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16 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ July 4, 1878, 
not injure the Grapes, and you would do harm rather than good by applying 
whitewash to the glass. The temperatures are right. Give all the ventilation 
possible subject to the day and night heat being maintained at the figures 
submitted. Apply liberally tepid liquid manure to the roots, either soot 
water, guano water, sewage, or the drainage from dunghills, and your Grapes 
will probably improve considerably. 
PEACHES AND NECTARINES DROPPING (A Cheltenham Gardener) —The 
evil is no doubt attributable to the trees having been so greatly neglected 
last year. According to your statement a great portion of the young roots 
must have been destroyed, and now that the swelling fruit requires support 
the roots are inadequate for affording the necessary supply. By laying-in 
young wood thinly, keeping the foliage clean, and procuring healthy root- 
action your trees may regain their lost vigour and bear well another year. 
That is the most that you can hope for under the circumstances. 
TORENIA FOURNIERI (J. 7’, Brizton).—You have been rightly informed- 
This plant is an annual, and a very beautiful one for greenhouse and con- 
servatory decoration in the summer. The seed if sown in spring produces 
attractive flowering plants the same season. We have had no experience 
with sowing it in the autumn, but the experiment is worth trying so as to 
have flowering plants as early as possible in the spring and early summer 
months. 
THRIPS ON VINES (Vexed).—Fumigate them at once for two or three 
nights successively. The smoke will not affect the flavour of the Grapes 
that are just showing signs of colouring. See notes on Vine insects in 
another column. 
MELONS FOR AUTUMN (G. B.).—Strong plants planted now and a little 
bottom heat provided by fermenting manure will with good attention pro- 
duce ripe fruit towards the end of September. Little Heath is one of the 
most hardy, and Victory of Bath is a free-setting and excellent variety. 
PELARGONIUM FLOWERS DROPPING (ZZ. 7, F.).—A little ordinary gum 
dissolved in water and a drop placed at the base of the petals will prevent 
them dropping during the transit of the flowers. The flowers should be 
tied in rather close bunches, which should be enclosed in tissue paper, and 
be further securely packed with wadding. Only a very little of the gum 
must be applied with a small brush. 
RAISING PERENNIAL FLOWERS (Robert).—Sow the seed at once in 
shallow drills in an open border, covering it very slightly with fine soil. A 
few plants suitable for your purpose are Wallflowers, Sweet Williams, Can- 
terbury Bells, Delphinium formosum, Scabious, Antirrhinums, and Brompton 
and East Lothian Stocks. As soon as the plants are large enough to be 
handled they may be transplanted a few inches apart in nursery beds, and 
in October they may be removed to their flowering quarters. 
NAMES OF PLANTS (0. H. C.).—Gongora atro-purpurea, and apparently 
aa eeeilleeie tetragona. (John Clyde).—We cannot name plants from mere 
leaves, 
THE HOME FARM: 
POULTRY, PIGEON, AND BEE CHRONICLE. 
MAKING PASTURE AND MEADOW HAY. 
THE making of meadow and pasture hay must be considered 
as a very different matter from that of making field hay; and 
although the machinery in use is the same as used for cutting and 
making field hay, yet upon irrigated meadows and others with 
wide open trenches the mowing machine is not always available. 
It is the same to some extent in the park pastures sometimes 
where there are a number of ornamental trees, for although 
where the ground is level a considerable portion of the grass may 
be cut with the mower, yet under the trees the grass is usually 
Cut with the scythe, and particularly when the trees are elms. 
These are sure to have a number of runner roots, which throw up 
small twigs for a considerable distance around the trees. Some of 
them have very hard stems, which would be liable to break the 
knives of the mowing machine or disarrange the working parts 
of the implement. It is therefore safer to use the scythe in such 
cases. In order that dry pasture land and meadows should be in 
good order for cutting the grass with the mowing machine the 
ground should be looked over in early spring and all stones picked 
up and removed ; and in the case of park lands with timber about 
it should be looked over in the month of April, for the winds 
peculiar to the month of March will be sure to scatter over the 
pasture more or less the dead broken branches from the ornamenta 
timber. In some of the moist meadows requiring open trenches 
to lay them dry it is best to pipe-drain the trenches and fill-in 
level with the surface. The grass may then be cut with the 
machine ; whereas without this advantage the crop must be cut 
with the seythe, which in districts where labourers are scarce is 
very expensive. 
In order that the meadows should have the full advantage of 
the season they should be laid up and neither fed by cattle or 
sheep after the Ist of February, and as soon after as convenient 
they should be rolled with a heavy iron roller, In some meadows, 
even after pipe-draining, there will still remain patches which 
produce the small rushes, and as these always start in growth 
before the sweet grasses they should be cut over with the scythe 
in the month of April, which will not only prevent the rushes 
from overpowering the best grasses, but it will effectually keep 
down the coarser grasses, which may be cut with the rushes, and 
thus improve the general quality of the hay. The time at which 
grass should be cut, as regards the quality of the hay and other 
matters, is of considerable importance. For instance, on much of 
the park land and dry pastures of a dry season it should be par- 
ticularly noticed whether the finer and bottom grasses are grow- 
ing, and if not the sooner the grass is cut the better. On the 
contrary, if the season is showery and the ground moist, although 
the forwardest grasses may be in bloom, yet the bottom and fine 
grass will continue to grow and make up a heavy crop, in which 
case the cutting may be deferred until the Dutch, the suckling, 
the bird’s-foot trefoil or yellow-blossomed, the broom grass, and 
others are in flower. There can be no question that the colour 
of the hay and the aroma is a tolerable guide to quality, but 
this is often carried too far and accepted as the only criterion 
of value, for the “ sweet-scented vernal grass” which contributes 
to nearly all pasture hay the fragrant aroma is often found on the 
poorest of grasslands. This is the cause of much of the hay 
sold in the metropolitan and other markets being of but little 
feeding value, although sold at a high price by reason of its bright 
green colour and sweet scent. 
The time for cutting grass in the water meadows is different 
altogether, for where there is a full crop, whether the grasses are 
in bloom or not, it should be cut. If allowed to remain too long 
the grass becomes laid or lodged, and that next the ground the 
leaves of the grass become partially decayed, which not: only 
damages the quality of hay, but increases the cost of cutting, and 
delays and deteriorates the succeeding crop. As before: stated, 
wherever the mowing machine can be used on pastures or meadows 
it should be adopted, not only because it saves the labour of many 
men as compared with the scythe, but also because it is highly 
desirable that all the grass intended to make up one rick of hay 
should be cut as nearly as possible at the same time, so that all 
should be ready for carting together, and the rick finished and 
topped to prevent exposure to the weather. After cutting the 
grass the chief point, as regards making the hay, is to take into 
consideration the bulk of the crop and the character of the season. 
If the crop is light and the weather dry upon the upland and 
park pastures it often requires little or no labour beyond eutting, 
rowing in, and carting. We have on various occasions cut the 
grass before nine o’clock in the morning, and got it into rick as 
well-made hay in theevening. Although this is quite exceptional 
it goes to show that the grass in a dry time may not be tedded 
several times, but the swathe only turned, and on the second or 
third day, according to the bulk of the crop, may be carried to 
the stack. This plan, however, chiefly applies to dry pastures 
and when the hay is required for consumption on the home farm, 
because in case it is required for sale more care must be taken to 
preserve the colour, as colour means quality in the eyes of the 
hay dealer. Therefore in low-lying meadows subject to night 
fogs the hay should always after being tedded be made into small 
pooks, called grasscocks, for the night, and then spread again into 
rows in the morning, and if sufficiently made be got into larger 
rows just before the waggon, as it is best to be taken up hot out 
of the row. 
Let us now consider the question of treatment of the grass for | 
hay when by the state of the barometer and the general character 
of the season we may feel assured that showery and difficult hay- 
making weather will prevail. In that case, instead of tedding, it 
will be well to only turn the swathe on the second day after 
cutting ; on the third day to get the hay into small pooks, and 
then make two or three pooks into one on the day following, in 
which case the hay will have retained its colour. 'But we must 
still be extremely jealous of the weather, and throw open the large 
pooks to get them dry for carting, but only in the promise of a 
