ON GREEN CROPS-THEIR USES AND CULTIVATION, WITH A REVIEW OF MR. BLACKER'S SYSTEM OF APPLICATION ON SMALL FARMS. Most of the arts and sciences during their progress from infancy to their present state have been greatly advanced by some single discovery which has accelerated their progress much beyond what might have been expected during a long period of years, and has introduced a new era in the history and application of the art. The invention of printing greatly facilitated the progress of all improvements; and has spread knowledge and civilization to the remotest corners of the world; the discovery of the magnetic needle altered entirely the system of maritime intercourse, and the invention of gunpowder completely changed the whole art of war, and introduced an entirely new system of tactics, more simple and direct, bringing the strength of nations more nearly to a level, and has rendered war less bloody, and success to be more nearly a matter of calculation. In our present time, the invention and application of steam power to arts and manufactures, and the substitution of it for animate labour will mark an epoch in the history of machinery, not less interesting or less useful than any of the great discoveries which have so much benefitted the human race; and the prospects we may reasonably entertain of its future development lead us to indulge in the pleasing hope that the uses of this wonderful power in simplifying the production of the necessaries of life are many of them still unknown, and will lead to useful and valuable applications. The introduction and cultivation of green crops, for rearing and feeding the different animals used by mankind, has constituted an era in the history of agriculture similar in its nature and results to the many discoveries that have flowed from the labour and ingenuity of man, and which have contributed so materially to the amelioration of the different conditions of society. The introduction of these crops in districts where cultivators have had the penetration to discover their utility and value has completely overturned the mode of farming practiced for centuries-the value of land has been much increased-immense fortunes have been realised, and a better and more regular supply of all kinds of human food, has been provided at profits amply remunerative to the cultivators and owners of the soil. Nearly two hundred years elapsed after the potato was known before it was cultivated in the field: and notwithstanding the ravings of Cobbett and the aversion yet shown to its growth as a scourge of the soil-it may be affirmed, that this island is not blessed with any root more valuable or of more general use, from the table of the grandee to the feeding of pigs and poultry; or with any esculent which will more amply repay the cultivator for his pains. Upwards of sixty years have now elapsed since turnips were cultivated, their uses known and value proved, yet at this day we find many places where they are little known, the cultivation neglected on account of expense, and recommendations yet given by periodicals to farmers of a plant of long establishment and of acknowledged value. The method of cultivating these crops, the preparation of the land, and the application of manure, and the subsequent management, have been so often described in different publications that I need not state them in detail; and shall only observe, that the dispute betwixt the methods of drilling and broad-casting may be resolved by simply stating that the former method has been long adopted by the most extensive cultivators, and by the Earl of Leicester himself; and that if the additional expense incurred had not been repaid, it must have been ere now discovered and abandoned. Experience also shows that all manures applied to turnips should be heated and in a state of decomposition, so as to afford immediate support to the plant; and that expense has often been uselessly incurred in reducing putrescent manures to a cold mass, though as good a crop may be ultimately obtained, if the season and the fly have spared the braird, and allowed time for the plant to reach the manure. Of all the inventions in shape of auxiliary manures, none yet discovered can be compared with crushed bones, both in point of cheapness and efficacy: good crops of turnips are raised for 20s, to 40s. an acre-one-half, and, in some instances, one-third the cost of putrescent manure. The lightness of carriage is a great consideration, a four-horse wagon carrying a dressing for ten acres, allowing one and a half to two tons per acre. Though the value of this manure has been completely established many years ago, it is very remarkable that no use has been made of it in places most favourable for the application. Bones are sold in London at 2s. per bushel: great quantities are carried by sea to Scotland, and sold at 3s. 6d. and even 4s. 6d.; cattle are fed with turnips raised by the bones, and sent back to London at an expense of £3. a head, and the farmer pays £2. to £4. an acre for the land. This is an anomaly which I think will puzzle Mr. Cayley, with his pockets crammed with one-pound notes, to explain. The London farmer has bones at nearly half price, suitable soils, an early climate, and excellent markets; but he cannot divest himself of the idea of expense he pays in the bill for bones, small as it is no bill is presented for farm-yard manure, and he consequently thinks it costs him nothing. Drilling at 26-inch intervals appears a waste of land; he drills at 10 or 12 inches, and gets an inferior crop. Turnips are universally applied to rearing and feeding cattle and sheep-the former in stalls and yards, both for feeding the animal and for reducing the straw to manure-the latter on the land on which the turnips are grown. On sands, as in Nottingham and Norfolk, sheep can eat turnips dry and clean; but on wet and poachy loams, on which our best crops of turnips are grown, during rains and thaws the sheep stand deep in mud, having the wet land to lie on, and the turnips dirty and unfit to be eaten. In such cases I would always prefer to have the turnips carted to a clean lea or stubble field adjoining, where the turnips may be regularly spread, and the sheep have a dry bed and shelter at pleasure. The fields will have the same advantage in this way as in the other-each field being regularly fed on in stubble or in grass. : Notwithstanding the very general use of potatoes, an antipathy prevails against their growth, and some proprietors restrict the farmers from planting beyond a supply for their own use. This absurd prejudice has got deeply rooted; I never could see a green crop impoverish land, and persons who have made this discovery must have clearer perceptions than I can claim. On loams worth 30s. an acre I have ever found 10 tons an acre, 5 quarters of wheat, and heavy crops of clover, equal, if not superior, to those after turnips; in some places the better crop is always expected after potatoes. Of all green crops they are the most valuable of surer growth than turnips or beet, and capable of being raised on a greater variety of soils. A part of the crop being sold, the other must be consumed by stock, pigs, and poultry, now rendered more economical by steaming. On many soils turnips are a precarious crop; an indifferent crop of potatoes is equal to a heavy crop of turnips; the same quantitity of putrescent manure, with less preparation, will raise the potato crop, and when consumed on the farm, it will produce the same quantity of manure. Comparing quality with quantity, we find that potatoes (Hortus Gramineus Woburnensis, page 388,) yield much more nutritive matter per acre, than any other esculent; one-third more than carrots, twice as much as rutabaga, and nearly three times as much as white turnips and mangel wurzel. If an ox eat a bushel of potatoes a day, at 1s. 6d., and an equal value of Swedes, it will follow that the ox fed on potatoes will eat double the quantity of nutritive matter, and ought to make double progress in the process of fattening; and that an acre of potatoes should feed nearly three times as much stock as an acre of turnips. But experience has not been found to support these refined calculations of Sinclair, however chemically correct they may be; but it may be taken as a fair statement, that a crop of potatoes of 400 bushels is double the value of the best crop of Swedes; affords twice as much nutritive matter; and, consequently, should keep twice as much stock. In the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, June, 1834, we find statements of the results of trials in feeding on raw and steamed food, which are conclusive in favour of the former in feeding cattle, and of the latter for pigs; and we find 140 lbs. of turnips and 84 lbs. of potatoes yielding nearly the same increase of beef, keeping the relative value as 2 to 1. These trials proved also that raw potatoes alone will feed cattle, which has been much doubted by many eminent farmers, and seem decisive in favour of raw food for feeding, exclusive of the expense of steaming. In the vicinity of towns and villages, there is always opportunity to carry back manure for the quantity sold; in inland situations they must be wholly or nearly consumed by stock. A turf of weeds is, however, much preferred to such crops; and if a proprietor be at any time induced to plant potatoes, he is soon warned of the destruction of his property; and generally such foolish prejudices weighed against the best crops in the kingdom make the latter kick the beam. Nothing in connexion with agriculture ever appeared so amusing as to hear prejudice discussing the state of cropping and the relative merits of plants,-when just as ignorant of the facts as the quill with which it wrote,-and forbidding the culture of potatoes as a scourge. On stiff soils not adapted for turnips, mangel wurzel has been cultivated with considerable success. Sinclair states, that an acre of potatoes of 10 tons is equal to 25 tons of beet in nutritive matter, and that an acre of beet affords double the weight per acre of rutabaga, and the nutritive matter in the same weight being nearly equal, an acre of beet should feed twice as much stock as an acre of Swedes, and as much as an acre of potatoes of ten tons. On loamy clays, great quantities of winter food may be produced from beet and cabbages; and experience has shown that fair crops may be obtained on more indifferent soils, and with less manure than general opinion understands. White turnips and cabbages will feed through November and December, then beet and Swedes will serve till the end of June. I have been some time of opinion that cabbages, beet, and potatoes are often too late in being planted in the spring; and that the crops are much hurt by being exposed to the hot suns of summer before they have attained sufficient strength, and before they have produced a shade by their leaves to retain moisture and protect the roots against the influence of that scorching element. The objection is, that these stiff lands cannot be got ready sooner in the spring; but this might be remedied by preparing the land the previous autumn, and laying it dry during the winter. When I visited the Duke of Portland's farm at Welbeck, in 1834, I much admired a field of heavy loam prepared and drilled up to be planted with cabbages in the following spring. This must be a great advantage; the dung may be applied during the first dry weather; the drills reversed: a fresh tilth is thus produced for immediately planting the crops. The cabbages might be planted in autumn, but would certainly be destroyed if near a preserve of game; and if the manure were applied in autumn, it might be wasted before the roots of the plants come in contact with it. Winter and spring vetches rank high in the scale of green crops, and are either eaten on the ground by sheep, or cut for stall feeding. As to eating on the ground, I am of the same opinion as in the case of turnips, and would always prefer to have the tares cut and eaten in the racks. As tares can be grown on damp soils, the sheep trample and waste a quantity which will amply pay the expense of cutting and racking, and the animals will be more comfortable. Tares are invaluable as green food for horses in well-littered yards manure may be obtained in great quantities, if proper yards be provided and litter amply supplied. But if all green crops were raised in profusion, the full value never can be obtained, until farm buildings undergo a complete revolution; for we must call it farming when we see one or two large yards and the straw blown about by the wind, the moisture of the whole farmery running on the road, or forming a useless stench-pool behind the yards. Even in the most complete plans of farmeries, furnished by our best modern publications on the subject, we find little or no attention paid to |