Page images
PDF
EPUB

Hafod estate, between October 1795 and April 1801, amount to 2,065,000, of which 1,200,000 arc Larches; that, besides the above Trees, fifty-five acres of land have been sown with Acorns, or planted with Oaks; that Mr. Johnes is still extending his plantations, and greatly improving the scenery of his estate. We are told, that the Cheese sold by him the last season, amounted to four tons, and his Butter 1200lbs. He expects his Dairy will furnish him, during the next year, ten tons of Cheese for sale. Mr. Johnes has been indefatigable in his pursuits in Agriculture; and has not only shown, by practice, what may be done, but in a late ingenious Publication, presented to this Society, entitled "A Cardiganshire Landlord's Advice to his Tenants," pointed out to others the means of doing it.

In a climate so variable as that of Great-Britain, it is of importance to know how to counteract the disadvantages

tages arising from unfavourable autumnal seasons. The Account given by Mr. Brown, of Markle, in Scotland, of the Wheat sown by him in the spring of 1800, and the valuable crop housed the same year, is well deserving attention.

As similar disadvantages of climate attend the housing of Crops when ripe, the method of making Clover-Hay in Courland, communicated by Mr. John Taylor, opens to this country a new line of management for this purpose, which bids fair to be of great utility. The process of vegetable fermentation, in the preparation of Hay, has been hitherto little attended to or understood: the consequence of neglect in this point, has occasioned many stacks of Hay to take fire and be destroyed; which loss the method here recommended may

probably prevent.

Mr. Palmer's method of Housing Corn in Wet Weather, as mentioned in the present Volume, appears to be scarcely known

known in England, but has been successfully practised in Fifeshire, and other parts of Scotland. . The more general introduction of Thrashing-Machines, has been the means of preventing the loss of many crops of Corn in Great-Britain, by affording quick dispatch to the separation of the Corn from the wet sheaf in bad seasons, and (as is proved by Mr. Palmer's experiments) without injuring the quality of the grain.

Immense tracts of Land lie uncultivated in different parts of Great-Britain. As such Land, when once improved, seldom recurs to its orignal barren state, it shows that every improvement of this kind is a source of permanent wealth to the Nation. In few parts of England is the land naturally worse than in the County of Lancaster, or more valuable when improved. In that county, Mr. Fogg, of Bolton in the Moors, has undertaken, with great spirit and judgment, the improvement of a part of a large tract

of

of Waste Land lately inclosed, and has succeeded in the trial with honour and advantage. There is great probability of his example exciting a noble spirit of emulation, for similar agricultural exertions in that neighbourhood. He has also furnished some hints on the propagation of Potatoes, and on the means of preventing a wasteful expenditure of that useful food.

The long continuance of water upon land during the winter season, is perhaps one of the greatest mischiefs that can befall it, and ought most carefully to be guarded against; this has occasioned the adoption of a variety of modes for its removal :-viz. open or covered Drains, made by the spade; Pipe or Tube Drains, made under the surface by Mr. Scott's Mole-Plough ; the triangular Indent, ingeniously contrived by Mr. Middleton, as noticed in the Commercial and Agricultural Magazine, and performed by a cart-wheel,

prepared

prepared for the

purpose, which
which presses

down the grass sod, and, without destroying the grass, furnishes, by the indent which it makes, a passage for the stagnant water. Each of the above methods may have advantages in particular situations, but probably none of them is more generally useful than the DrainPlough, of which a Model was this Session presented to the Society by his Grace the Duke of Bridgewater: it performs the operation of SurfaceDraining with neatness, ease, and celerity; destroys but little herbage, and furnishes, at a trifling expence, in the following spring, an excellent compost for a top-dressing.

The Drill Husbandry continues to gain advocates; and repeated experiments confirm its advantages.

The Public are under great obligations to Thomas Andrew Knight, Esq. of Ludlow, for a Drill Machine for sowing Turnips and other seeds, presented by

« PreviousContinue »