124 



MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



the bone dress, and to barrow or tborougbly 

 rake the land once or twice ; after which, tiie 

 hoeings required 'during the growth of the po- 

 tatoes, and the digging up of the crop, will 

 pretty effectually clean and prepare the soil, 

 especially if it be set up in high ridges during 

 Winter. 



Lucerne seed, costs about Is. or Is. 3d. per lb. 

 I have steeped it in nitro-sulphates, in order to 

 try their efficacy, and have also on the same day 

 sown the unprepared seed, employing artificial 

 heat; and both have germinated alike. All 

 pasture seeds ought to be so tested, because of 

 existing frauds ; but if the sample be proved 

 good, five or six pounds ■will sow half an acre, 

 provided the rows be 12 or 14 inches apart, but 

 some recommend 8 or 9 inches. The drills are 

 not required to be more than an inch deep, and 

 the seeds should not be thickly deposited. The 

 best season is mid- April ; but Jime, if showery, 

 will do well. The gennination is rapid ; and 

 when the plants are safe from the first as- 

 saults of insects, (lime dust is a preventive 

 remedy,) they should be thinned to three-inch 

 distances at first, and subsequently to six inch- 

 es, surface-hoeing the plot with the spad or 

 Dutch hoe. 



It is astonishing how^ productive the plant be- 

 comes during the first Summer, provided the 

 ■weather be sho^wery, with intervening periods 

 of ■warm sunshine. I have cut six or seven 

 swarths of fine, lush herbage, between an April 

 so^wing of the seed and the end of the following 

 October ; and have found the part first cut ready 

 for the scythe again by the time that the cutting 

 was completed. 



Dming the course of the first Summer, the 

 land should be kept perfectly clean ; it will also 

 be prudent to cut but twice, and then only when 

 the plant shows its blossom buds, never suffer- 

 ing a seed to fonii, nor, indeed, the flower to ex- 

 pand. It is the chief object to obtain a strong 

 and vigorous crown in the early course of the 

 plant's growth ; and this is done by leaving it 

 to attain that maturity which is indicated by 

 bloom : if cut in the first instance, while purely 

 succulent and immature, the same debilitating 

 effect might result which would be produced 

 by cutting-over a fresh plot or bed of very 

 young aspai^agus ; for both plants produce 

 crowns, which form round the first collar and 

 much extend its bulk. In fact, if Lucerne be 

 thinned out to six-inch distances, the entire 

 spaces will shoi'tly be filled up by lateral devel- 

 opments. 



The hoe ought to be veiy effectually used so 

 soon as every portion is cut, in order to exter- 

 minate weeds, and particularly tufts of grass ; 

 or in lien of the hoe, a two-pronged bent or drag 

 fork, with broad tines and a long handle, would 

 be found a very effective tool. The habit of 

 (growth, with strong, deep roots, and extending 

 crowns, indicate plainly that sheep .should never 

 be suffered to depasture the autumnal herbage, 

 for their bite is so close that numbers of the hest 

 plants would be sacrificed. Therefore, at the 

 final cutting of the season, ■which ought not in 

 general to be made later than the middle of Oc- 

 tober, the ground bet%veen tlie rows should be 

 hoed ; and when Winter sets in, a dressing of 

 fine coal-ashes mixed with bone-dust — nine 

 bushels of the ashes to one of the bones, for ev- 

 ery half acre — will prove very beneficial to fu- 

 ture growth. Gypsum might be added to the 

 extent oi' the bones, and this would give more 

 quality to the ashes, which frequently contain 



about one-tenth part of sulphate of lime ; the 

 remaining nine-tenths being chiefly impure ei- 

 lex, with a little iron. 



lf-/y«eer?ii« have been sown in deeply prepared 

 and enriched earth, dung and putrescent ma- 

 nures as top-dress are seldom required ; where- 

 as good inorganic manures tend to keep the 

 surface-soil pure, light, and free from weeds. — 

 This is of consequence, as otherwise, when 

 once tufts of grass obtain possession, patches 

 will speedily occur, and the compact beauty of 

 the rich herbage will disappear. 



I have lately inspected a small piece, that I 

 remember to have observed eight or ten jeara 

 since, then growing and producing- abundantly 

 from April to November ; the rows are above 

 fourteen inches asunder — the plants in perfect 

 order, and in straight rows, not a blank visible, 

 and so high as partially to fall over and conceal 

 the spaces. It was under the scythe during 

 the first week of the present May, and was evi- 

 dently carried away in detail for green fodder. 

 The bulk ■^^'as enormous ; and during a .season 

 of alternate periods of rain and fine weather, 

 this small plot, scarcely, perhaps, of t'VN'enty 

 poles, will yield an ample supply for a cow. — 

 The soil is now a blackish mould, full of vege- 

 table matter, and it is kept hoed as the rows are 

 mo%vn. 



This plot is situated near the termination of 

 the old Xown of Croydon, leading from the 

 church to the Brighton road, and is almost sur- 

 rounded by dwelling-houses. 



Now, as a small piece in a towTi can be kept 

 in full bearing during ten years, v^'hat might not 

 be done with a few acres among the dairv-fanns 

 of England and Ireland ? Farmers shirk the 

 trouble of xhc hoeing ; but such mistakes, and a 

 neglect of their own real interests, is in this, as 

 in but too many other instances, but too appa- 

 rent. There is not a plant which, if prudently 

 prepared for, and skillfully managed, will so 

 amply remtinerate as Lucerne. It \\'ants calca- 

 reous phosphates, with a good staple loam, 

 which, if scaled upon a chalk bottom, will be 

 thereby improved : with these, its cultivation is 

 most simple, and the labor required is not more 

 than that of a crop of ridged and properly 

 grown turnips. 



May I5:h. J. TOWERS. 



Cape Wool. — Of the Cape Wool nothing 

 now remains to be said ; it has taken its place 

 in the grand market of Europe amongst the best, 

 and may soon be the first in the iirst rank, for 

 the Cape climate and natural grasses seem or- 

 dained to bring the merino breed of sheep to 

 pevtcction. This article of export has increased 

 in the following proportions : In 18-24, 23,049 lbs.; 

 in 1834, 143,883 lbs. ; and in 1844, 2,233,946 lbs. 

 The rate of increase in New-South Wales for 

 similar periods often years, when the quantities 

 were not far from those of the Cape, down to 

 183.5, was as follows: In 181.5, 32,971 lbs.; in 

 18-2.5, 411,600 lbs.; and in 1835, 3,893,927 lbs. 

 Thus, in the last period of ten years at the Cape 

 (1834 to 1844). the quantity of Wool increaced 

 about fifteen times. During a similar period of 

 ten years at New-South W^ales (1825 to 1835), 

 the increase was only about nine time.''. Such 

 are the powers of the country bountifully be- 

 stowed on the inhabitants ol' the Cape of Good 

 Hope. 



fSoulli African Commercial Advertiser. 



