Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

The fate of the experiment is as follows:

Time of Seed per Produce per Weight per

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Total produce
in weight per

acre.

Pounds

1898

1856

Excess of measure in favour of the common barley, 4 bushels.
Excefs of weight in favour of the common barley, 42 pounds.

A few particularities attending the growth of Siberian barley: 1. During the three first weeks after the corn came up, the Siberian was of a much deeper green, and had a much broader blade than the common barley; after that time the difference gradually diminished.

2. The Siberian was in all its ftages a fortnight forwarder than the common barley. It was mowed and housed accordingly.

3. The ears of the Siberian were much fhorter than those of the common barley; being only from five to nine grains in length; whereas the ears of the common barley were from nine to thirteen grains in length.

From the first particular I had raised my expectations high in regard to the Siberian barley, and was confequently much difappointed at the appearance of the third. I then thought that the produce would be greatly deficient; but the fize of the grains in a good mea fure prevented it.

'The conclufion which I am tempted to draw from these two circumftances is this, that the Siberian requires richer land than the common barley. In my land, there appeared to be fufficient ftrength to produce all that luxuriance of growth which feems natural to the plant while in the grafs, but not fufficient to fupport it in forming the ear. I am the more inclined to think this, having feen ears of Siberian barley of feventeen grains in length, which is the greatest length I remember to have obferved in the common barley.

'It may be remarked, that this circumstance does not seem to recommend it particularly to the county of Norfolk. On the contrary, the fecond particular greatly recommends it to that county; for it feems evident from thence, that the Siberian barley may be, and perhaps ought to be, fown a fortnight later than the common barley.

A very large portion of our barley is conftantly much damaged, both as to produce in meafure and weight, by being fown too late, in confequence of the neceflity we are under of preferving fome of our turnips as long as poffible.

I am fufficiently aware that this experiment is not decifive; and that a fingle experiment, however decifive it may feem, is not properly conciufive; but I hope you will foon receive many others, and this may then contribute its mite towards forming an average, from which a juft conclufion may be drawn.

Bracon, near Norwich,

I am,

Gentlemen,

Your obedient humble fervant,

Feb. 11, 1775. E. HOW MAN. 'P. S. As it has been demonftrated before the Houfe of Commons, that the weight of the flour of heavy wheat exceeds the weight of the

Ee 3

flour

flour of light wheat more than the difference between the respective weights of the grain; it may be fafely concluded, that the fame thing holds true with refpect to heavy and light barley of the fame kind: and with respect to the Siberian barley, it may certainly be concluded, that the weight of its flour exceeds the weight of the flour of common barley in a fill more eminent degree; becaufe a part of the weight of the common barley arifes from a husk, whereas the husk of the Siberian barley is left upon the ear when threshed. So that in this experiment, as the weight of the grain of the Siberian fo far exceeded the weight of the grain of the common barley, as almoft to compenfate for the great deficiency of measure per acre, the weight of the flour of the Siberian barley per acre would probably have been found equal to, if it had not exceeded, the weight of the flour of the common barley.

'As a bread-corn indeed in this county, barley feems to be out of the question; but the nourishment must be in proportion to the weight of the flour, however, used.

Two things, however, want to be ascertained by well-authenticated experiments, viz. the quality of the Siberian barley in malting; and the quality of the beer made of that malt.'

[ocr errors]

Mr. Howman is certainly right in his conjecture, that Siberian barley requires richer land than the common barley. This grain which promises to be a valuable article of culture has rarely had a fair trial; Farmers concluding, as it takes its name from an inhospitable clime, that it will of course submit to inhofpitable treatment; confequently it has been generally fown in the poorest and coldeft land. Were it rightly cultivated there can be little doubt but it might become a very advantageous article of English husbandry, especially in thofe parts of the island where barley, which mixed with equal parts of wheat is both wholesome and palatable, is made ufe of for bread.

From fome attempts which we have known made to malt Siberian barley, we fear the operation (at least as it is usually conducted) will be attended with fome difficulty. From the tenderness of its husk or bran it is very apt to burst before it can be fufficiently faturated with water to make it germinate.

Mr. Price of Salisbury has here thrown out fome ingenious hints on the Rot in fheep; a fubject which seems, notwithstanding its importance, to be very impefectly understood. Even Mr. Price, although he has given confiderable attention to it, has adopted fome opinions relative to this matter, which, we have reason to believe, are not generally true.

The cause of the Rot in fheep, fays Mr. Bofwell, in his late ufeful and ingenious publication, is unknown.-Mr. Arthur Young, in recapitulating all the information he could get, in his Eastern Tour, obferves, that "the accounts are fo amazingly contradictory, that nothing can be gathered from them;" but concludes, that " every one knows that moisture is the cause."

*On Watering Meadows. For an account of this performance, fee Review, vol. xii. p. 455.

In differing from an Author of Mr. Young's acknowledged merit, fupported by the general opinion of mankind, I am led to examine my own fentiments with caution and diftruft;-but, unless it is only meant, that moisture is generally the remote caufe, it will be difficult to account for the Rot being taken on fallows in a fingle day, and in water meadows fometimes in half an hour, when in grounds of a different fort, although exceffively wet and flabby, fheep will remain for many weeks together uninjured.

Another opinion, and which has many adherents, is, that the Rot is owing to the quick growth of grafs or herbs that grow in wet places.

Without premifing, that all-bounteous Providence has given to every animal its peculiar tafte, by which it diftinguishes the food proper for its prefervation and fupport (if not vitiated by fortuitous circumftances), it feems very difficult to difcover on philofophical principles, why the quick growth of grafs fhould render it noxious,-or why any herb should at one feafon produce fatal effects, by the admiffion of pure water only into its component parts, which at other times is perfectly innocent, although brought to its utmost strength and maturity by the genial influence of the fun. So far from agreeing with thofe who attribute the Rot to quick-growing grafs, which they call flashy, infipid, and deftitute of falts, to me the quickness of growth is a proof of its being endued with the most active principles of vegetation, and is one of the criterions of its fuperior excellence.-Befides, the conftant practice of moft farmers in the kingdom, who, with the greateft fecurity, feed their meadows in the fpring, when the grafs hoots quick and is full of juices, militates directly against this opinion.

Let us now confider whether another cause may not be affigned, more reconcileable with the various accounts we receive of this diforder. If our arguments, however fpecious, are contradictory to known facts, instead of conducting us in the plain paths of truth, they leave us in the mazes of error and uncertainty.

Each fpecies of vegetables and animals has its peculiar foil, fitu. ation, and food, affigned to it. Taught by unerring inflint the fparrow findeth her a house, the swallow a neft, and the ftork in the heavens knoweth her appointed time." The whole feathered tribe, indeed, difplay a wonderful fagacity and variety in the choice and ftructure of their habitations. Nor can it be doubted that the minuteft reptile has its fixed laws, appointed by him whofe "tender mercies are over all his works."

The numerous inhabitants of the air, earth, and waters, are ftrongly influenced by the feafons, and by the state of the atmofphere; and the fame caufes, perhaps, that rapidly call myriads of one fpecies into being, may frequently prove the deftruction of another. Is it then improbable that fome infect finds its food, and lays its eggs, on the tender fucculent grafs found on particular foils (efpecially wet ones) which it most delights in ?—Or, that this infect hould, after a redundancy of moisture by an inftinctive impulfe, quit its dank and dreary habitation, and its fecundity be greatly increased by fuch feafons, in conjunction with the prolific warmth of the fun?

Ee 4

Th

The flesh-fly lay her eggs upon her food, which alfo ferves to fupport her future offspring; and the common earth-worm propagates its fpecies above ground, when the weather is mild and moist, or the earth dewy.

The eggs, depofited on the tender germ, are conveyed with the food into the ftomach and inteftines of the animals, whence they are received into the lacteal veffels, carried off in the chyle, and pass into the blood; nor do they meet with any obftruction until they arrive at the capillary veffels of the liver.-Here, as the blood filtrates through the extreme branches, answering to thofe of the Vena Porta in the human body, the fecerning veffels are too minute to admit the impreg nated cva, which, adhering to the membrane, produce those animalcule that feed upon the liver, and deftroy the fheep. They much refemble the flat-fifh called plaice, are fometimes as large as a filver twopence, and are found both in the liver, and in the pipe (answering to that of the vena cava) which conveys the blood from the liver to the "heart.

[ocr errors]

If the form of this animal is unlike any thing we meet with among the infect tribe, we fhould confider that it may be fo small in its natural ftate as to escape our observation.-Or might not its form have changed with its fituation?" The caterpillar undergoes feveral changes before it produces a butterfly."

The various accounts which every diligent enquirer must have met with (as well as the indefatigable Mr. Young) feem very confiitent with the theory of this diforder.

If dry, limed land, in Derbyshire will rot in common with watermeadows and ftagnant marfhes;-if fame fpringy lands rot when others are perfectly fafe; is it owing to the circumstance of water, or that of producing the proper food or nidus of the infect? Thofe who find their after-grafs rot till the autumnal watering, and fafe afterwards, might probably be of opinion, that the embryo laid there in the fummer is then washed away or destroyed.

With regard to those lands that are accounted never safe, if there is not fomething peculiar in the foil or fituation which allures or forces the infect to quit its abode at unusual seasons, it may be well worth enquiring, whether, from the coarseness of their nature, or for want of being fufficiently fed, there is not fome grafs in thefe lands always left of a fufficient length to fecure the eggs of the infect above the reach of the water.

Such who affert that flowing water alone is the cause of the Rot, can have but little acquaintance with the Somersetshire clays, and are diametrically oppofite to thofe who find their worst land for rotting cured by watering. Yer, may not the water which produces this effect, be impregnated with particles deftructive to the infect, or to the tender germ which ferves for its food or nidus?

[ocr errors]

For folving another difficulty, that no ewe ever rots while fhe has a lamb by her fide," the gentlemen of the faculty can beft inform us, whether it is not probable, that the impregnated ovum paffes into the milk, and never arrives at the liver. The fame learned gentlemen may think the following question alfo not unworthy their confidera

Why

Why is the Rot fatal to fheep, hares, and rabbits (and fometimes to calves, when cattle of greater bulk, which probably take the fame food, efcape uninjured?

Is the digeftive matter in the ftomach of thefe different from that of the others, and fuch as will turn the ova into a flate of corruption; or rather, are not the fecretory ducts in the liver large enough to let them pafs through, and be carried on in the ufual current of the blood?

It feems to be an acknowledged fact, that falt marshes never rot. Salt is pernicious to mot infects. They never infeft gardens where fea-weed is laid t. Common falt and water is a powerful expellent of worms bred in the human body.

I could with the intelligent farmer would confider thefe truths with attention, and not neglect a remedy which is cheap and always at hand.

LISLE, in his book of hufbandry, informs us of a Farmer who cured his whole flock of the Rot, by giving each theep a handful of Spanish falt, for five or fix mornings fuccefively. The hint was probably taken from the Spaniards, who frequently give their sheep falt to keep them healthy.

On fome farms, perhaps, the utmoft caution cannot always prevent the diforder. In wet and warm feasons, the prudent Farmer will remove his sheep from the lands liable to Rot. Those who have it not in their power to do this, I would advife to give each a fpoonful of common falt, with the fame quantity of flour, in a quarter of a pint of water, once or twice a week. When the Rot is recently taken, the fame remedy given four or five mornings fucceffively, will in all probability effect a cure. The addition of the flour and water will, in the opinion of the writer of this, not only abate the pungency of the falt, but difpole it to mix with the chyle in a more friendly and efficacious manner.'

Mr. Price confiders it as an indubitable fact, that the infects which are fometimes found in the livers, &c. of fheep, and which he properly defcribes as refembling the flat-fifa called plaice, are the cause of the Rot. He feems not to be aware, that thefe infects are found, at particular feafons, and in a greater or lefs degree, in the livers of almost all sheep whatever. It is not improbable that, like worms in the human body, they may oftentimes encrease to fuch a degree, as to lay the foundation of diforders as fatal to fheep as the malady here fpoken of. But the Rot itself feems to proceed from fome different caufe, or from fome caufe to which this is only fecondary. The liver of a rotten fheep, at leaft during the earlier ftages of the diforder,

Perhaps not always. We once knew an inftance of a three years old filly dying with every fymptom of the Rot, by being pallured, as it was fuppofed, for a few days in a meadow that had been lately Overflowed.

And yet fea weeds, fteeped a few days in the pureft fpring-water, abound with animalcula of various fpecies.

differs

« ZurückWeiter »