Bibliothèque_britannique_Agriculture_18-pg9-20_eng.txt

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AGRICULTURE .
ANACCOUNT OF THE SYSTEMS ,etc. Table
of the systems of agriculture adopted in
the best cultivated parts of Scotland .
By Sir John SINCLAIR baronet , President of the Department of Agriculture . Edinburgh 1
burgh 1812 . 501:
(Second extract . See p. 457 of the previous value)
:
HERE is the beginning of the author in the part
which deals with crop rotations .
"Of all the subjects of my investigations,
this is perhaps the most important, and the one which offers the most difficulty in discussion. Every farmer must feel that in determining his crop rotation, he must have regard, not only to the quality of the crops for which the safe land is most suitable, and which can give him the greatest profit, but also to the order in which the crops are to be arranged,
to maintain the fertility of the land, or, as Lord Kames said, to make the greatest profit that the
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1conservation of the land in good condition.,,
This is a point on which one cannot
fix with too much care the attention of the readers,
It happens very often that after having employed
much work and time to put
a land in good condition, one seeks to reimburse oneself for these expenses by a series of exhausting harvests, which make the land fall back
to the same point of sterility from which it was drawn; instead of by intermingling the improving harvests with that of the grains, one would have
obtained a greater and more certain profit. There is, in a letter from a correspondent of
the author, a principle that one should always have present, it is that of not asking for a harvest from a land that is not
in good condition. A harvest that is much
below the mediocre , even if
no farm is paid, a loss is made, if this harvest is missed for the reason that
the field is in bad condition, and not by the effect of the accidents of the season. A
The author examines, 1°. the principles, 2°. the
-crop rotations adopted in Scotland; 3°. the crop rotations composed of two different systems
4°. various objects related to the subject.
Among the crop rotations in use in Scotland,
years and three of two ayen
first are only applicable in one-ila. years. The
SYSTEM OF AGRICULTURE, etc. (5)
very small number of cases; the latter are not
of much more frequent application. The author treats at length of the four-year rotations, and first of all the famous rotation of Norfolk, turnips, barley, clover, wheat, which has been adopted in various parts of Scotland. There are several other rotations which have some bearing on this, such as turnips, winter wheat sown in the spring, clover and oats. On the dry lands of the county of East Lothian, there are fields where wheat is sown every two years, because there is a supply of kelp. On the loams, wheat is frequently seen to follow the fallow, and to be followed by oats with meadow seeds. In the neighbourhood of large towns, where there is plenty of manure, and a ready market for potatoes, the following crop rotation is often adopted: potatoes, wheat, clover, oats. As for the Norfolk crop rotation, it has lost its reputation: in the long run, it is not advantageous to the owner,
and it would not be so even to a farmer on a twenty-one-year lease. The too frequent repetition of cereal harvests makes them less abundant, and the quantity of large and small livestock that this crop rotation provides
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is, comparatively, inconsiderable. It is generally thought that wheat
cannot succeed well so close to a crop of barley; and there is little doubt that
crops will be considerably weakened without a large quantity of purchased manure. The author is convinced that these objections
to the Norfolk system are founded on true principles, and that the too frequent repetition of crops takes away from the soil
strengths which all fertilizers cannot repair. He therefore thinks that the only way
to restore lands exhausted by cereal crops is to convert them into meadows for a few years, an operation which can be carried out on all lands and in all situations. Several of the author's correspondents recommend a five-year rotation, the elements of which are not the same for all.

One of the best is that of Mr. Alexander, 1°. turneps; 2°. grains; 3°. meadow; 4°. meadow;
5°. grains. There is a principle of Mr. Mackenzie of Glasgow, approved by Mr. Curwen, and which cannot be spread too widely, it is
never to sow grains except when one
sows at the same time an artificial meadow, or when one
breaks it.
One of the most apposite six-year rotations
SYSTEMS OF AGRICULTURE, etc. (7)
proven for clayey soils is the following, fallow, wheat, clover, oats, beans, wheat. In light soils, turnips or potatoes replace the fallow. This harvest is followed by wheat, barley or oats, then clover and ryegrass grazed for three years, and finally wheat or oats ...
What is called double crop rotations or rotations, is only an extension of the duration of the grass, in order to restore strength to a less fertile soil. During a lease of twenty-one years, each piece in turn remains four or five years in the meadow, before entering into rotation.
The seventh section deals with sowing. It contains many important observations on the care necessary in the
manner of sowing, either by broadcasting or by seeder. The experiments reported by Mr.
Hope, of Fenton, are very satisfactory.
Here is the result of the author's correspondence with the most skilled farmers.
"Turnips and potatoes should always be arranged in rows. As
for turnips, the advantage of expediting the work, the ease of spacing the plants regularly, and the admission of air and sun equally to all, ensure the preference
for this method.,,1
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>>Carrots should be sown in rows, and especially where the topsoil is not very deep.,,

>>>Beans should be sown in rows, not only in easy soils, but also in clayey soils and difficult work. If they were not cultivated in rows, they would be, in a way, excluded from a class of land that can only be cultivated profitably by beans.,,
>>When the aim is to clear a field, peas should be sown in rows; but if the soil is clean and clayey, and the district is subject to strong winds, it is better to sow them by broadcasting ,or in
very close rows.,,
>>Autumn wheat may be sown by broadcasting; but as for spring cereal crops, wheat, barley, or oats, if the soil is light, where annual weeds abound, the crop has a better chance if sown by seeder.,,
In the section of crops, we see that the general custom in Scotland is to use the sickle for harvesting. "A large number of highlanders, men and women, come to harvest in the fertile districts of the plain, for a daily wage and their food. Formerly, in the
AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS, etc. (9)
Before Gowrie, the harvest was done by men who were hired for the whole of the
time, namely, the men at a guinea, and the women at fifteen shillings, besides bread and beer twice a day, and soup in the evening. This came to about five shillings per acre all inclusive. The wages then rose to thirty shillings for the men and twenty for the women, which, because of the increase in the cost of the food
provided , raised the cost of harvesting to ten shillings per acre. At present, the custom prevailing everywhere is to pay in money at an agreed price in parts of twenty-eight small sheaves, each thirty inches in circumference. They are paid at 4pence
for a heap of wheat, and 3pence for a heap
of barley, oats, or peas. Mr. John Schir-
refre remarks that this is the fairest way of paying labourers, because the wages are exactly proportioned to the work done, a thing which does not happen in other
ways of paying their labour.
The only inconvenience of this method is, that the interests of the farmer and the labourers not being the same, it often happens that the latter leave the stubble so long,
that the loss would almost pay the expense of the harvest: it would be necessary to agree with the labourers
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the exact height that the stubble should have at most. This work should always be supervised to ensure that it is carried out correctly. One of the most intelligent correspondents
affirms that, taking all expenses into consideration, it is
impossible to harvest at a lower price than fifteen shillings for the English acre.*
After recommending the placing of the
stacks on a base of stone or metal, he speaks of a method peculiar to Scotland, called bosses. Bases of
stone or cast iron are very useful in rainy years. He describes the formation of the stacks as follows: They begin by placing a triangle for the base of a wooden pyramid, three feet high, above which, and in a vertical direction, is a sack full of straw. So that the ears do not fall into the
pyramid or hump, a wire mesh or straw ropes are put in, then the
slat is started to be built. As it rises, the straw ropes are also raised, so as to keep a corridor or air vent in the
centre of the slat, which gives air to the inside. Careful farmers always take the precaution of making a void
SYSTEMS OF AGRICULTURE, etc. (11)L
in the interior of the wheat stacks, especially
if it is not perfectly dry when it is tied. The care necessary to keep out rats and mice,
which usually do a lot of harm, is too often neglected.
Although in rainy autumns, these
stacks aired in the center are of great advantage, the wheat is still
better when the weather permits, to remain
longer in a small heap. The author discusses in the eleventh section,
the practice justly praised, of feeding
livestock in the green during the summer in stables,
instead of grazing them. He observes that
this practice, known for fifty years
in Scotland, has been generally followed since 1778 in the county of East-Lothian. This subject
has been examined in great detail, but it is not
the case to dwell on it here. The author treats
at length, in the twelfth section, the question of the advisability of having
permanent pastures. This question is discussed for
and against by the correspondents he cites:
some are firm in the opinion that it is
necessary to preserve meadows without breaking them up, others
attempt to prove that this is useless. Both parties appear to be equally wrong in exaggerating, as they do, the conclusions. This is how Sir John himself expresses himself on the subject.1
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"I think it is certainly advantageous to keep in the vicinity of the
farm, one or two enclosures of ten to twenty acres,
of meadow, according to the size of the farm, supposing
that the land is clean, and that water does not remain there. All my
correspondents agree on the suitability of this reserve, but not all
agree that one should never break this piece of meadow: several claim that it is
advantageous to establish this meadow successively
in different pieces.,,
>>In places where fine-wooled breeds of animals are raised, it is maintained that it is
advantageous to have old meadows on which
the ewes make their lambs and eat the
turneps; but Messrs. Rennie and Brown have
proved by their experience, that in
dry and healthy lands, which are the only
ones where sheep are suitable for keeping, a
three-year-old sod has the same effect as a
twenty-year-old sod.„
„It is also maintained that it is advisable to have
old meadows to put cattle on in years when the spring is
extremely dry, and artificial meadows cannot be grazed. However, in good lands,
artificial meadows can always be grazed earlier than natural meadows; unless
AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS, etc. (13)
that the spring is not extremely wet, and in that case, the
means of supplying it have been already indicated.,,
"Meadows watered, either by flooding or
otherwise, cannot of course be ploughed; there are low meadows which
must also be kept as natural grass.,,
The author observes that there is no subject
on which the farmers of Scotland and England differ more than
that of permanent meadows. It is evident, from the above extract, that Sir John considers
permanent meadows as of little necessity. Finally,
he pronounces that they are a loss to the owner, to the farmer, and to the country,
whereas by the admission of an alternative system, the rent could be doubled of a
farm. The author is probably talking about English
farms, because there is no farm in Scotland
that is entirely in pasture.
In the chapter on haymaking, the author
censures Scottish farmers on their negligence in this important operation. Here
is a way of making hay that seems excellent. We will quote the work itself:
"The tipples (small conical bales) must be made as soon as the haystack has dried a little.
If the cut is abundant, each haystack
makes a row of tipples: if the cut is weak, two haystacks are joined together to make a
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rank. The tipple is done as follows: the worker
gathers with her right hand, a certain quantity of hay from the ondin, rolling it; she
does the same with her left hand. These two
rolls together should make a bundle of
ten to twelve pounds, which is placed upright
between the knees. Then the top of the bundle is twisted so as to make it conical,
then the top is tied with the grass itself,
and this cone is placed upright. After a few
hours the outside becomes so smooth that the rain
cannot penetrate into the inside; and
if heavy showers occur, the tipple dries
promptly. When the bundles are dry, they are put in the summer stacks, and
even immediately in the winter stacks. It
is never necessary to open boots
to complete the drying of the hay. There is
not a leaf lost, and the hay is
nearly as green as if it had been dried in
a book for a herbarium. In poor harvests, one woman is enough for one mower; in abundant harvests,
three workers are needed for two mowers. As soon as
the tipples are made and placed upright, the harvest can be considered safe, even if long rains occur (1).११
(1)This is a process little known, even in Scotland,