and hence, farm-yard manure, which is buried in
the soil and which gradually decomposes, at first slowly, but
faster the longer it is exposed to atmospheric and chemical
actions, giving its inorganic matters in solution through the roots,
whilst ammonia is given off into the atmosphere; indeed, so
quickly in some of the warm, close days of the early part of
September, that every farmer knows when this valuable crop is
growing fast by the peculiar odour that he is then aware of in
passing a turnip-field.

These remarks, though offered with a great degree of diffidence,
as time for thought and experiment is wanting for its clearer
elucidation, yet seems to open up a wide field for inquiry ; at all
events they would seem to show that, however complete our
chemistry may be, yet in applying it to plant-growth the dif-
ferences in the structure and habits of the plants must not be
overlooked.

As regards the use of manures, the foregoing remarks would

The Roots of the Wheat Plant. 187

tend to the recommendation of them as top-dressings for wheat,
and to be used in the spring or very early summer. Such
manures as are rich in ammonia, and of such a consistency or in
such a condition as to be capable of giving off this gas equally
and abundantly, are those most to be commended ; and if my
notions be correct, the circumstances which would tend to this,
namely, warm days after occasional spring showers acting on a
field in which the soil has been loosened by hoeing, are just those
under which the wheat-plant would grow vigorously and well.

It should be mentioned that the crust which forms in some
soils in winter should be loosened in spring, to facilitate this very
action, as well as to destroy weeds, which latter should never be
allowed in a wheat-field, as being a set of plants whose mode of
respiration is different from the wheat ; from which cause, and
being nearer the soil, they rob the crop of some of its most valu-
able food, and so blighted straw and starved grain is nearly
always the result of dirty farming.

It would make this Essay too long to advert to all the special
manures which have been adopted for top-dressing of wheat ; I
shall therefore only remark upon a few that are most commonly
used, of which the following is a short list : —

1. Decomposed or prepared night-soil.

2. Farm-yard dung.

3. Guano.

4. Nitrate of soda.

5. Soot.

6. Common salt.

If farm-yard manure or night-soil be applied as a top-dressing,
it should be in a high state of decomposition, when it often acts
very advantageously ; but the difficulties attendant upon its ap-
plication are so manifest as in a great degree to discourage their
use. As respects night-soil, could it be rendered in a form in
which it could be readily and equally distributed, its richness in
nitrogenous matters and great abundance ought to ensure its
very general adoption ; but all plans to effect this have hitherto
resulted in rendering it as dear, if not for its results dearer,
than guano or special chemical substances.

Guano has been found in most hands to be a serviceable top-
dressing for the wheat-crop : it is applied in various quantities,
according to the previous cropping and the state and condition of
the land ; but much disappointment has been experienced in its
use from its want of genuineness, or, if good, the state of the
weather has much to do with its success.

Nitrate of soda is often mixed with guano in various propor-
tions. I have seen 1 cwt. to 2 cwt. of guano to the acre produce
very decided effects upon light soil. In this mixture it is likely

188 The Roots of Ulc lllieat Plant.

that the chemical decomposition is more equable and certain than
in either separately ; and besides, the nitrate of soda has such a
great power of absorbing moisture, that in dry days and dewy
nights much good must result from it in this way : this effect is
pi'obably heightened by mixing salt with nitrate of soda. In land
tolerably well farmed, either after seeds or roots that have been
eaten off on the soil, or if removed a dunged winter fallow,* if on
light warm soils, nitrate of soda alone to the extent of 1 cwt. to
the ac:re mixed with an equal quantity of salt has been found
highly useful on the farm of the Royal Agricultural College : so
I am informed by the Professor of Agriculture.

Soot, on stiff clay, usually called cold land, is the most con-
stant top-dressing for wheat ; this I have seen used for many
years past at from 20 to 40 bushels per acre, and consider it
useful not only from the ammonia and alkalis which it contains,
but also to some extent from its colour inducing a more de-
cided action of the sun's rays. It is upon this principle that the
upland farmer, on thin brushy land, objects to its use, as it burns
in dry weather.

Other nitrogenous manures might be mentioned, especially
sulphate of ammonia and nitrate of potash, but in these their
great price is an objection to their extensive use.

Salt, though not nitrogenous, is useful as a top-dressing on
other accounts. A friend of mine always tops from 1^ to 2 cwt.
per acre before ploughing the clover leys, in which case, besides
any chemical action, it may be of great use in killing the larvae
of insects and destroying slugs. He says : " I consider it useful
in checking an undue luxuriance of straw, and it decidedly re-
duces the amount of flag, and is, I think, of great use against
mildew. We always get brighter straw after salt." That salt
has a decided influence is now generally admitted. The chemist
accounts for it on the supposition that it renders the silicates more
soluble ; but whatever its cause of action it seems quite true that
though there is usually less straw when salt is employed, yet it
is generally of a finer texture and far better in colour. The pro-
fessor of agriculture at the Royal Agricultural College informs
me, in speaking of the mixture of salt with nitrate of soda, that
" though the salt is not without its beneficial effect, it is also
useful in facilitating the distribution of the nitrate."

4. Lifting Action of Frost, cotmnonly called throiving out. — Soils
are very varied in their mechanical texture, according to which
they are liable to great changes under atmospheric influences,
amongst which the following are most common : —

* In land which has been by some accident defrauded of the manure which
would ordinarily have fallen to its lot, the action of nitrate of soda is usually very
beneficial.

The Roots of the Wheat Plant. 189

a. Pulverization and Expansion after Frost.
h. Caking after rain.

c. Compression when filled with moisture.

d. Cracking in drought.

a. Some soils hold together with so little tenacity as to be
shifted about by heavy winds with their crops upon them : this is
often the case with soils
made from the disinte-
gration of the more silici-
ous beds of the new red «
sandstone, an evil which

can be prevented by a Diagram 9.-Section of Xew Red Sandstone.

, 1 • r 1 "' Sandstones. 6, Keuper marl.

neavy dressmg ol the

stiffer keuper marls of the same formation, which are usually not
far removed from the sand, often forming the rounded knolls in
Worcestershire, from whence the hauling is usually down hill
with the load. These marls were formerly much used as a manure,
but as they are found to contain no active principles, marling has
been discontinued, but it might still be well to employ it as
above as an ameliorator.

Expansion, which causes the lifting action, takes place very
generally in clunchy clays and marls containing much lime and
argillaceous matter with but a comparatively small admixture of
sand. Frost penetrates into its intestines and by its expansion
in thawing crumbles the land to such an extent that it occupies
a much greater space than it did in its more solid condition, and
hence the lifting action by expansion. Some of the soils on the
chalks and oolites are liable to this, and the result is that the
wheat-plant is frequently lifted out of its place and left unplanted
after the rains have once again rendered the soil more solid in its
texture. This tendency is much mitigated in the winter wheat by
tilth ploughing when after turnips, and here less pulverization is
necessary : much more, however, after seeds, unless the land be
tolerably free from weeds ; but, on the other hand, the roots of
seeds j)rcvent lifting to a consldcra'ole extent.

Much of the injury from lifting is often prevented by the
heavy rains by which frost is sometimes succeeded, which causes
the soil to work down again around the roots, and in dry weather
even to form a pellicle on the surface : this action may be greatly
assisted by rolling, or, as is sometimes done, by sheep-treading in
March, to l)e followed, however, by hoeing and top-dressing, in order
to loosen "the soil, and thus expose it with its chemical matters
to the acticm of the atmosphere at the time of accelerated growth.
The best method which I have observed to obviate the lifting
tendency in soils liable to it is to get as large root crops as ])os-
siblc, ; nd always leave the leaves to be ploughed in. This ulti-

190

TJie Roots of the Wheat Plant.

inately tends to a more equable pulverization, and induces the
formation of a loamy soil by a gradual admixture of vegetable
matter. Farm-yard manure under furrow in such soils, unless
very rotten, sometimes aggravates the evil of lifting, as its de-
composition takes place but slowly, and straws of long dung are
irregular conducting media for water and ice in the soil : it is
for this, among other reasons, that direct manuring for wheat is
not at all in favour certainly in the midland counties.

Expansion takes place in some of the stiff argillaceous lands of
the lias and Oxford clays, in which much rain acts not by causing
crumbling and lifting, but the enlarging of the plastic mass,
which is compressed so tightly around the roots as to deprive
these organs of free power of growth and action. This plastic
element is very injurious to wheat from the comparative slowness
with which chemical decomposition proceeds, as it does not
readily let in either air or light, and besides it is unusually cold,
as all land must be that so resolutely retains water. Here drain-
ing, clay-burning, dressing with town refuse, as ashes and the
like, judicious cropping, the use of long dung, and indeed what-
ever contributes to the disintegration of its present texture, and
admixture with other substances is of advantage. Under these
circumstances of soil one can understand how it is that the farmer
cannot always " get upon" his land — for in some seasons the
plough would turn up clods only to be unbaked bricks, at others
the whole would be a tenacious paste. On such soils again one
does not wonder at the foxhunter calling it a " stiff country," or

Diagram 10.— Sbowlng the effects of the cracking of soil from drought.

Farmyard Maimre. 191

that the farmer should feel especially anxious when the hounds
are out, as evinced by the more than ordinarily earnest warning
of " 'ware wheat" in a field in which the marks of the horses
feet would not be effaced for months.

Cracking in Drought is a condition to which stiff soils are
peculiarly liable: this results in great injury to delicate-rooted
plants, and especially wheat. If, for example, after a long con-
tinuance of March winds, the soil be cracked, as shown in the
diagram (10), it follows that the fibres of the roots are rent,
and then the secondary root growth is impeded, fibrils do not
branch, and therefore when rain fills up the cracks (see diagram)
new rootlets push out from the stems, by which process much
time and vitality is lost : indeed, that power is being spent on
reparation which should have been employed in tillering and
general growth.
Ftb., 1856.

VIII. — On the Composition of Farmyard Manure, and the Changes
which it undergoes on keeping under different Circumstances.
By Dr. Augustus Voelcker, F.C.S., Prof, of Chemistry in the
Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester.

It is generally admitted that the management of farmyard manure,
as carried out in many parts of England, more especially in the
western counties, is often attended with much loss in valuable
fertilising matters. In a country in which large sums are annually
expended by the farming community in the purchase of artificial
food and foreign manures, it might naturally be expected that the
utmost care would be bestowed on tlie treatment of home-made
dung, and that in its preparation the suggestions of improved
practice and modern science would frequently be called into requi-
sition l)y the cultivator of the soil. Experience, however, teaches
that this is far from being the case. It is, indeed, a matter of
surprise, no less to the agricultural chemist than to the more in-
telligent portion of the agricultural community, that there should
exist on the one hand so much ignorance on the first principles
involved in the management of farmyard manure, and on the
other so much indifference as to the best means of preventing
the deterioration of the most important of all fertilizers. For
my own part, however, I cannot share the opinions of those zeal-
ous and, no doubt, sincere agricultural reformers, who describe
the practical fanner as adverse to every now improvement, and
turning a doaf ear to the suggestions of modern science. I know
well how little of what commonly passes as a law of nature, or

192 Farmyard Manure.

a scientific principle, rests on a firm basis, and is derived from
the constant recurrence of a number of well-established facts. I
am well aware how many so-called improvements are the emana-
tions of the heated imagination of empirical theorists, and how
few of the suggestions of even eminent scientific men can be
practically carried out with economy on a large scale. I there-
fore find it quite natural that the agriculturist, often bewildered,
and scarcely knowing how to meet the difficulties that beset his
path in carrying out modern improvements, should relapse into
his old and accustomed course.

The inquiry into the changes which farmyard manure under-
goes in keeping, under various modes of management, unques-
tionably is a subject of great importance ; and I cannot help
therefore expressing astonishment that it has not been taken up
long ago, and submitted to a thorough and searching investiga-
tion. Hitherto our knowledge of this subject has been altogether
very narrow, and this limited knowledge is of such a general cha-
racter that it could not have been attended with any marked
general improvement in the management of farmyard manure.
General, and, in several respects, superficial information on so
important a subject will as little assist the practical farmer in
husbanding his home-made manure as similar information in the
cultivation of root-crops would enable him to grow an abundant
and remunerative crop of turnips. Agricultural chemistry, it strikes
me, has reached that point at which, in order to become really use-
ful to the practical man, it can no longer be prosecuted with suc-
cess by amateur chemists, nor even by scientific chemists, who do
not throw their whole energy into the inquiry, and give their un-
divided attention and time to this noble and eminently practical
branch of applied science. This view appears to be daily gain-
ing ground ; and the time is fast approaching when agriculturists
will no longer look with a certain suspicion on scientific investi-
gations, but hail them with pleasure, aud willingly render that
practical assistance which chemists have long earnestly desired. .
Many important inquiries, which neither the analyst in his labo-
ratory nor the farmer in his fields can solve alone, will then be
brought to a happy issue, and the principle which the Royal
Agricultural Society has adopted for its motto, " Practice with
Science," then, and then only, will bring forth its choicest
blossoms, and be crowned with abundant fruit.

These thoughts were suggested to me on undertaking an ex-
tended inquiry into the changes Avhich farmyard manure under-
goes on keeping, under different modes of management ; and I
feel bound publicly to express my obligations to the enlightened
Principal of our College, for the readiness with which he has-met
my wishes, and placed at my disposal horse and cart, men and

Farmyard Manure. 193

manure, and, in short, that practical apparatus, without which 1
could not have entered on the investigation. During a period of
more than twelve months my leisure and that of my assistant,
Mr. Sibson (to whom I feel greatly indebted for his persevering
zeal and skill in this laborious task), has been almost constantly
occupied in studying the changes which farmyard manure under-
goes on keeping.

It is not mv intention to write a paper on the best manage-
ment of farmyard manure, a subject on which considerable di-
versity of opinion prevails. I may do so, probably, at a future
occasion ; for the present I purpose simply to lay before the
reader the results of my practical and analytical experiments, and
to accompany them with some remarks, which I trust may help to
solve the question, how home-made dung ought to be prepared
and kept in the most profitable manner, so as to develop the full
efficacy of the excrements of our domestic animals, and the litter,
and to guard against loss in the fertilising constituents of dung ?

In undertaking this investigation I encountered a difficulty,
which every one must have felt in experimenting on farmyard
manure, namely, the difficulty of obtaining a sample sufficiently
homogeneous to serve as the basis for future operations. In ex-
perimenting on fresh, or long dung, especially, it is no easy matter
to incorporate the long straw uniformly with the more minutely
divided droppings of animals ; perhaps altogether a perfect mix-
ture of both cannot be realised, and we must therefore be satis-
fied to make the mixture as intimate as the nature of the materials
will permit. I endeavoured to reach this point by employing
two men for the greater part of the day in turning a considerable
quantity of fresh long dung, composed of horse, cow, and pig
dung. By frequent turnings and distributions of the droppings
amongst the long straw I thus obtained a tolerably uniform
sample of mixed farmyard manure, which served as the basis for
all future experiments and analyses with fresh dung. In the same
way, l)ut more easily, a well-mixed samjile of well-rotten dung-,
composed of horse-dung, cows' and l)igs' manure, was obtained
a month later. This rotten dung, however, was not from the
same heap from which the fresh dung last mentioned was ob-
tained, but pr<)l)alj]y liad undergone fermentation for a period of
more than six months. It was wc;ll fermented, dark brown,
almost biac k spit-dung, taken from the; bottom of a corner of the
manure-pit, where the more perfectly decomposed manure is used
to be kept.

In order not to encumber the description of my experiments,
and the statements of the results obtained in them, I shall give,
in an Appendix to this ])aper, a l)rii'f account of tlie methods made
use of in the performance of the following analyses. I may ob-

voL. xvir. <•

194 Farmyard Manure.

serve, however, in this place that the water-determinations in
the experimental heaps were made on the same day on which
they were put up, and that the samples for analysis were taken
at the same time.

Fkesh Farmyard Manure.

Difficult as it is to prepare several tons of dung of a tolerably
uniform character for the experimental heaps, the difficulty is
p'eatly enhanced when a sample fit for analysis has to be chosen.
For analytical purposes large quantities are inadmissible ; and it
becomes therefore a matter of great importance thoroughly to
prepare the small pi'oportion of manure which can be employed
in actual analysis as carefully as possible. To this end I spread
out a weighed quantity of about 20 lbs. of fresh dung, pre-
viously well mixed in the manure-pit, thoroughly pulled it
to pieces, and then allowed it to become air-dry, by keeping
it for some days in a safe place, in a heated room. The
partial loss in moisture having been ascertained by the dif-
ference in the second weight, as compared with that of the first :
the whole of the partially dried manure was passed through a
common coal-sieve ; and the pieces of long straw which refused
to pass through the meshes of the sieve wei'e cut in small pieces
with a large pair of scissors : 1 lb. of the partially dried and
now much more thoroughly mixed manure was then dried in a
water-bath, at 212% until it ceased to lose in weight. The loss
calculated for the original quantity of manure, and added to the
loss which it sustained in becoming air-dry, gave the total per-
centage of moisture in the fresh dung. Another quantity of the
partially dried manure, amounting to 1000 grains, was employed
for the analysis, taken in hand on the 3rd of November, 1854.

This analysis furnished the following general results : —

General Composiiion of Fresh Long Dung {composed of Hoi'se, Coic, and

Fig Filing).

Made Nov. 3, 1855.

In Natural State. Calculated Dry.

Water 6G-17

*Solul)le organic matter 2'48 7-33

So luble inorganic matter 1"54 4'55

•|-Insoh;ble organic matter 25*76 7G*lo

Insoluble inorganic matter 4'05 11'97

100-00 100-00

* Containing nitrogen '149 "44

Equal to ammonia -181 'JS

■j- Containing nitrogen -494 'l-iO

Equal to ammonia -599 "177

Total per centage of nitrogen '643 TOO

Equal to ammonia ^ '780 2-.30

Farmyard Manure. 195

A delicate retldened litmus paper held over the fresh-mixed
dung was not affected at first ; but after the lapse of a couple
of hours, the red colour was slig^htly changed into blue, thus
showing that this fresh dung contained but a very small quan-
tity of free or, properly speaking, volatile carbonate of am-
monia ; for it is in the state of carbonate, and never in a free and
uacombined form, that ammonia is given off from putrefying
substances.

I have endeavoured to determine quantitatively the amount
of volatile compounds of ammonia in fresh manure, by distilling
about 1000 grs,, mixed with about 8 ounces of water, into a
vessel containing dilute hydrochloric acid. This glass vessel
was connected air-tight with the retort on the one hand, and on
the other with a bulb apparatus, used in nitrogen combustions,
and containing likewise dilute hydrochloric acid. By tliis means
very small quantities of volatile ammonlacal compounds may be
thoroughly fixed, and obtained, on evaporation of the acid, in the
receiving vessel and I)ulb apparatus as chloride of ammonia. In
this and the following analyses the amount of ammonia in the
volatile ammonlacal compounds contained in manure is given,
and, for brevity's sake, called free ammonia. At the same time
I have endeavoured to ascertain the proportion of ammonia which,
after tlie volatile ammonia compounds are distilled off, remains
l)ehind in the manure in a fixed state. This portion is mentioned
in the analyses as ammonia in the state of salts. Both the free
ammonia, and ammonia in the form of salts, are included in the
determinations of the total amount of nitrogen (ammonia) con-
tained in the manure.

The fresh manure analysed on the 3rd of November, 1854,
contained in its natural state, and when perfectly dry —

In Natural State. Calculated Dry.

Per ccutagc of free ammonia "034 •!()

,, aiiunonia in the state of salts '088 '26

The amount of volatile ammonia, as Avoll as ready formed am-
monia, existing in the form of ammonlacal salts in fresh manure,
thus appears to be very trifling.

i^lnce tliere exists no complete, trustworthy analysis of tlie asli
of fresh farmyard manure, I thought it advisable to analyse sepa-
ratcl}' the soluble and the insoluble portion of the inorganic
matters present in farmyard manure.

One hundred parts of the soluble inorganic matters in fresh
farmyard manure were found to have the subjoined (ompo-
sition : —

02

196 Farmyard Manure.

Fresh Farmyard Manure.

Analysis made Xov. 3, 1854.

Composition of Ash of j^ortion SoUible in Water.

Soluble silica 15'45

Phospliate of lime 19*44

Lime 4-30

Magnesia '73

Potash 37-26

Soda 3*30

Chloride of Sodium 1"97

Sulphuric acid 3"49

Carbonic acid and loss 14'00

100-00

The portion insoluble in water on analysis yielded the follow-
ing results : —

Fresh Farmyard Manure.

Analysed Nov. 3, 1854.

Composition of Ash of portion Insoluhle in Water.

Soluble silica 23-94

Insoluble silicious matter 13-86

Oxides of iron and ahnnina, with phosphates ,. 14-73

Containing- phosphoric acid (4-41)

Equal to bone earth (9-55)

Lime 27-92

Magnesia 3-54

Potash .. 2-46

Soda -48

Sulphuric acid 1-76

Carbonic acid and loss 14-31

100-00

In the next table the composition of the whole ash whicli was
produced by this sample of fresh manure is stated : —

Fresh Farmyard Manure.

Analysis made Nov. 3, 1854.

Composition of the whole Ash.

Soluble silica 4*25

Phosphate of lime 5-35

^ u

Lime 1-10

Magnesia -20

.3 I, ((Potash 10-26

,o I Soda -92

r^ lO

i Chloride of sodium -54

Sulphuric acid -22

Carbonic acid and loss 4-71

^<

Arranged together

17-3-i

21-59

10-04

10-04

5-35

es 8-47

8-47

(3-18)

(3-18)

(6-88)

(6-88)

20-21

21-31

2-56

2-76

1-78

12-04

•38

1-30

■54

1-27

1-49

10-40

15-11

Farmyard Manure. 197

/ Soluble silica

Insoluble silicious matter (sand) ..

Phosphate of lime

Oxide of iron and alumina, with phosphates

Containing j)hosphoric acid (3'IS)

Equal to bone earth

Lime

Magnesia

Potash

Soda

Chloride of sodiirm

Sulphuric acid

^Carbonic acid and loss

100-00 100-00

Before offering any remarks on the composition of fresh
manure, it may be well to insert in this place a table represent-
ing the detailed composition of fresh farmyard manure : —
Composition of Fresh Farmyard Manure (composed of Horse, Pig, and
Cow Dung, about 1-4 days old).
Analysis made Nov. 3, 1854,
Detailed Composition of Manure in Natural State.

Water 66-17

*Soluble organic matter 2-48

Soluble inorganic matter (ash) : —

Soluble silica "237

Phosphate of lime -209

Lime *066

Magnesia -Oil

Potash '573

Soda -051

Chloride of Sodium '030

Sulphuric acid '055

Carbonic acid and loss "218

1-54

tlnsoluble organic matter 25-76

Insoluble organic matter (ash) : —

Soluble silica '967

Insoluble silica *361

Oxide of iron, alumina, with phosphates .. .. '596

Containing phosphoric acid ("1"^)

Equal to bone earth (-386)

Lime 1-120

Magnesia "143

Potash -099

Soda -019

Suljihuric acid -001

Carbonic acid and ki^s -4S4

4-05

lOu-00

* Containing nitrogeu -140

Equal to ammonia M81

t Contaiiiiiif^ nitrogen '494

Eijual to ummonia -oO'J

Wliole manure contains ammonia in free state .. -034

„ „ in form of salts '088

198 Farmyard Manure.

According to these results, the same manure in a perfectly
dry condition will have the following composition : —

Detailed Composition of Fresh Farmyard Manure in Dry State.

*Soliible organic matter 7"33

Soluble inorganic matter (asli) : —

Soluble silica -703

Phosphate of lime 'hSl

Lime -It^b

Magnesia -033

Potash 1-695

Soda -153

Chloride of sodium -089

Sulphuric acid -035

Carbonic acid and loss "772

4-55

flnsoluble organic matter 76'15

Insoluble inorganic matter ; —

Soluble sihca 2-8Gr)

■^ Insoluble silica 1'659

Oxide of iron and alumina, ^vith phosphates .. 1*404

Containing phosphoric acid ("^28)

Equal to bone earth (-822)

Lime 3-335

Magnesia "424

Potash -294

Soda -077

Sulphuric acid "210

Carbonic acid and loss 1-722

11-97

100-00

* Containing nitrogen "44

Equal to ammonia -53

t Contaiiung nitrogen 1-46

Eqiial to ammonia 1-77

"Whole manure contains ammonia in free state .. -10

„ „ in form of salts -26

Fresh farmyard manure being composed of the droppings of
horses, cows, and pigs, and the straw used for litter, according to
the above determination, in round numbers consists of two-
thirds of water and one-third of dry matters. Since this fresh
manure was not more than fourteen days old, and no rain had
fallen during the time it had lain in the dung-pit, all the water
is due to the urine and the moisture of the droppings and litter.
The quantity of straw employed as litter must necessarily affect
the general composition of fresh dung, and more especially the
amount of moisture which it contains ; but, I believe, we are not
far wrong by saying that fresh mixed dung, in the production
of which litter has been liberally supplied to the animals, when

Farmyard Manure. 199

free from rain, consists of one-third of dry matters and two-thirds
of moisture.

An inspection of the analytical results just mentioned ■will
further brino; to view several interesting: particulars: —

1. In fresh dung the proportion of soluble ortjanic and mineral
substances is small. This cii'cumstance fully explains the slow-
action of fresh dung when compared with the effect which well-
rotten manure is capable of producing.

2. The proportion of insoluble matters, more especially of
insoluble organic matters, in fresh dung, on the contrary, is very
large. By far the larger proportion of the insoluble organic
matters consists of straw, changed but little in its physical cha-
racter and chemical composition.

In the sample of manure analysed the amount of insoluble
organic matters is ten times as great as that of soluble organic
matters, and the proportion of insoluble mineral substances
nearly three times as large as the amount of soluble mineral
matters.

3. Fresh dung contains a mere trace of ammonia in a volatile
state of combination, and but a trifling quantity of ammonia in
the form of ammoniacal salts.

4. The total amount of nitrogen contained in the soluble portion
of fresh manure likewise is inconsiderable. Most of tlie nitrogen
Avhich, as we shall see by and by, is gradually liberated as the
fermentation of dung progresses, is contained in the portion of
the manure which is insoluble in water. In other words, com-
paratively speaking, little nitrogen exists in fresh dung in a state
in whicli it can be assimilated by the growing plants. Thus, in
the sample analysed, the readily available amount of nitrogen in
100 lbs. of fresh dung is only T49 of a lb., whilst about four
times as much nitrogen, or, in exact nund^ers, •494 lb., occurs in
the insoluble portion of 100 lbs. of fresh dung.

5. A comparison of the composition of the organic soluble
matters with the composition of the organic insoluble matters of
fresh dung, however, shows tliat the former are far more valuable
than the latter, inasmuch as the soluble organic matters contain
a verv much larger percentage of nitrogen, and in a state of com-
bination in whicli nitrogen is available to the immediate use of
plants.

This will appear from the following numbers : —

100 parts of organic soluble matters in fresli clung contain CrOA of nitrogen.
lUO ,, insoluble matters ,, „ 1-92 ,,

In the same weight of each there is thus more than three times
as much nitrogen in the soluble organic matters as in the
insoluble or<;anic matters.

200 Farmyard Manure.

6. With respect to the inorganic or mineral constituents of
fresh dung, it will be seen that it contains all those mineral
matters which are found in the ashes of all our cultivated
plants.

7. Comparing the composition of the soluble inorganic matters
with that presented by the insoluble, no essential qualitative dif-
ference is perceived between both, for the same constituents which
occur in the soluble ash are found also in the insoluble ash. But
there exists a striking difference in the quantitative composi-
tion of the soluble and the insoluble mineral matters of fresh
dung.

8. The principal constituent of the soluble ash of fresh dung,
so far as quantity is concerned, is potasli ; 100 parts of soluble
ash, it will be seen, contain no less than o7'26 parts of real
potash, or a quantity which is equivalent to 54"7 of pure
carbonate of potash. The analysis of the soluble portion of
ash of fresh dung gave only 14 per cent, of carbonic acid,
including the loss in analysis ; and as 37'26 of potash take
up 17'5 of carbonic acid in becoming carbonate of potash,
and moreover much of the soluble lime existed in the water-
solution as bicarbonate of lime, it is evident that a consi-
derable quantity of potash is united with silicic acid in the
soluble ash. The large percentage of soluble silica confirms this
view ; fresh farmyard manure thus contains much soluble silicate
of potash.

9. The large amount of soluble silica,' both in the soluble and
in the insoluble ash, are deserving notice. In the soluble ash
this silica is united principally with potash, and probably also
with some soda ; in the insoluble ash it is combined chiefly with
lime, or exists in a finely divided state, in which it is readily
soluble in dilute caustic potash.

10. The most prominent constituent of the soluble ash of fresh
dung is silicate of potash.

11. The most prominent constituent of the insoluble ash is
lime.

12. It is particularly worthy of notice that the soluble ash of
eyen perfectly fresh dung contains a very high percentage oi jjhos-
phate of lime.

The proportion of phosphate of lime in the soluble portion
of ash was in fact found to amount to no less than lO^- per cent,
of the whole soluble ash, whilst the percentage of phosphate of
lime in the insoluble ash was found to be only 9^.

I must confess that I was not prepared to find so large an
amount of a compound which is generally considered insoluble
in water, and for this reason is not enumerated in the published
analyses of farmyard manure amongst the soluble constituents of

Farmyard Manure. 201

dung. Repeated experiments, however, executed with all care
to avoid any possible source of error, have shown me that water
dissolves phosphate of lime or bone-earth much more rapidly
and to a much greater extent than it has hitherto been supposed.
This observation gains much in interest, if it be remembered
that the late Mr, Pusey suggested many years ago a method of
rendering bone-dust more efficacious as a manure for root-
crops. His plan was to place bone-dust moistened with water
and mixed with ashes, sand, or other porous matters in a heap,
and to keep this heap moist by pouring occasionally water upon
it, or, better still, stale urine or liquid manure. The suggestion
has been followed by many with much success. But few may
have known that by adopting Mr. Pusey's plan of reducing bone-
dust still further they have been instrumental in generating that
combination which gives peculiar value to superphosphate of
lime, namelv, soluble phosphate of lime.

In one of the latest numbers of the ' Annalcn der Chemie
und Pharmacie,' edited by Liebig, VVohler, and Kopp, Pro-
fessor Wiililer, of the University of Gottingen, iTiakes the im-
portant observation that bone-dust moistened with a little water,
in the course of a few days yields a considerable quantity of phos-
phate of lime to water, and that this solubility rapidly increases
with the putrefaction of the gelatine of bones. My analysis of
farmyard manure, made a year before the recent notice, which
Professor Wohler gave in the ' Annalen der Chemie,' respecting
the solubility of phosphate of lime in water, may be regarded as
a confirmation of VVohler's direct experiments upon bone-dust,
as well as an interesting scientific commentary on Mr. Pusey's
practical suggestion of rendering bone-dust more efficacious as a
manure for root- crops.

13. The insoluble part of the ash of fresh farmyard-manure
includes the sand, earth, and other mineral impurities, which
mechanically get mixed with the dung. Most of these impuri-
ties are mentioned in the ash-analysrs as insoluble silicious matter ;
another portion is comprehended under oxides of iron and
alumina with phosphates; and a tliird part, probably a (onsider-
al)le j)ortion of tlie mechanical impurities, is included under
lime, for the gravel and soil at Cirencester abounds in carbonate
of lime.

Due allowance must be made for these mechanical impurities
in all considerations resjiecting farmyard manure, otherwise
conclusions will Ijc drawn which the facts of the case do nof
warrant.

14. (linnicalli/ considered Farvu/ard Manure must, be rer/arded
as a ]>erfect and universal Manure. — It is a universal manure,
because it contains a// the constituents which our cultivated crops

202 Farmyard Manure.

require to come to perfection, and is suited for almost every de-
scription of agricultural produce.

As far as the inorganic fertilising sul)Stances are concerned,
"\ve find in farmyard manure : potasli, soda, lime, magnesia, oxide
of iron, silica, phosphoric acid, sulphuric acid, hydrochloric and
carbonic acid — in short, all the minerals, not one excepted, that
are found in the ashes of agricultural crops.

Of organic fertilising substances we find in farmyard manure
some which are readily soluble in water and contain a large
proportion of nitrogen, and others insoluble in water and con-
taining, comparatively speaking, a small proportion of nitrogen.
The former readily yield ammonia, the latter principally give
rise to the formation of humic acids and similar organic com-
pounds. These organic acids constitute the mass of the brown
vegetable substance, or rather mixture of substances, which, prac-
tically speaking, pass under the name of humus.

Farmyard manure is a perfect manure, because experience as
well as chemical analysis shows that the fertilising constituents
are present in* dung in states of combination, which appear to
be especially favourable to the luxuriant growth of our crops.
Since the number of the various chemical compounds in farm-
yai'd manure is exceedingly great, and many no doubt exist in
a different state of combination from that in which they are
obtained on analysing farmyard manure, in our present state of
knowledge it is impossible artificially to produce a concentrated,
universal, and perfect manure, which might entirely suj)ersede
home-made dung.

1 do not refer to the mechanical effect which farmyard manure
is capable of producing. This mechanical effect, especially im-
portant in reference to heavy clay soils, ought to be duly regarded
in estimating the value of common dung, but for the present it
may suffice to draw attention to the fact, that even fresh dung
contains a great variety of both organic and inorganic compounds
of various degrees of solubility. Thus, for instance, we find in
fresh manure volatile and ammoniacal compounds, salts of am-
monia, soluble nitrogenized organic matters, and insoluble
nitrogenized organic substances, or no less than lour different
states in which the one element, nitrogen, occurs in fresh manure.
In well-rotten dung the same element, nitrogen, probably is found
in several other forms. This complexity of composition — difficult,
if not impossible, to imitate by art — is one of the reasons which
render farmyard manure a perfect as well as a universal manure.

EoTTEX Faemyaud IMakuke.

With a view of ascertaining the changes which farm}'ard
manure undergoes in keeping, I submitted to analysis a well-

Farmyard Manure. 203

mixed sample of rotten clung produced under the same circum-
stances under which the fresh manure was obtained. The rotten
dung probably was at least six months' old, possessed a dark-
brown, almost black, colour, and appeared to be well-fermented,
short dung.

The general composition of this dung is presented in the sub-
joined Table : —

Composition cf icell-rotten Manure (Mixed Horse, Coic, and Fig Dung).
Analyzed Dec. 5tb, 1854.

In natural state. Calculated dry.

AVatcr 75-42

•Soluble organic matter 3"71 15*09

Soluble inorganic matter 1-47 5*98

fTnsoluble organic matter 12-82 52*15

Insoluble inorganic matter 6*58 26*78

100-00 100*00

* Containing nitrogen -297 1-21

Equal to ammonia -StjO 1-47

t Containing nitrogen -.309 1-26

Equal to ammonia -375 1-53

Total amount of nitrogen -GOG 2*47

Equal to ammonia -735 3-00

I have determined in this manure likewise the proportion of
ammonia present in a volatile form, as well as the ammonia
which is disengaged on distilling with quicklime tlie residue,
from which the free ammonia has been driven off, and have ob-
tained the following results : —

■ ~ In natural state. Calculated dry.

Percentage of free ammonia *04G '189

„ ammonia in form of salts (readily) .^._ .r)r,o

decomposed by quicklime) / '^ * ""^^

The proportion of free ammonia in well-rotton dung thus
appears not much larger than in fresh dung produced under the
same circumstances ; and the amount of ammonia present in
rotten dung in the form of salts, which are readily decomposed
by quicklime, to be almost identical with that contained in the
fresh manure. Further remarks on the composition of rotten
dung 1 shall reserve until 1 iiavc stated the composition of the
soluble and insoluble ash and the detailed composition of the
whole manure in its natural and dry state. In the following
Taljlc the c()m])osition of the soluble part of the inorganic matters
in well-rotten farmyard manure is given : —

204 Farmyard Manure.

Analysis made Dec. 5, 1854.

Composition of Ash of Portion soluble in Water.

Soluble silica 17'31

Phosphate of lime 26-00

Lime 7-97

Magnesia 3-24:

Potash 30-37

Soda 1-60

Chloride of sodium 2-53

Sulphm'ic acid 3-93

Carbonic acid and loss 7-05

100-00

.On comparing these analytical results with those obtained in
the analyses of the soluble ash of fresh clung, it will be seen that
the amount of soluble phosphate of lime (bone-earth) in the
rotten dung is much greater than in the fresh. Phosphate of
lime, next to potash, is the most abundant constituent of this
ash.

Other differences between the soluble ash of fresh and rotten
dung are too trifling to call for any special remarks. On the
whole, a close similarity in the composition of both is sufficiently
apparent.

The next table represents the composition of the insoluble ash
of rotten dung : —

Analysis made Dec. 5, 1854.

Composition of Ash of Portion insoluble in Water.

Soluble silica 21-65

Insoluble silica 15*35

Oxides of iron and alumina and phosphates .. 14-40

Containing phosphoric acid (4'17)

Equal to bone earth (9*03)

Lime 25'34

Magnesia 1"38

Potash -69

Soda -58

Sulphuric acid '96

Carbonic acid and loss 19'65

100-00

The same constituents which occur in the insoluble ash of
fresh manure are found in the insoluble ash of the rotten dung in
very nearly the same relative proportions. The insoluble ash of
rotten dung, however, contains still less potash, as nearly all pot-
ash is contained in the soluble ash.

From the foregoing results the composition of the whole ash
left on burning of well -rotten dunor has been calculated.

Farmyard Manure.

205

Analysis made December 5, 1854.

Composition of
[ Soluble silica . .

whole Ash.

3-16

4-75

1-44

•59

5-58

•29

•46

•72

1-28

17-69
12-54

11-76

(3-40)

(7-36)

20-70

1-17

•56

-47

'-79
16-05

jT .

Phosphate of lime ..

-§ S

Lime

? o

Magnesia

Potash

« ^

Soda

-^^^

Chloride of sodium ..

's;^

Sulphuric acid

^Carbonic acid and loss
['Soluble silica ..

Arranged together
20-85

Insoluble silica

12-54

Phosphate of lime

4-75

Oxides of iron, alumina
Containing phosphoric i
Equal to bone earth
Lime

with
xcid

phosphates

11-76
C3^40)
(7-36)
22-14

Magnesia

Potash

1-76
6-14

O Al
t— 1

Soda

Chloride of sodium ..

•46
-76

Sulphuric acid

1-51

^Carbonic acid and loss

17-33

100-00

100-00

As the relative proportion of soluble to insoluble ash dif-
fers in rotten from that in fresh dung, the composition of the
whole ash of both presents some variations, observable especially
in the amount of potash, which is much greater in the ash of
fresh dung, and in a minor degree in the proportion of phos-
phate of lime.

In the next place I beg to direct attention to the subjoined
Table, representing the detailed composition of rotten dung ; —

Analysis made Dec. 5, 1854.
Detailed Composition of Manure in Natural State.

Water

•"Soluble organic matter

Soluble inorganic matter (ash) : —

Soluble silica -254

Piiosphate of lime ^382

Lime ^117

^lagnesia ^047

Potash -446

• Soda -023

Chloride of sodium -037

Sulphuric acid -058

Carbonic acid and loss -lOO

75-42
3-71

l-4i

Carry forward

80- (U)

206 Farmyard Manure.

Brought fonvard 80-60

tlnsoluble organic matter 12*y2

Insoluble inorganic matter (ash) : —

Soluble silica 1"424

Insoluble silica I'OIO

Oxides of iron and alumina, with phosphates •047

Containing phosphoric acid C'-^^r)

Equal to bone earth ('^To)

Lime 1-0(37

Magnesia -091

Potash -04:5

Soda -038

Sulphuric acid -063

Carbonic acid and loss 1-295

'^'-'''^

100-00

* Containing nitrogen -297

Equal to ammonia -36

f Containing nitrogen -309

Equal to ammonia -375

Whole manure contains ammonia in free state . . "046

,, ,, form of salts '057

Dried at 212^ F. the composition of this manure is as follows

Composition of the same Manure in dry state.

^Soluble organic matter 15*09

Soluble inorganic matter : —

Soluble silica 1-035

Phosphate of lime l-o54

Lime -476

Magnesia -193

Potash 1-816

Soda p -140

Chloride of sodium -151

Sulphuric acid -235

Carbonic acid and loss -380

5-98

flnsoluble organic matter 52-15

Insoluble inorganic matter : —

Soluble silica 5-79

Insoluble silica 4-11

Oxides of iron and alumina, with phospliatcs 3-85

Containing phosphoric acid C'll)

Equal to bone eartli (2*41)

Lime G-78 .

Magnesia -37

Potash -18

Soda -15

Sulphuric acid -29

Carbonic acid and loss .. .. 5-26

-'"'•"^

100-00

* Containing nitrogen 1-21

Equal to ammonia 1-47

t Containing nitrogen 1-26

Equal to ammonia 1-53

Whole raanm-e contains ammonia in free state .. '18^
„ form of salts '232

Farmijard Manure. 207

The comparison of these analytical results Avith the numbers
ol)tained in the analysis of the fresh manure, exhibits several
strikin<2^ differences, to some of which I he^ to direct attention.

1. The well-rotten dung contains nearly 10 per cent, more
water than tlie fresh. Tiie larger percentage of water, it is true,
may be purely accidental ; but, considering the tendency of the
liquid excrements to sink to the lower part of the manure pit in
which the rotten dung accumulates, I believe rotten dung will
always be found moister than fresh dung upon which no rain
has fallen.

2. Notwithstanding the much larger percentage of moisture in
the well-rotten dung, it contains in its natural state, wdth 75^ per
cent, of water, almost as much nitrogen as the fresh dung, with
only 66 per cent, of moisture. Supposing both to be equally
moist, there Avould thus be considera!)ly more nitrogen in rotten
dung tlian in an equal weight of fresh. This is clearly observed
by comparing the total amount of nitrogen in the perfectly dry
fresh and rotten dung. In the former it amounts to 1"90 per
cent, of nitrogen, in the latter to 2*47. As far as this most
valuable element is concerned, farmyard manure becomes much
richer, weight for w'cight, in becoming changed from fresh into
rotten dung.

3. Daring the fermentation of the dung the proportion of
insoluble organic matters greatly diminishes ; thus the dry fresh
manure contained 76 per cent, of insoluble organic matters, whilst
there were only 52 per cent, in the dr}'^ rotten dung.

4. It is especially worthy of observation that, wliilst the inso-
luble organic matter is m.uch reduced in quantity during the
fermentation, the insoluble organic matter which remains behind
in rotten dung is richer in nitrogen than an equal quantity of in-
soluljle organic matter from fresh dung. Thus 76 per cent, of
insoluble organic matter of fresh dung contain 1"46 per cent.,
wliilst 52 per cent, of it from rotten dung very nearly contain the
same quantity, namely, 1'26. Or, — ■

ino iiarts of insoUihlc organic matter \ , .,., i. r -i

irom fresh auiipi; contain j ^ ^

100 ])arts of insohil>lc organic matter ) ,^ ..

from rotten dung contain .... J " " "

5. On the other hand, the relative proportion of insoluble
inorganic matters increases much during the fermentation of the
dung, since dry fresh dung contains about 12 per cent, of
insoliiI)l(; mineral matters, and dry well-rotten dungs 2t"c,S per
cent., or more than douljle the amount which is found in fresh
dung.

6. But perhaps the most striking diflcrencc in the compo-

208 Farmyard Manure.

sition of fresh and rotten clung is exhibited in the relative pro-
portions of soluble organic matter. Well-rotten dung, it will be
observed, contains rather more than twice as much soluble or-
ganic matters as the fresh ; with this increase the amount of
nitrogen present in a soluble state rises from '44 per cent, to
1'21 per cent.

7. Not only does the absolute amount of soluble nitrogenised
matters increase during the fermentation of dung, but the soluble
organic matters relatively get richer in nitrogen also. Thus, —

100 parts of dry organic soluble matter | (3-14 pe, cent, of nitrogen.

from fresh dung contain ..-...) ■■• =■

100 parts of dry organic sokiLle matter 1 g.^^

from rotten dung contain J ^ " "

8. Lastly, it will be seen that the proportion of soluble mineral
matters in rotten dung is more considerable than in fresh.

9. On the whole, weight for weight, well-rotten farmyard
manure is richer in soluble fertilizing constituents than fresh
dung, and contains especially more readily available nitrogen,
and therefore produces a more immediate and powerful effect on
vegetation.

Bearing in mind the differences observable in the composition of
fresh and rotten dung, we can in a general manner trace the changes
which take place in the fermentation of dung. Farmyard manure,
like most organic matters, or mixtures in which the latter enter
largely, is subject to the process of spontaneous decomposition,
which generally is called fermentation, but more appropriately
putrefaction. The nature of this process consists in the gradual
alteration of the original organic matters, and in the formation of
new chemical compounds. All organic matters, separated from
the living organism, are affected by putrefaction, some more
readily, others more slowly. Those organic substances which,
like straw, contain but little nitrogen, on exposure to air and
moisture at a somewhat elevated temperature decompose sponta-
neously and slowly, without disengaging any noxious smell. On
the other hand, the droppings of animals, and especially their
urine, which is rich in nitrogenous compounds, rapidly enter
into decomposition, producing disagreeable-smelling gases. In a
mixture of nitrogenous substances and organic matters free from
nitrogen, the former are always first affected by putrefaction ;
the putrefying nitrogenised matters then act as a ferment on
the other organic substances, which by themselves would resist
the process of spontaneous decomposition much longer. Without
air, moisture, and a certain amount of heat, organic matters can-
not enter into putrefaction. These conditions exist in the drop-
pings of cattle and the litter of the stables, hence putrefaction

Farmyard Manure. 209

soon affects fresh dung. Like many chemical processes, putre-
faction is accompanied with evolution of heat. Air and water
exercise an important influence on the manner in which the de-
composition of organic matters proceeds. Both are absolutely
requisite in order that putrefaction may take place. Perfectly
drv organic substances remain unaltered for an indefinite period,
as long as they are kept perfectly dry. But too large an amount
of water, again, retards the spontaneous decomposition of organic
substances, as it excludes the access of air and prevents the ele-
vation of temperature, both of whic