Agricultural.

Clutha Leader, Volume II, Issue 57, 12 August 1875, Page 7

Agricultural.

MR HOPE'S iaaPJ&tMNGE AS A FARMER A deputation of tha Scottish Chamber of Agriculture recently waked upon ' the Duke of Richmond and tfe*? Lord Advocate in reference to theCSeottish land tenancy: question. , The chief feature, of, the. proceeding was. a speech made by Hope, who said r-^-" I hope it will not 'be considered egotistical if I confine my remarks . chiefly , to my own. experience as. a practical farmer, and I hope at the close you will be able to see the bearings of this experience on the question at issue. I have been engaged in farming for upwards of 46 years, and for nearly 40 years I have had the management, 'or been the tenant, of a large arable farm in East .Lothian. My great ambition from the first was to improve the inferior land I farmed, so that my crops might be equal to any in the district I used to take long rides every year before harvest to see crops on all the crack farms, and I always returned home dissatisfied and very miserable. However, when the tile draining was discovered, and I had made a trial of it, I saw the first thing necessary was to have all my land thoroughly drained. In six or seven years I got the land all drained, and had put large tiles into most of the deep wide ditches, had them filled up, and the land made arable to the hedgerows. This way of getting quit of ditches saves the expense of an annual cleaning, and improves the appearance and warmth of a farm. In . place of a large plain fallow break, at most not a fourth under turnip crop, I had excellent turnips over the whole. In 1852 I gave up the last three years of my lease, and got a new one at an additional rent of about 16 per cent. If I had not got this new lease I should have left without making a sixpence, and the landlord would have reaped the benefit of all my expenditure during the previous 20 years, by which I had renderedone of his inferior farms equal to the best. It is true I might have reduced my expenditure during the last 3 or 4 years, of the lease of betwixt a rent and a-half and two rents annually for manures and feeding stuflSs, but which would have, been ultimately a loss to myself, the landlord, and the great body of consumers. However, the idea of leaving never once occurred to me. Throughout the whole of this next (ease I managed in the same way as I had done formerly. I never spared expense in improving my farm, and my crops increased in quantity and quality. It is perhaps not generally known that though, by the force of nature, any additional amount of straw may be grown, yet land requires to be a long time in high condition before quantity and quality of grain can ne obtained. . Indeed, while rapidly increasing the condition of land, the quality of the grain crop is deteriorated. The deepening of the active soil is also of the greatest importance. In the first place, it prevents to a large extent the lodging of the grain, which is a common occurrence in wet seasons; and, secondly, it enables all crops to greatly withstand drought in dry ones. It is particularly beneficial to turnip crops, for which Scotland is now famous. After I got a steam plough, which I used during the last years of the lease, I brought a portion of tbe subsoil to the top every autumn, over my whole turnip break, and having : mixed the soils by grubbing 1 , and then manuring them thoroughly, I was I comparatively independent of rain after I had once got a briard, and I found this the case even on very dry sandy soils. To add, 50 per cent, in depth to active soils costs money. But it adds immensely to the security fqr a crop, whether the seasons are wet or dry. Finally, my lease came to a close in 1873, ancl I did not get a chance of renewing it, but this time I had made myself independent of the landlord, and I now farm my own land. I may add it is understood ray own farm was rejet at an increased rent of 50 per cent., which certainly, had not been obtained for any other farm in the district. -I had determined before the closing of my lease to farm to the end as I had throughout, but I certainly grudged the L2OOO or L3OOO worth of unexhausted manure f left in the soil, and for which I should have been paid if I had farmed in Lincolnshire. ; The conclusions I draw.from what I have stated are thai it takes a very largeexpenditure and a very-long., term to put land into the best condition for cropping ; but when that is pncp, obtained ithe profits, are undoubtedly Urge. People have not faith in what land can .really do when liberally treated, and. apparently they will never learn 'until -they they obtain .security for their outlay. I also know if the . outlay for manure or labor is withheld for even one or two years, it. takes double .the, time to regain what has been lost. I have known men who took run- put farms, and who farmed really well,' actually . ruined, simply .because the crop at first yielded badly, while their successors made; mpney from the land having 1 been} brought near, to the paying point. It seems to me only .common justice that outgoing tenants should be paid for all expenditure -left;: by' them in the land which adds to its letting value. Nothing gives me .more pleasure than to see well-managed land and heavy crops, while it is odious to lock at dirty land find half crops. My opinion is that not, ?i fiiftieth part of] the kingdom is farmed as it might and !

should be, but I do ndt ! blame the tenants. At present many of them riiay hot know any better. Still so lon£ as landlords retain the power of confiscating 1 at pleasure the improvements effected by occupiers, I, question if it is advisable for them to act otherwise thanthey do. Even in Scotland, with leases, fhey have often a better chance of a renewal at its close by farming only moderately well, and not presuming' to make money.—' Mark-Lane Express.* ■ We take the following sujrgestive facts from the Leader : — In Germany the National Department of Agriculture has small experimental station? in different parts of the country, where experiments of the most Useful kind are continually in operation. t For exaniple a small paddock of wheat is divided into plots. On one of these is put potash, on another & compound of ammonia, which contains nitrogen j on , anorher a superphosphate; containing lime and phosphoric acid j on another a mixture of these ; on. another stable manure. The manures are carefully analysed and weighed, and the crops measured. By such experiments ihe best fertilisers for various crops are accurately learned. Plants are also raised with the roots grown in jars of water, and having no soil at all. They dissolve in the water, potash, limei pnosphoric acid, and other substances that make up the food of the plant. They put .different mixtures in the jars, and note in which of these the plants grow; well, and in which ones they do poorly. By such trials repeated many times, . they learn what substances are necessary for plant food, and of course indirectly; what are best for different crops. Dr Noble, director of the station at Tharandt, raised in -this way a plant of Japanese buckwheat nine feet high, weighing 4786 fold the weight of the original seed, and .bearing 786 ripe and luß, imperfect suds. In another jar, containing; the same materials except that the potash was left out, the plant grew only two or three. inches and bore no perfect seeds. This experiment often repeated with the game result, proved that the plant could not flourish without potash. In the same way it was proved that the plant would not grow if ihere was no iron or no lime in the water. It ;is also shown what is the office of the various substances in the plant. Noble has learned that without potash no starch can be formed in the leaves. Much of the material of all common plants is first formed in the leaves as starch, amd this is one of the largest constituents of all our grains, and of many root fruits. So it is shown why potash is so valuable as a manure, and why unbleached ashes are much better than those from- which the potash has been bleached out. As to the great value of the beet for. fattening purposes, particularly for pigs, the * American Rural ' says : — An experiment was recently made in New Hampshire upon a Suffolk pig, wherein sugar beets were largely employed for fattening. The animal was about a year old, and the feeding on boiled sugar beets, tops, and roots began on Angust 16, and was continued three times a day until October 1, after which ground feed was given, consisting of two parts of corn and one of pats, three times a day, till the animal was slaughtered, the meal being mixed with cold water. The result was on August 16, when the , sugar beet feeding w»s begun, that ths weight was 360 pounds • September 1, I 390 pounds j October 1, 450 pounds; November 1, 520 pounds. This in the substance of the statement given, by which we perceive that the increase was ? in August, when fed on boiled sugarbeets, was at the rate of increase cm; thesame food continued throughput - Sep- , tember. When fed on ground corn and, oats, made into cold slop, , the, gain for, ; the first sixty days was less than a;, pound and a-half per day. An alarming disease amongst horses' is reported, by the Mount Pyramid correspondent of the * Geelong Adver-j^ tiser':— " The disease that has broken' out amongst horses in this district iscausing a wide-spread feeling of alarmamongst horse-owners. Horses- , are dying oa every-side,; ploughing for fallow is temporarily suspended, and up to the present time no remedy has been discovered to check its headlong career. At first when it appeared it was ahought it was caused by working horses hard, and then turning them loose on the wet q^rass, but it has come to. my knowledge that within the past few days a number of unbroken horses i have died on one of the neigboring stations, which aroves that the first conclusion arrived i at was an erroneous one. The disease can first be noticed by the mouthand tougue swelling, after which the. lips rot and fall off in smallpieces. Many of the selectors are heavy_ losers by it, and Ihave heard of.onerwho has lost six valuable horses ', by, the ; disease. Should it go on as, it has begun,, there. will be fewrhorses left in the district in the course of a few. months." . The Washington Department of Ag- ! riculture has. an organise^ system of receiving, from all parts, of America' useful information, which it publishes monthly. The correspondent from; 'Minnesota, in the 1 December report, alludes to the benefit of' tolling wheat' i against drought v He,says, that while wheat generally , averages fourteen 1 bushels per acre during -the; past season,' his own averages twenty^ and he is satisfied that the difference! in his is mainly owing to a prevention, of injury from drought by thoroughly rolling tlie land,