K '

, mly 17 bushels.

. {bushels per acre.

92 THE FARMERS DEPARTMENT.

ADVANTAGES TO BE DERIVED raoss 'rlu‘. nasraucriou or wnans.

Plants that grow naturally, amon a crop that has been sown, may be regarde as weeds,

" or, in other words, as enemies to the crop that

' is cultivated. IThe destruction of weeds. there- fore, must be considered as one of the most important branches of the a ricultural art; for ifit be neglected. or even s ovenly performed, one third, or one halfofa fair crop, may only be obtained even from the very best soils. Be- sides, it merits consideration that if weeds are suffered to exist, the full advantages of manu-

-~~ring land, and many other improvements, can

only be but partially reaped. Nor is this all ; memixture of weeds in the soil, prevents the crop from receiving the beneﬁcial inﬂuence of the air;—augmeuts the risks at harvest. (for a crop that is clean, may be ready for the stack- yard in much less time than is required to bar- vest it, when encumbered with weeds;)—and the seeds of these intruders, deteriorate the quality of the grain. Notwithstanding all the m uries thence sustained, how many are there, as o hardly ever attempt to remove weeds in an oﬁ'ectual manner? This negligence is the more tobe blamed because, were farmers at the troubleof collecting all sorts of weeds, before they have formed their seeds and of mixing them with rich earth, they would soon be re. duced into a soft pulpy mass, and in this way a pernicious nuisance might be converted into a valuable manure.

Various experiments have been tried, to as- certain the positive advantage derived from care- fully weeding one part ofa ﬁeld, and leaving another part undone; among these, the follow- ing, made with peculiar accuracy, may be

a sly relied on.

‘ l. Wheat—Seven acres of light gravelly land were fallowed, and sown broad-cast; one acre was measured 03‘, and not a weed was pulled out ofit; the other six were carefully wooded. The unweeded acre produced 18 bush- els; the six-weeded acres, 135 bushels, or 22 I! per acre, which is 4 1-2 bushels, or 1-4 more produce in favour of weeding.

I. Barley.-—A six acre ﬁeld was sown with

arley, in ﬁne tilth, and well manured. The

ceding owing to a great abundance of char-

ick, cost 12s. per acre. The produce of an

nweeded acre was only 13 bushels ; of the weeded, 28. Diﬁ'erence in favour of weeding, 15 bushels per acre, besides the land being so much cleaner for succeeding crops.

3. Data—Six acres sown with oats, one acre ploughed but once, and unmanured, produce Another six acres ploughed three times, manured and weeded, produced 37 This experiment proves,

that oats require good management, and will

rpay for it as Well as other erop'. Ten bushels . 0f eincreﬂseﬁl produce may be fairly attri- 3hinted to lie weeding; and the other ten to the manure.

The importance of weeding, both to the in- dividual and to the public is such, that it ought to be enforced by law. At ni- rate, a regula- tion of police, for ﬁning those who harbor weeds, the seeds of which may be blown into

‘ their neibour’s ground, can have noinjustice in

principle. In England, the petty constable might be required. by precept from the high constable. to give in presentiments to the Quarter Sessions, containing alist of allpero sons who suﬁ'ered weeds to run to seed in their bed es or lands, such presentiments to be par- ticu arly speciﬁed to the court. Those refer- ring to the coltsfoot, to be given in at the

THE BRITISH AMERICAN

Lady-day sessions: and those referring to this- tles, ragweed, &c., to be given in at the Mid- summer sessions. An order of court might then be made, for the immediate removal of such nuisances, and if not complied with, the offender should be ﬁned a sum not exceeding ﬁve pounds,one half to the informer, and the other halfto go for the relief of the poor.

It, in consequence of such a system being en- forced,4 1-2 bushels of wheat; 15do. of bar- ley ; 10 do. ofoats additional. were raised in all the ﬁelds in the kingdom, whose crops are in. jured by weeds, what beneﬁts might not be the result? Indeed if such a plan were to take place, and if the overseers were compelled, by an express statute, to employ the poor, in the destruction of weeds, England might, in pro- cess oftime, become as free from that nui- sance, as China or Japan: and the farmers would soon ﬁnd, that however anxious they maybe, to have their lands tithe-free, yet to have them weed free, is of still greater impor- tance.

0n the whole, keeping his land in a clean state, ought. to be a principle object with every farmer, and if this be not carefully attended to, he may rest assured of paying dearly for his neglect. But the losses which he suffers, do not remedy the injury which the public sus- tains from his slovenly conduct. The regula- tions, therefore, which have been suggested, may be considered as both expedient and necessary, for were they adopted, it is evident, that many of the evils alluded to would be re- moyed, and the wealth and agriculture re- cor rces ofthe nation, materially augmented. —binclair’s Code of Agriculture.

Improvement ofthe breed of Horses in F mute..—

The Duke do Guiche has lately published a very interesting paper on the improvement of the breed ofhorses, in which he proposes to conﬁne them to two distinct classes; one, oflight horses, to be obtained by crossing with English horses and Arabian mares, which class Would include race-horses, cavalry-horses, coach- horses, and all those employed in post work and light agriculture. In the the second class he includes waggon-horses, horses for heavy agriculture Work, and all horses for slow and heavy draught. He proposes to establish for each of the two classes a number of haras, (studs) proportioned to the extent of the respec- tive demand. The Duke advances many sen- sible arguments in favor of his plan, and proves that, as the soil and climate of France are decidedly favourable to the breeding of horses, there is no reason why, with judicious crossing, they should not be quite as good as those of Great Britain. The plan has hm?" taken up warmly by the Wrench government, and it is expelled that it Will be carried into almost immediate execution.—Literary Gazette.

Stall Feeding.—One of the quickest and most certain methods of fattening cattle in the stall is by feeding them with bran and linseed oil mixed, the proportion two peeks ofbran a day divided into three feeds; and half a pint of oil to each feed, mixed well for small cattle; the proportion to be increased for large.—-Lam- bert’s Treatise on Farming.

.—

Breeding Live Slock.—AVOIC1 consanguinity and breeding from the same family, or what is commonly termed breeding in-and-in, as such will,ifpersevered in prove highly inju. rious; you must therefore procure our males from those having asimilar breed ut of diﬁ'e. rent blood from you own. Askillful breeder will not use the tops bred on his own farm,

9.0.12

although superior to any he can procure; and those possessed of the best stock, both of the short and long horned cattle; keep two or three ,9.

arate line of blood to avoid consanguinity ; But acrossing with diﬁ'erent breeds will gene, rall disap oint when prolonged in the line, eac bree in its kind should be kept distinct.— lln'd.

To present .Milk from getting scum—To pre. vent milk ﬁom turning sour and curdling as it is so apt to do in the heat of summer, the milk. men of Paris add a small quantity of sub-car. bonate of potash or soda, which saturating the‘ acetic acid as it forms, prevents the coagu. lation or separation of curds, and some of them practice this with so much success as to gain the reputation of selling milk that never (urns. Often when coagulation has taken place they restore the ﬂuidity by a greater or less addition of one or the other of the ﬁxed alkalies. The acetate which is thus formed has no injurious effects, and, besides, milk contains naturally a small quantity of acetate, but not an atom of really a carbonated akali.

It is often asserted, by farmers themselves, that nothing can be made by agriculturists. That this numerous and respectable portion of our citizens, taken as a whole, do in fact take little or nothing more than a bare support for themselves and families, cannot be denied.— But this does not prove the incapability of their business being made lucrative when pro- perly conducted. Its unproﬁtableness there is reason to believe is to be attributed principally to an injudicious and mistaken policy in con- ducting it, or to a carelessness and inattention in cultivating it. Among the capital errors ofour practical farmers may be ranked a dis- regard to manuring and tilling their land suﬁi- ciently. Although much has already been said on this subject, yet it is one that cannot be too often brought in view so long as the present system is pursued. Many of our farmers at- tempt to improve more land than they can attend advantageously. lfthey would expend all their labor and manure on one third, or at most one half the quantity ofland they now do, they would in most instances obtain twenty- ﬁve or ﬁfty per cent more produce; and the danger of atotal failure in their crops greatly lessened.

DUBLIN, August 19.

TITHES—HARVEST lVORK—COUJVTYOF KILKEJV'JV‘Y,

Last 1 uesday a singular seene occurred at Jerpornt, in this county, the seat of William H. Hunt. Esq. one of the Jurors favourable to the accquittal of the Carrickshaugh prisoners, he is also a county Magistrate. A large ﬁeld of wheat, containing 4') acres, had become fully ripe, and his neighbours from the sur- rounding parishes of Kuocktophcr, Ballyhale, Carrickshaugh, Hugginstown, Cashill, Knock- mayland,&c., assembled, to cut it down for him. The Carrickshaugh men mustered 1,300 reaping hooks, and were allowed the honor of marching ﬁrst into the ﬁeld, headed by Mr- Conwa , of Balyhale, who read an appropri- ate ad ress to Mr. Hunt, expressive of their admiration ofthe sense ofimpartial justice by which he was distinguished, and their conviuen tion that his liberal sentiments concerning that ' odious and grievous oppression, the tithes. accorded with those of millions of the people of Ireland. Tu this Mr. Hunt made a suits lo reply. A poetical address was presented to Mrs. Hunt, who gratefully responded, and

I> _