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FIELD AND FARM. 1 -!

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FIELD AND FARM. 1 (From The Agricultural Gazette.") POOH LAM). There ought (remarks Professor John Wrightson) to be no mistake as to what is meant by poor land. There are several descriptions of poor land, but all have one common character with regard to produc- tion, namely, comparative natural barrenness. There Are millions of acres of poor land throughout the country, much lying in unbroken heath, moss, poor pasture, or down. By common consent, such soils are not considered to be worth cultivation. They are, to borrow a phrase from the economists, below the margin of cultivation, i.e., unprofitable at present Erices, but would or might be profitable in times of igher prices. There are millions of acres of poor land which are decidedly better than the class just named, which hover on the margin of profitable cultivation, and these soils have been sadly tried fluring the last 20 years. At one time they com- manded a rent, but with lower prices prevailing they ceased to command one. When land ceases to do this it is very liable to go out of Cultivation. As long as land commands a rent it may be presumed to be profitable, but if Dot, it is because no one thinks it worth holding at any rent. Poor land deteriorates in bad times both in selling and letting value much more than good land. If, for example, the net produce of land falls XI per acre there is likely to be a fall of El per acre in rents. This evidently swallows the whole rent of land over let at £ 1 per acre, and leave it tenantless 'or on the landlotd's hands. Arable land once let at 10s. per acre would need under such circumstances a bonus of 10s. per acre (o induce anyone to take it. Poor land of this nature would not be worth Cultivating. The case is put precisely, or arithmeti- cally, but in actual farming this view would not be always tenable, because land once let at El per acre, might be cheaply let, in which case it could still pay a small rent, of say 5s. per acre. This is why we hear of land having deteriorated 75 per cent. in letting value. It is easy to understand. If, however, we glance at good land once worth E2 per acre, and now worth only 91, it has deteriorated only 50 per cent. Again, in the case of land once let at JE3 per acre, and now let at E2, it has deteriorated 33 per cent.; but if once let at £ 5, and now let at £ 4, it has only deteriorated 20 per cent. Thus all general state- ments as to land having deteriorated by a stated per- centage, are absolutely worthless. No one can say that land has deteriorated in a fixed proportion, or percentage. CLASSES OF LAND. The late John Bravender regarded the compara- tive fertility of land in its natural condition under four classes. (1) Barren or infertile land, in- capable of producing 20 bushels of wheat or 30 bushels of oats per acre in natural condition; (2) Fertile land, capable of growing 20 to 30 bushels of wheat and other crops in proportion without forcing; (3) more fertile land, capable of producing 30 to 40 bushels of wheat; (4) the most fertile land, capable of producing from 40 to 60 bushels of wheat without forcing. INDUCED FERTILITY. I The quality of land should always be judged by its power of production without forcing. It is gauged by what it will produce under ordinary management, and manuring from its own straw and turnips, without the aid of extraneous manures or im- ported feeding stuffs. If land naturally capable of growing 18 to 20 bushels of wheat or 15cwt. to one ton of hay, is induced by liberal management to pro- duce double these quantities, it is still poor land, and by no sound reasoning can it be called good land. it certainly ought not to be called bad land in the strict sense of the word. It is only poor, and to be poor is not to be bad, although the late laureate stated in one of his vernacular poems that the poor, as a lump, is bad." In ordinary description poor and bad are often indiscriminately used in de- scribing land, and it savours of pedantry to object. Still, as the question was raised, I am ready to admit a difference between poor a^d bad land. Poor, chalk soils have many points of excellence. They are grateful* sound, free-working, and hold out wall in drought. They are not like poor sands or hungry gravels, which are wasteful, less grateful, and more capricious in their yield. Poor clay soils-XLXO had tillage lands, and are better under grass. They are among the worst descriptions of soil and many of them are not worth troubling about. There are also soils which are sour and unwholesome, which in some cases may be improved by drainage. These are bad in the condition in which we find them, but capable of alteration. It is an error to say that land which, under liberal management, may be made to produce heavy crops, is good land. It id poor land, and ought not to be rented beyond its natural capability, or according to the crops it may carry. Poor land in high condition may grow, as I have previously stated, as heavy crops as much better land under less liberal management, but it is readily let back into its natural state, and needs always keeping up by annual expenditure. The reason why, on the whole, clay lands or heavy land is looked upon as good land, while very light lands are looked upon as poor, is easy to explain. Clay lands almost always contain a great store of plant food, but it is locked up. Light lands are not too rich, but the crop is better able to search for its food within the mass of soil. They are more grate- ful for small mercies. Clay lands require more ex- penditure in order to develop them, and the improve- ment lasts much longer. Hence poor clay soils are capable of almost permanent improvement, and will, under a long course of good farming, improve in actual value. They may even be converted into ?;ood land. Light land is never able to preserve its ertility for long after it falls into bad hands, and hence there is a great difference between heavy and light lands with reference to permanent improve- ment, and is less likely to stand an increased rent even when in high condition. Lastly, there are men who would give a high rent for light land in high condition in order to rob it, and leave it after a few years' pillage. This is alone a sufficient reason to en- courage good farmers to continue their liberal management without raising their rents, or even re- minding them that their farms might let for a higher rent. This they would undoubtedly do, but, only to their detriment, and the eventual injury of the land- lord. BUCKWHEAT AS A POULTRY POOD. The value of buckwheat for all kinds of poultry, though fully recognised by leading poultry authori- ties, has never been sufficiently appreciated by the great majority of breeders and fatteners. Yet as a food it is excellent and suitable, not only for chickens and adult stock, but also for fattening fowls and ducks. A few breeders use the grain aa a change food, and a small amount of buckwheat moal, ground husk and all, goes to the composition of aome duck meals sold, and there its use in this country ends. In Franee it is far different, a large quantity is grown, and consumed by poultry, some fatteners using no other food in getting their birds fit for table. Fowls relish the grain, once they ure accustomed to its queer grey-blue colour, and good sound buckwheat goes a long way. Unfortunately it is not always procurable, and the inferior samples, pinched in appearance, are of little value for feeding poultry. The grains should be plump and clean look- ing, and weigh over 501b. to the bushel. There is no Other grain which is so equally suitable for young growing chickens, stock fowls, and the bigger chickens which it is intended to fatten for market. The meal again may be used mixed with sharps for all kinds of stock. If poultry owners would tell their corn merchants that they require a good sample of buckwheat, and keep on asking for it, it will gene- rally be procurable, and at a moderate price. SCOUR IN CHICKENS. Scour is a species of diarrhoea affecting young chickens. The excrements, instead of dropping, adherd to the fluff below the vent, and becoming bulkier, finally harden and check the passage. A chicken, if suffering from scours, becomes a mere skeleton, and even if cured is never thte bird it might have been. It is caused entirely from \he chicks drink- ing too much water, or else the water being sun- heated and stale. It is unadvisable to let young chickens have as much water as they can drink. Their soft food should be mixed fairly moist, and one drink a day alone allowed in ordinary weather, for they can gather a certain quantity of moisture from the grass and herbage. Rearer chickens are specially liable to scours they leave the brooder hot, and drink more standing water than is good for them; water, therefore, should never be left in the rearer over night. Treat the chicks if scoured as though -tor diarrhoea, taking away the water trough and bathing" the hard pellet of esrerement with warm water till it can be removed. One experienced', breeder. J .Jknow tsays a Sussex correspondent) of, who gives his yonng chickens no water on ordinary occasions, on very hot days brews some kind of herb tea or nettle leaves boiled, giving the chicks the watej to drink when cold. My own j)lan is to mako a thi* paste of oatmeal and water. This is cooling, satisfy" ing, and they do not drink so much ag in the case of plain water.

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