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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



CROYDON FARMERS' CLUB. 



The members of the above club met at the King's 

 Arms Hotel, on Saturday, March 10, R. W. 

 Fuller, vice-president (in the chair). 



Mr. Charles J. Hunt, of Mitcham, introduced 

 the following subject for the evening's discussion, 

 viz. : — 



" MEADOW LAND AND ITS CULTIVATION." 



He said, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, — The sub- 

 ject I have ventured to bring before your notice 

 this evening, though perhaps not fraught with that 

 importance which other subjects have possessed 

 that have lately been discussed here, yet I think it 

 not wholly devoid of interest to many of you 

 present, and in addressing you I feel I must crave 

 your indulgence to one who feels himself so un- 

 fitted to address a meeting composed of so many 

 eminent agriculturists, but who will humbly, 

 faithfully, and practically lay before you facts 

 which he himself has proved. Although strictly 

 speaking this is not a grazing country, the charac- 

 ter and formation of the soil precluding its general 

 adaptation to pasture, yet at the present time, when 

 corn is producing such unremunerative prices, and 

 stock bringing in remunerative returns, it well be- 

 comes you to consider whether the addition of 

 more meadow ground (when practicable) to your 

 farms would not be rather a boon than a disad- 

 vantage. V/here is the farmer, who, through the 

 past winter, has been fortunate enough to possess 

 a good stack of meadow hay, but has looked upon 

 it with pride, and felt that he has indeed had a 

 friend that has gieatly assisted him in the hour of 

 need, and in a great measure mitigated the diffi- 

 culties he has undergone ? and they have been no 

 light troubles which he has had to contend with, 

 this past winter. His winter supply of swedes and 

 turnips, which he had calculated upon for his sheep, 

 has, by a season unprecedented for years, been 

 partially, and in many cases all but wholly de- 

 stroyed, whilst his spring dependence, such as rye, 

 winter barley, tares, &c., is unusually backward, 

 and in many places only fit to be ploughed up. 

 Well, then I say when he has had such a friend 

 that has not deserted him, but in proportion to the 

 demands made upon its bounty, he ought to culti- 

 vate the acquaintance of such a friend, and take 

 care constantly to provide himself with a supply of 

 such friendship. And surely a good stack of 

 meadow hay is as great an ornament to the rick 

 yard as a stack of corn or any other agricultural 

 produce, and a good meadow as picturesque an 

 object as any other field; and yet how rnany farmers 

 scarcely ever bestow a thought upon their meadows, 

 unless it be for a makeshift, when their turnip 

 fields are too wet or feed runs short ! It is then the 

 poor meadow is thought of; but as to its ever 

 having its health recruited with the invigorating 

 produce of the farm yard, or the beneficial tonic of 

 artificial manures, it is out of the question; and yet 

 the propriety of properly cultivating meadows is 



unquestionable, and is as indispensable to good 

 farming as the cultivation of any other crop, and 

 the produce of them as important to the farmer. 

 Your root crops may be lost to you in a variety of 

 ways, the fly or blight may take your early plants, 

 or the mildew, as in the season just past — the at- 

 mospheric influences destroy those arrived at 

 maturitjf; but your hay is not liable to such changes: 

 once get it properly secured in a stack, and nothing 

 (save the ruthless hand of fire) will affect it, let the 

 season be what it may. With these prefatory 

 remarks, I now come to the important part of the 

 subject, and that is, the cultivation of meadow land. 

 With the preparing and laying down ground for 

 pasture I shall not touch upon : I leave that for a 

 more able pen to descant upon, and I trust some 

 gentleman present will ere long give us a paper 

 upon it. I have now only to do with ground which 

 is already under cultivation, and in so doing I will 

 divide my subject under three heads: 1st, The 

 manures suitable for meadows, and the method and 

 time of applying them ; 2nd, The cultivation of 

 the ground for mowing; and 3rd, The cheapest 

 and best method of making hay. And now, gen- 

 tlemen, on the subject of manures, and perhaps it 

 may be a little out of place to put the subject of 

 manures before the cultivation, but I think it is 

 right here, as it is now the time when most artificial 

 manures, and very often dung is applied, and, of 

 course, this is done previously to the rolling, &c., 

 and, therefore, I have introduced it first. Many 

 of you may think, " Ah ! now we shall have a long 

 tale about manures." But you will not be troubled 

 with any such thing. I am not going to give you 

 a long, theoretical dissertation upon them, but a 

 plain illustration of facts — and facts speak louder 

 than words — and it is facts substantiated by prac- 

 tice that I am now going to lay before you. The 

 manures most generally used for meadows are dung, 

 bone dust, guano, and superphosphate ; but the 

 oldest and most universal of them for meadows is 

 dung, and certainly no one will deny its efficacy if 

 apphed properly and at the right time. An old- 

 fashioned system, still adopted by many, is spread- 

 ing the dung on the ground directly the hay is re- 

 moved. I have tried that system, and certainly do 

 not hold with it; it is open to two objections. 

 First, it is not economical. By spreading it so 

 soon you lose a great deal of valuable feed, 

 and at a time when much wanted, for stock 

 will not feed for some time after the dung is 

 applied, and then they will not feed freely; 

 and certainly the feed for the first month or 

 so after mowing is the time most required for 

 stock, there being then no stubbles to run upon, 

 or any other feed of importance. And, secondly, 

 it is injurious to the next year's crop. The grass 

 growing freely, from the combined influence of the 

 dung and the warm growing weather, gets coarse 

 and rank; consequently, stock does not feed it 

 close as they would otherwise, and the bottom 



