212 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ September 12, 1878. 
have a large feeding value, for we have known them when cheap 
purchased for feeding sheep and cattle, and mixed with linseed 
cake. Both vetches and cake, however, should be reduced to meal, 
and in feeding it is then best and most conveniently mixed with 
cut roots without any waste. 
Sometimes where winter vetches are grown for the purpose of 
cutting-up for cows as a soiling crop only, and a succession of 
food required, Italian rye grass is often sown in the vetches, and 
when the vetches and rye are drilled at 9 inches it offers a good 
opportunity for sowing the Italian grass in the early spring, and 
horse-hoeing the land between the rows with narrow hoes to bury 
the seed. This is a plan more approved than sowing Italian grass 
with summer tares, because they are more apt to suffer from a 
blight called red rust than winter vetches. It is, in fact, very 
rare to see a crop of winter vetches suffer from blight, especially 
when rye or oats are sown with them as above directed, for it 
protects them and shelters them from the effect of blighting 
winds. We find many hill farmers dissatisfied with the growth 
of vetches, and only grow them for the want of a substitute, as 
they are so much approved as food for young lambs, having a 
change of saintfoin once a day. But we can with great confidence 
recommend a rotation for summer feeding without the vetches— 
viz., first rye, then trifolium three sorts, and some also spring- 
sown to be followed by turnips, and upon all these green crops 
mangolds may be used and preserved during winter and spring on 
purpose to assist the lambs whilst feeding on these crops, and 
saintfoin to the exclusion of winter vetches entirely, without de- 
teriorating the preparation of turnips. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
_ Horse Labour.—In order that this may be set out in due course 
it is necessary that the rotation of cropping upon the home farm 
should be decided on, the sooner the better, as nearly as circum- 
stances will permit. The most general rotation is the four-course 
—viz., first, roots ; second, Lent corn or spring wheat ; third, clover 
or grasses ; fourth, wheat. This is in many parts of the kingdom 
a sort of customary rotation upon light kind soils, and it is very 
simple and comparatively easy to carry out if the manager under- 
stands the ordinary practical working and stocking of the land. 
But we cannot recommend this course of cropping upon a farm of 
really good land, which will bear a much severer course and yield 
more profit ; but to those who are rather inexperienced the four- 
course rotation offers a good opportunity for the easy conducting 
of a farm. When once it is decided what rotation shall be pursued 
the work should now be laid out for the horses, and immediately 
after the harvest is complete. We will, therefore, consider the 
four-course system to have been decided on. In this case the 
first work will be, if any portion of the land coming in for roots 
is foul with couch grass, to at once commence a course of autumn 
cultivation, and, if steam power is available upon the farm or can 
be obtained by hire, to immediately begin the working of the 
land. Whether horse power or steam power is used avoid by all 
means, when there is much couch grass, ploughing the land; but 
instead of ploughing to scarify and break up the ground both 
lengthways and crossways a few inches in depth. In the event 
of sufficient horse labour being attached to the farm the dragging, 
harrowing, rolling, &c., should proceed immediately after the 
scarifier, and as soon as the grass, &c., is brought to the surface. 
It is a common practice to burn the grass and weeds as soon as it 
is quite free of the earth. This is a question of dry weather. We 
therefore prefer to diminish the labour of preparing the couch for 
burning by carting it away at once, although a portion of earth 
may be attached, and this may be done independent of the dry 
weather requisite for burning. If drawn to a heap when it becomes 
rotten it makes good manure for meadow land, and also a valuable 
article upon the farm for various purposes, such as placing at the 
bottom of pigsties, cattle pens, &c. Without being heaped at all, 
it may be drawn direct from the field and laid out upon any 
meadow or pasture land which has been closely fed, and if spread 
directly and after a short time chain-harrowed it will sink into 
the land and improve the herbage immensely. We have often 
tried it in comparison with farmyard dung, and found it quite 
equal in produce of grass, and superior in improving the quality 
of the herbage. 
After the grass has been carted away the land may remain to 
be deeply ploughed after the wheat season is over, and fallowed 
for roots in the spring. Any portion of the roots lain which is 
quite clean should at once be seeded with trifolium on the corn 
stubble and dragged in, chain-harrowed, and left rolled. The 
seed required will be not less than 20 Ibs; per acre, and three sorts 
for a succession may be sown. Rye for early sheep food or cut- 
ting up for cattle should now be sown, but the land should be 
ploughed, and a dressing of 1 ewt. of Peruvian guano may be 
applied with the best results. It will bring the rye very forward, 
and the manure not used up by the rye will be available for the 
succeeding root crop. The next crop generally sown for a fodder 
crop is winter yetches, but these need not have any manure 
applied as they may receive nitrate of soda in the spring if it is 
requisite to force them on early. 
Hand Labour will still be various, for it will be quite necessary 
in many cases to give the mangold crop another hand-hoeing, and 
in case of showery weather continuing we like to pick up the 
weeds and heap them in the field by women or boys, to be carted 
away when the roots are cleared in the same way the Swedes and 
common turnips will require to be treated. In many cases during 
the harvest and the delay caused by heavy storms it has been 
quite impossible to do the work necessary for root culture at the 
proper time. 
Hedge-trimming, too, must be done, for this work is often de- 
layed until the corn crops are cleared, and where the hedges con- 
sist of whitethorns the sooner it is done the better. We always 
prefer the early part of July for this work; if delayed until 
autumn the wood becomes hard and difficult to trim so closely as 
is really requisite. When fences are composed chiefly of high 
wide banks growing wood of various kinds it is not so important, 
but these should be done before Michaelmas ; and where they are 
not required as fencing against horned cattle the wood may all 
be cut close to the bank, so that in the spring of the year the 
grass and weeds, together with the young shoots of wood, may all 
be cut together, and furnish good food for cattle and pigs. 
FAMOUS POULTRY YARDS.—No. 2. 
COMBE ST. NICHOLAS VICARAGE (REY. HANS F. HAMILTON). 
(Continued from page 197.) 
We will now endeavour to describe Mr. Hamilton’s chicken 
house. It is a magnificent structure, resting against a stone wall 
that forms its back; the front is entirely of glass lights like a 
greenhouse ; the upper part of the back too is of glass, for it rises 
higher than the wall. Ventilation is secured by sliding windows in 
both front and back. The roof is tiled, but lined underneath with 
felt to keep it warm. The whole building is 75 feet long and 12 
broad, and is divided into five compartments. It is so constructed 
that should Mr, Hamilton tire of the poultry fancy it may be 
easily adapted to horticultural purposes. The floor is dry—a 
perfect run for early chickens. Yet let us not be mistaken - 
though we have never ourselves had such a model house for early 
broods we once watched the growth of chickens in a similar one 
of a friend, and observed that they require to be moved when six 
or eight weeks old to less luxurious abodes or they outgrow their 
strength. At present it is put to an excellent purpose. Various 
fine Brahma and Dorking hens were sitting on the ground, among 
them one Brahma with wonderful pencilling ; hens left thus to 
amuse themselves moult early and well. Each of the five com- 
partments opens into a separate spacious orchard run sloping 
southwards, hurdling and wire netting divide them. In one of 
these were by far the best Dark Brahma pullets we have seen of 
late; lovely Silver-Grey birds in perfect condition, not of the 
weedy form we generally see with fine pencilling, but large, deep- 
bodied and heavily featnered. : 
Hence we somewhat retraced our steps, and passed down a 
pretty path leading through a shrubbery from the vicarage to the 
church. On the left was a gate, and through this seven charming 
runs quaintly irregular in shape, most of them well sheltered 
with shrubs and low-growing wood. The sheds are thatched and 
some of them very rustic ; several are so arranged as to give access 
| to more than one run: this struck us as being a great merit of 
Mr. Hamilton’s arrangements, that from so many of the houses the 
birds can be turned out into one run while another is freshening- 
We peeped into one shed untenanted by birds, where was a pretty 
sight, an intelligent-looking Colley surrounded by her family- 
In another run was a late Dark Brahma cock of last year, a 
splendid fellow for which we augur many prize cards in the 
season. We have always had great faith in the worth of some 
Jate chickens allowed to run at ease for a year or more. The last 
two runs have no sheds at all, but veritable houses. Mr. Hamilton 
has ingeniously adapted two old-fashioned thatched cottages for 
poultry below and Canaries above. Tn one of the runs connected 
with them were four grand Dark Dorking hens, in the othera Dark 
Brahma cock of the Ansdell strain and a mixed troop of chickens, 
chiefly Dark Brahmas. The first part of the house we entered 
had apparently once been a barn ; on one side are a row of exhibi- 
tion pens, and underneath them a row of larger pens for moulting 
birds ; along the beams are nailed many cards the signs of cups 
and prizes. The lowe¥ room of one cottage is devoted to sitting 
hens, that of the next is a roosting house. We scaled the queer 
old stairs, and there in perfect luxury were some wonderful 
Belgian Canaries. All live stock in the establishment is highly 
bred, and here we saw some of the best birds that Mr. Hamilton 
could procure in Antwerp. They seemed thoroughly to appreciate: 
the quiet of their cottages, and we must say we at once longed to 
bring cottages into use for our feathered collection. But we must 
pass on. Back through these sheltered runs, we cross the church 
path and emerge at the bottom of the large orchard runs before 
described ; with them on our right hand we pass along a smooth 
grass lawn at the bottom of the orchard, untenanted by birds at 
present and devoted to archery. Here behold the quaintest of all 
poultry houses, a disused omnibus! after many a jolt at last 
quietly grounded and well felted above, and a comfortable quarter 
it looked. 
