Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/384

Rh 358 AGRICULTURE ammouia is found to produce a bushel of wheat, and tlie cheapest fonn of ammonia at present being Peruvian guano, 1 cvt. of that substance may be calculated to give 4 bushels of wheat. The natural produce of 16 bushels an acre may therefore be doubled by an application of 4 cwt. of Peruvian guano. To this, however, there is a limit climate. Ammonia gives growth, but it depends on climate whether that produce is straw or corn. In a wet, cold summer a heavy application of ammonia produces an undue de velopment of the circulating condition of the plant, the crop is laid, and the farmer s hopes are disappointed. Seven of corn to ten of straw is usually the most productive crop ; five to ten seldom yields well. The prudent farmer will therefore regulate his application of ammonia with a reference to the average character of the climate in which his farm is situated. &quot;The practical conclusion at which we arrive is this, that in the cultivation of a clay -laud farm, of similar quality of soil to that of Mr Lawes, there is no other restriction necessary than to keep the land clean ; that while it is very possible to reduce the laud by weeds, it is impossible to exhaust it (to a certain point it may be reduced) by cleanly cultivated corn corps ; that it is an ascertained fact that wheat may be taken on soils of this description (provided they are manured) year after year, with no other limit than the neces sity for cleaning the land, and that may best be accomplished l&amp;gt;y an occasional green crop turnip or mangold, as best suits at great intervals, the straw being brought to the most rotten state, and applied in the greatest possible quantity to insure a good crop, which will clean the land well. If these conclusions are satisfac torily proved, the present mode of cultivating heavy clays may be greatly changed, and the owners and occupiers of such soils be better compensated in their cultivation than they have of late had reason to anticipate.&quot; (CiitiJL s English Agriculture, in 1850 and 1851, pp. 460-462.) ! It is certainly curious to observe, tliat the addition of four cwt. of guano brings up the produce of Mr Lawes s acre from its average annual rate of sixteen bushels, under its reduced normal state, to very nearly the same as Rev. Mr Smith s acre under his system of alternate strips of corn and summer fallow. From information carefully gathered, Mr Caird gives it as his opinion, that the average produce of wheat per acre in 20 of the 32 counties of England visited by him is 26 bushels, or 14 per cent, higher than it was estimated at in the same counties by Arthur Young 80 years before. Were the country generally anything like as well cultivated as particular farms that are to be met with in all parts of it, we should have the present average increased by at least eight bushels per acre. G3 Ib per bushel is a weight indi cating a good quality of grain. A good crop of wheat will yield a ton of grain and about two tons of straw per acre. Besides its uses on the farm, wheat straw, in certain limited districts in the south of England, is an article of some value, as the raw material of a not unimportant native manufacture, namely, Straio-Plait. The first straws used for this purpose in this country were grown in the neigh bourhood of Luton in Bedfordshire. This town is still the principal seat of the straw trade and straw bonnet manufac ture, and the district around still produces the finest quality of straws ; but straw-growing is now also carried on in parts of Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, and Berkshire. Light, rich soils are best adapted for this pur pose. The kinds of wheat grown with this view are the Red Lammas and the Chiddam. A bright, clean, tough straw being required, it is necessary to begin reaping before the flag of the straw falls. If the straw is exposed to rain, it becomes rusted or spotted ; if to very hot and dry weather, it gets sunburnt and brittle. The utmost care and energy must, therefore, be used to get the crop dried, carried, and stacked as quickly as possible. In favourable seasons an acre of wheat will yield (besides the grain) from 15 cwt. to a ton of cut straws, of the value of G to 3 per ton, clear of all expenses. The fanner sells his straw to a class of men called straw-factors, who draw and 1 Mr Lawes continues these experiments of growing successive crops of wheat year after year on tlie same site, with no material change in the results after a trial of thirty years. [GRAIN CROPS. cut the straws in his barn. The drawing and cutting-off of the cars being there perf ormed, the factors remove the straw to their own premises. There it undergoes a farther cutting, is exposed to the fumes of sulphur, assorted into proper lengths, and made up into marketable bunches of various sizes and qualities. These bunches are disposed of to the plaiters at the various markets of the district. About 50,000 females and boys are engaged in plaiting. Xo plait is made in factories, the work being performed by the wives and children of agricultural labourers in their own cottages, where it is carried on all the year except in harvest. The straw trade, in its various departments, is of considerable importance and is steadily increasing. The gross returns are supposed not to fall short of 1,250,000 per annum. There is now also a small demand for wheat straw for the manufacture of paper. Section 2. Barley. In Great Britain barley is the grain crop which ranks next in importance to wheat, both in an agricultural and commercial point of view. Its use as bread-corn is confined to portions of the lowlands of Scotland, where unleavened cakes, or &quot; bannocks o barley meal,&quot; still constitute the daily bread of the peasantry. It is more largely used in preparing the &quot; barley broth&quot; so much relished by all classes in Scotland. To fit the grain for this purpose, it is pre pared by a peculiar kind of mill, originally introduced from Holland by Fletcher of Saltoun, in which a thick cylinder of gritty sandstone is made to revolve rapidly within a case of perforated sheet-iron. The barley is introduced betwixt the stone and its case, and there subjected to violent rubbing, until first its husk and then its outer coatings are removed. It is, however, in the production of malt liquor and ardent spirits, and in the fattening of live stock, that our barley crops are chiefly consumed. We have no doubt that it would be better for the whole community if this grain were more largely used in the form of butcher-meat and greatly less in that of beer or whisky. It has been customary for farmers to look upon distillation as beneficial to them from the ready market which it affords for barley, and more especially for the lighter qualities of this and other grain crops. But this is a very short-sighted view of the matter; for careful calculation shows that when the labouring man spends a shilling in the dram-shop, not more than a penny of it goes for the agricultural produce (bnrlcy) from which the gin or whisky is made ; whereas, when he spends the same sum with the butcher or baker, nearly the whole amount goes for the raw material, and only a frac tion for the tradesman s profits. And not only so, but the man who spends a part of his wages upon strong drink diminishes, both directly and indirectly, his ability to buy wholesome food and good clothing ; so that, apart from the moral and social bearings of this question, it can abundantly be shown that whisky or beer is the very worst form for the fanner in which his grain can be consumed. Were the 50,000,000 at present annually spent in Great Britain upon ardent spirits (not to speak of beer), em ployed in purchasing bread, meat, dairy produce, vege tables, woollen and linen clothing, farmers would, on the one hand, be relieved from oppressive rates, and, on the other, have such an increased demand for their staple pro ducts as would far more than compensate for the closing of what is at present the chief outlet for their barley. There are many varieties of barley in cultivation, and some of them are known by different names in different districts. Those most esteemed at present in Berwickshire and neighbouring counties arc the Chevalier, the Annat, and the common-early long-eared. The chevalier produces the finest and heaviest grain, weighing usually from 54 Ib to 5G Ib per bushel, and is in high estimation with maltsters.