We feel persuaded that if the productive powers of the soil of England, and of her cereal plants, were fully developed, she would be able to export as much, and more, than she now imports*; and unless attempts to effect this are made, with an increasing population, we shall require larger imports annually, and become more and more dependent upon foreigners for a supply of bread-corn. There is, however, a more serious view that may be taken of the subject. At present we are at peace with all the world, and the country is prosperous, so that not only can foreigners supply our wants, but we are able, without great inconvenience, to pay them for what they bring us. But it has not always been thus. The time has been, and within the memory of some of us, when the whole world was shut against us, and when, with a bad harvest, the price of bread rose to such a pitch that every laboring man in the country was in part dependent on parochial relief for the support of himself and family. The population at that period (1801) was only half what it now is, and the strenuous efforts of the Legislature, by causing the inclosure of waste lands, averted the danger of famine which then stared the country in

the face.

No one will deny the possibility that what has once occurred may occur again. No one can say that the state of the world is such that there is no danger of our being again excluded from its grain markets. Whether we look east or west, to the continent of Europe or that of America, we see the elements of future strife fermenting, and none can tell, from day to day, how soon the flames of war may burst forth, or when kindled, how soon they will be extinguished. At the period to which we have referred, with a population of fifteen millions, under the calamity of a bad harvest, the quartern loaf rose to 2s. 6d., and other provisions rose in proportion. What, then, would be cur situation, with a population of thirty millions, and an average annual requirement of upwards of five million quarters of foreign wheat to make up our consumption! Not all the efforts of the government or the legislature would be sufficient to avert the horrors of famine, should our exclusion from

Mr. Hallett grew a plot of wheat in his garden, the plants of which were one foot distant every way. The produce was carefully weighed and measured, and the result was a yield at the rate of nineteen quarters per acre (162 bushels) the seed not being at the rate of more than half a peck per acre. This produce was verified by a gentleman of Brington, who called expressly on Mr. H. to examine into the affair. We can not expect the farmer to cultivate his fields on the gardening principle, but we should be happy to find him attending more to the rationale of production, and nature of the plants he cultivates. We have much to learn still on this head.

At that period, there were two houses erected in Bungay, in Suffolk, in the front wall of which was a stone tablet, with this inscription:-" These houses were begun to be built when wheat was five pounds a comb." It only stood at that price, however, a short time.

foreign ports be accompanied with a deficient harvest like that of 1801, or that of 1816. While we hope for the best, it is wisdom to provide against the worst. And it is equally the interest of the farmer, and of the nation at large, that the productive powers of the soil should be developed to their uttermost. No farmer of common understanding will assert that this is now the case. We see the market gardener raising a produce that brings him in an annual return of £200 per acre, whilst, on the same description of land, the farmer is satisfied with one crop that yields him a produce of less than one-tenth part of that sum. A fair medium between these is in the power of the latter, and that without any material deviation from, or alteration in, the usual course of husbandry, except the exercise of foresight, and greater attention to the nature and peculiarities of plants, and what they require for their full development. This every farmer is or has the means of being acquainted with. The bugbear of increased expense and constant trouble is not worth a passing thought. Any expense it may involve above the ordinary ones will be amply repaid by the saving of seed; and the increased production will be all profit. And as to the trouble, no good can be obtained without it; and certainly the labor the system we have advocated involves, is not more than every farmer ought to exercise, if he wishes to make the most of his land.

FARMYARD MANURE-WHAT IS IT?

Farmyard manure, as generally understood, consists of the excrements of horses, cattle, swine and poultry, with that of any other domesticated animal which may be kept or housed within the farmyard or steading, together with all the straw and other refuse which may have been used as litter in connection with the housing of these animals; and the mode of collecting and preparing these, so as to be applied to the land with as little loss as possible, together with some hints as to its manurial composition and value, form the subject of our present article. Ever since the day of the ancient Romans, down to that of the present age, the value of animal excrements as a manure appears to have been well known, and various modes of collecting and applying it to the soil observed with the nicest attention. Even before the Christian era, the excrement of animals was known to act as an agent in the production of crops from the soil; but down to a comparatively recent date, notions regarding the preparation and application of farmyard manure were quite crude enough, and at the present time its management is either not sufficiently attended to, or not sufficiently understood. A most important consideration for

determining both the method of collecting farmyard manure and the circumstances under which it is collected, is to prevent the escape of ammonia. Not only is nitrogen one of the most important elements in all valuable manures, and in all plants which are valuable as food, but it constitutes the fermentative virus of all putrefactive or fermenting manures, and is the power on which the solubility and digestion of both the animal and vegetable ingredients of these manures depend. Nitrogen is at all times ready to rush into combination with any aqueous matter, so as to form ammonia-that volatile alkali, that pungent smelling gas which rises invisibly, but with sensible effect upon the nasal organs, while in the vicinity of recent dung or urine, or any putrefactive or decomposing body. It may be worth while to know that every pound of nitrogen escaping in this way forms two and a half pounds of ammonia, and when not arrested in the process of evolution and fixed as an aikaline salt, it will escape into the atmosphere and be carried irretrievably away, bearing with it the best virtues of the manure. A simple and efficacious means of preventing the escape of this valuable gas is by the free use of gypsum on all dunghills, stables, byres, dung courts, &c.

The manurial properties of farmyard manure are so dependent upon the proper management of the dungheap as to affect its value from 50 to 70 per cent., and when combustion, or firefanging as it is called, has been allowed to take place, it may be rendered all but worthless. It is also well known that farmyard manure made from poorly fed young cattle may not be equal to that made from feeding cattle by 30 to 60 per cent. -depending much upon the quantity of straw or litter which is allowed to pass into the dungheap. The actual excrement might differ to even a greater extent than that named; but we are here taking extreme cases, as no such difference will be found where young stock are weil managed, although manure from young stock will always be less valuable than that from old and matured animals, feeding in both cases being the same; and if fed on highly nutritious food, such as grain and cake, the manure will be considerably more valuable.

Stable dung, or that made from horses, is much more nitrogenous, and consequently more valuable than that made from cattle; but as stable dung frequently contains a much greater proportion of straw or litter, the difference may not unfrequently be the other way. It will be found most advantageous to thoroughly intermix the stable aung with that from the other stock. The stable dung being much more fermentative, it is not unfrequently allowed to heat prematurely, which must occasion considerable loss in its most valuable constituents.

It is of the highest importance in collecting and making farmyard manure, that there should be a thorongh commixture of all the different kinds and qualities of dung, together with all the scrapings which may be daily collected about a farm steading, and are fit to form part of the

dung heap, so that the whole may be trampled and incorporated together before any part is carted to the field; and the longer it can be allowed to remain in a well constructed dung court the better; but if while there it receives all the roof water of the steading, or is allowed to lie in loose, fermenting heaps, the sooner it is carted to the field and properly covered up the better, and less loss will assuredly be sustained. Some courtsindeed a great many-are constructed so as to receive the whole roof water of the steading, and a good deal besides that might be directed past them. The dung is carelessly leveled down into this water, which is frequently upwards of a foot in depth, and with any continuance of rainfall, an overflow takes place. All are so familiar with this, and its poisonous effects on the surrounding atmosphere and adjoining streams, that it need not be noticed further. But to return to the dung heap. We have already said that uitrogen forms the great power of solubility in all manures-that it has a strong affinity for hydrogen or any aqueous matter; and we can be at no loss to see that this, the most powerful manurial ingredient contained in the manure, will be entirely lost by any continuance of this washing process. And allowing dung to lie exposed in a loose heap is scarcely less reprehensible; for then the loss by evaporation is seriously great, and which, if not always to be seen by the eyes, may readily be detected by the nostrils; but all have become so familiar with this state of matters, that it is seldom or ever thought of. What a pity farmers and their servants cannot see this daily loss as they would the departure of so many bags of Peruvian guano of the same value; a remedy would then speedily be found, for farmers generally are quite as sensible of a haul upon their pockets as any other class of men. To give an approximate estimate of the loss which must be sustained by such want of attention as we know prevails in the management of farmyard manure, we need only say that, besides its most remote manurial principals, farmyard manure contains various gaseous or proximate principals, the most valuable of which is nitrogen. One ton of farmyard manure, of average quality, will contain 10 lbs. of nitrogen, which, as we have already noticed, is equivalent to 25 lbs. of ammonia, which, at 6d. per lb., its commercial value, would be 12s. 6d.-that is upon the supposition of no loss in nitrogen having taken place; but we know that it is impossible to apply farmyard manure to the soil without some loss of this manurial agent, and that with the very best of management. Farmyard manure contains much less than the above quantity of ammonia at the time it is covered into the soil, and with bad management perhaps not one-twentieth part of it.

We hold that the proper management of dung-heaps, although one of the most simple and easily performed operations of the farm, does nevertheless require a little daily attention, and a knowledge of the chemical change induced by any degree of fermentation. The process of termen

tation is precisely that which generates the heat in the manure, setting free its most important elements, which combine and escape as gases. It is impossible to prevent all escape of these valuable volatile elements without the occasional use of gypsum in the dung-heap; but although these gases will become fixed in their combination with gypsum, forming sulphates and alkaline salts, still the gypsum will in no way check or prevent fermentation, which ought not to be induced in the least degree until within a short time of the dung being applied to the soil. Dung should be carefully spread out in the courts daily, as it is carried from the byres or stable, and there sufficiently trodden by young cattle having the full range of the courts. The dung courts should be so constructed that the dung may receive the urine from the byres throughout its entiro. mass as uniformly as possible, and the whole packed and moistened to such extent as will thoroughly incorporate the mass, which ought to accumulate in this way, in as much seclusion from rain, æration and heat as possible, until the time arrives for removing it to the field. This op eration must be performed on many farms during frosty weather, or at such other times as the courts may become inconveniently full; but at whatever time the removal of dung from the courts to the fields takes place, each heap ought, if possible, to be finished in one operation; or should a change in the weather intervene, the heap, in whatever state of completion it may be at the time, ought to be at once covered over with earth abounding in humus, and trimmed up, so as to prevent as much as possible its being washed by rain, dried by winds, or abused by crows. In making up dung heaps in the field, they ought neither to be narrow nor high, should be carted upon, thoroughly and uniformly packed, and properly mixed, if the dung vary either in quality or condition; and while being made up, to be several times strewn over with gypsum, and when finished to receive an additional sprinkling on the top, and afterwards well covered over with mould abounding in humus, such as dry and well pu.verized peat, and the whole heap trimmed and clapped up, so as to protect it in every way as much as possible. In this state it ought to remain, and fermentation neither induced nor permitted until about a fortnight before the manure is required for the turnip crop; then the heap should be trenched over, and in so doing the dung to be thorenghly broken up and intermixed, every trench when turned to receive a sprinkling of gypsum, and afterwards covered and clapped up. Fermentation will then take place uniformly and quite sufficiently to destroy the vitality of all noxious seeds, and bring the whole mass into a state of excellent preparation for being applied to the crop. A mixture of salt, at the rate of about 20 lbs. to the cubic yard, applied to the heap when trenched, will be found most beneficial for land lying at a considerable distance from the sea, and in any case it increases the sapidity of the manure; and when dung may appear to be scorched and dried by the