196 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 
{ September 5, 1878, 
Sometimes we have known winter beans planted in double rows 
9 inches apart and 20 inches apart between the double rows. 
This plan is, however, better adapted for spring bean culture, 
because the hand hoes must work in the 9-inch space, and as 
winter beans branch out most they impede the hand-hoeing. 
The cutting of winter beans early is of great consequence, and 
the best time is when the eye of the corn is turned black, the 
haulm being but little guide, as that will often be comparatively 
green, although the beans will be matured sufficiently for cutting. 
As, however, winter beans, particularly after a severe winter, grow 
very short, and are often podded close to the ground, we prefer 
to pull them by hand, and after being tied the sheaves stand 
several inches more above ground. The early cutting is of the 
utmost importance, because they will then take showery weather 
without the shedding of the corn by the shrinking and opening of 
the pods. In'tying the sheaves we prefer tying with yarn, as the 
straw bonds do not answer all the purposes, as they are apt to 
break in stacking or in hauling to the machine at thrashing time. 
Formerly, instead of tying into sheaves at the time of cutting, it 
was the practice to set them up in loose state, tying the tops 
with a wisp of straw, and when dry then to tie into sheaves for 
stacking. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Horse Labour has been lost to some extent owing to a suc- 
cession of adverse weather for carting corn to stack or barn, and 
the same weather which prevents harvest work often renders 
horse labour of but little value upon the land. Now is the best 
time to sow trifolium, and it is often requisite when the land is 
not quite clean to scarify and then drag and harrow, and cart the 
weeds and stubble to a heap. This when decayed makes a good 
dressing for the pasture land, particularly if it has been put at 
the bottom of the pigsties, as it then comes out with the dung as 
first-rate manure. It has also the advantage, when the dung is 
allowed to accumulate, of keeping the pens drier and more healthy 
for the pigs, especially when the animals are fed mostly upon 
green food, for in such cases the portions of green food not eaten 
are trodden down, and so far serving the purpose of litter to some 
extent. When the accumulation in the sties becomes incon- 
venient, it will on removal be found to be some of the most yalu- 
able manure that can be made on the home farm. At intervals 
the horses will be engaged in cleaning and preparing the pea 
eddishes to be sown with wheat ; and our plan is, first to rafter or 
half-plough the land, then scarify across the rafters, harrow and 
roll, and cart away weeds and rubbish to a heap, there to rot for 
future use. In some cases the horses will be ready to draw out 
manure from the farm premises on to the lea ground intended for 
wheat. We prefer to lay out manure on the clover leas instead 
of drawing it on to the peas or beans fallowed land, because on 
the lea ground the horses and carts pass over the land without 
injury by treading, &c. We, therefore, prefer to dress the land 
for wheat in those cases where it has been recently worked after 
peas or beans with guano, and in ordinary soils we have often 
obtained the best wheat of the season by an application of 3 cwt. 
per acre of the best Peruvian guano, and especially if the wheat 
is put in early, and the soil adapted for wheat culture, and the 
stronger the land is the more advantage it receives from guano. 
Our plan is to sow the guano broadcast, mixed with damp ashes 
to prevent its flying before the wind, and when sown upon the 
recently ploughed furrow and harrowed-in, the wheat may then 
be drilled without any injury to the young plants by the pungency 
of the manure, for it is never safe to drill guano with the seed. 
The odd horse will be engaged in horse-hoeing the stubble turnips ; 
and in case these were sown after white oats, or the earliest 
cutting of wheat, they will now be forward enough to be horse- 
hoed, and hand-hoed also immediately after, for we have often 
had stubble turnips when sown after the earliest corn crops and 
when they have been drilled daily between the shocks of corn, 
had them sufficiently forward to furnish cover for the partridges 
on the Ist of September. Some say that September Ist is the 
latest period at which turnips should be sown in corn stubbles. 
When, however, they are sown thus late they do not give much 
food for sheep, unless they are allowed to run-up towards flower- 
ing in the spring ; still, late turnips when sown after wheat may 
be ploughed under in the early spring for barley with the prospect 
of producing a full crop. 
Hand Labour has been very various, the continuous rains haying 
prevented the men from following-up the usual harvest work, and 
in consequence they have been employed in hedge-cutting, draw- 
ing straw for the thatchers, shaving the outside of wheat and oat 
ricks, &c. The second cutting of grass in the alluvial pastures 
and irrigated meadows will now be fit to cut for latter math hay 
as soon as the ordinary harvest work is concluded. The men will 
also be employed in spreading manure on the clover leas intended 
for wheat. The cattle man must now attend to the heifers which 
have a young bull running with them and keep them frequently 
changed, and especially to provide a dry pasture for the night 
lodging ; and as soon as it is known that all the heifers, including 
those which have turned have been served, the young bull should 
be taken up and tethered in a stall, or run loose in the house, and 
be daily subject to the attention of the cattle man in order that 
he may have full control over the animal at all times. This is 
especially important, because it will be useful for a year or two 
longer when subservient to the manager. In some districts there 
is still much wheat and sheaved oats in the field, and the shocks 
should be kept set up every day. The shepherd now will attend 
the ewe flocks, and see that the rams are coloured on the chest 
with red, blue, or yellow ochre in order to observe which ram 
begets the best lambs, so that it may be retained in preference for 
the next year’s service. 
FAMOUS POULTRY YARDS.—No. 1. 
COMBE ST. NICHOLAS VICARAGE (REV. HANS F. HAMILTON). 
UNLESS we are much mistaken the fancy for poultry, and 
through it the useful improvement of the breeds of poultry 
throughout the country, has been as much advanced by quiet 
visits of fancier to fancier and comparison of notes as by all the 
poultry articles, all the poultry books, and all the poultry shows. 
A would-be keeper of high-class stock sees at some show birds 
which take his fancy, but he has a vague idea that they require 
some mysterious treatment (not entirely an erroneous one if they 
happen to have the ill fate to have been overshown), and that in 
ordinary quarters they may probably die, and so he ever puts off 
the day for starting with a pure-bred race. Or, again, he reads 
articles in some newspaper or chapters in some poultry book 
containing technical information for the experienced fancier ; 
these too frighten him with their minutie. A visit, however, to 
a well-arranged yard has a far different effect ; there he may see 
sprightly birds not cooped in pens but running about with their 
natural grace, each has a history of its own; there he may learn 
that great beauty can be combined with the highest utility, and 
that some of the most successful prizetakers are reared in rough 
and primitive quarters. He may see bits of ground, heath, copse, 
orchard, or field which would hardly be either profitable or 
ornamental in themselves made attractive by pretty domiciles for 
the feathered stock, and troops of gay-coloured birds scattered 
over them. The ingenuity, too, with which dark outhouses and 
dull corners may be, and often are, converted into healthy 
habitations and sheltered.runs for poultry is in itself interesting. 
We have vivid recollections of the enthusiasm which the first sight 
of a well-appointed lot of yards and aviaries aroused in ourselves, 
and many are the hints which we haye learnt and adopted from 
establishments which we have visited. All our readers, however, 
cannot see great poultry yards, and the next best thing to seeing 
them is to read of them. We never saw the famed Inchmartine 
yards, but the accounts of them in “ The Henwife” did much 
towards the development of our own. Through the kindness of 
many fanciers and friends—indeed so strong a bond of union is a 
rational taste, that there are many whom we once knew by name 
alone as enthusiastic fanciers whom we now number among our 
friends—we have seen a large portion of the most famous yards, 
and hope, however inadequately, to describe some of them for the 
benefit of others. : 
We do not begin with one of those establishments which have 
had their name and fame as far as our memory reaches back, but 
with one which is more interesting, because rising, and whose 
strains are in process of formation. For some three or four years 
have we observed in cup and prize pens magnificent Dark Dorkings 
and Dark Brahmas, each year of higher type, exhibited by the 
Rey. H. F. Hamilton. Their owner most hospitably invited us to 
pay hima visit to see the home of these birds and his lovely 
neighbourhood. It was late in July when we were able to avail, 
ourselves of this invite—hardly the season for the inspection of 
the poultry, yet a capital one for the luxuriant vegetation around 
them, and never did we enjoy more the sight of a pretty place and 
well-filled yards. 
Combe St. Nicholas Vicarage is an ideal place ; though on the 
edge of Somersetshire the scenery leading up to it from Chard is 
more like that of Devonshire, with deep rich valleys and steep 
hillsides running up to gorse-clad and fern-clad downs. Steep 
indeed they are. It is well that Mr. Hamilton’s horses are as good. 
in their way as his poultry, for the sharp pitches of the road quite 
astounded us. Arrived at the Vicarage, we were at once struck 
with the beauty of its lawn. It rises from the front of the house 
in pretty slope and stretches out widely ; in its centre are gay 
flower beds singularly well arranged for colour effect, on either 
side walks among trees and shrubberies ; from the top of it runs 
far away a lovely grass alley, on one side of which is a well-filled 
border bank of flowers backed by a hedge, on the other a terrace- 
like walk, giving peeps over the nearer country to the far Devon- 
shire hills. We have undertaken to write of famous poultry yards 
and not of beautiful gardens, so to the poultry yard we must go. 
On the left of the lawn parallel with the terrace and grass alley, 
but far below it, for allis on a hillside, runs a road towards the 
farm buildings and grass runs, which we shall presently come to ; 
into this we descended, and the first thing which astonished our 
eyes was “the chicken house.” It cannot be said of fancy poultry 
that they have fallen on evil days and evil times. The chicken 
house! Our infantile idea of a chicken house was a dark, window- 
less, fetid shed, with damp moss-grown brick floor, perches rising 
