98 
CARTER AND CO.’S GARDENER’S VADE-MECUM FOR 1862. 
the reaping machine. The crop is tied in sheaves with 
straw bands, and carried to rick after exposure enough to 
dry it. 
Culture of the Pea. — The Pea prefers a lighter soil 
than the Bean. The sorts commonly grown are the Com- 
mon Grey, a late, long-podded, prolific, strawy sort: the 
Early Grey Warwick, early, small, short-strawed ; Early 
Charlton, also grown in gardens, and much cultivated for 
the supply of the London market. Tt is sown in January, 
on a well-cultivated and manured stubble which has re- 
ceived thorough Autumn culture. After being thus pre- 
pared, the land is ribbed in shallow drills, at intervals of 
2 feet ; and 3 bushels per aero aro sown in the drills, and 
covered by the harrow or the hand-hoe. The intervals 
enable horse-hoeing. 
In common practice, Peas are sown by the Suffolk drill, 
on the flat with heavily-loaded coulters, in row's about 1 5 
to 18 inches apart. They are hand-hoed and horse-hoed, 
and ultimately partly covered on one side by plough or 
hand-hoe, with earth-land over the lower part of their 
stem, so as to throw the rows all one way. The common 
seed-time is the end of February. When ripe, in July, 
they are cut with hook and crook, or with scythe, being 
gathered into bundles by the mode of cutting. These are 
turned once or twice, and carried to rick. The produco 
may be from 24 to 36 bushels per acre. 
MARCH. 
The operations of this month include the sowing of Spring Wheat, of Oats and Barley, of Parsnips (if that is not, already dono), 
of Grass and Clover-seeds, of Spring Vetches, of Peas and Beans (if not already finished) ; also the planting of Potatoes. 
The horst-labour accordingly includes the ploughings, borrowings, and carriage involved in all these operations ; also 
rolling of Wheats, Old Clovers, and Grass-lands. 
Hand-lahour is directed to all theso seed-operations, to the gathering of weeds and stones, to the management of tlio 
manure (filling it into carts, &c.), and, as before, to barn-work and attendance on live stock. 
The Culture of the Oat. — Oats occupy one-quarter 
of the arable land of Scotland, and about one-tenth of the 
arable-land of England. This crop is of greater import- 
ance than evon Wheat in the northern port of the island, 
in the proportion in which 32,000,000 bushels of Oats are 
worth more than 7,000,000 bushels of Wheat. 
This crop is grown on all sorts of soils, from clay to peat. 
It generally succeeds Grass and Clover in Scotland ; in 
England it is takon after Grass, and green crops of all 
kinds. In Scotland the ploughing for Oats is often Win- 
ter’s work, and the seed is sown broadcast in March or 
even earlier, — 4 to even 6 or 7 bushels of seed being 
used per acre. It should be sown with the Suffolk drill if 
the land be not so ploughed as to leave well-defined fur- 
rows into which the seed will fall, and so come up in 
rows. Oats should be cut before being thoroughly ripe, 
or they will be apt to shed their seed with the wind. Oat- 
straw, by itself, is good fodder, — Barley-straw being pre- 
ferred to it only for the Clover which the latter generally 
contains. 
There is a great number of sorts of Oats in cultivation, 
some of which we may just name : — 
Potato Oat, of good quality, rather short-strawed, pro- 
ductive, but more liable to diseaso than other kinds ; Sandy 
Oats, a free grower, tall and stiff, not of such good quality 
ns the Potato sort,, but hardier and rather earlier ; Hopetowii 
Oats are a productive, bulky, strawy, large-seeded kind ; 
Early Angus Oat, short-strawed, productive, and adapted 
for rich land ; Poland, the earliest and shortest-strawed of 
our sorts of Oat, fairly productive, well adapted for rich 
land ; Tartarian (black and white), a coarse, strong-strawed, 
extremely productive kind, not apt to lodge, yielding 
many bushels of a large light grain. 
Oats are generally chosen for sandy soils and cold late 
climates, where Wheat-harvest would be thrown too late, 
and good samples of Barley could not be expected. 
The Cultivation of Barley.— It is generally taken 
ns the crop succeeding the Sheep-fold, whether the crop 
eaten off’ has been Turnips, Rape, or Mangold Wurzel. 
The land is ploughed in March or later, and it is sown 
with 3 bushels, or thereabout, of Grain per acre, with the 
Suffolk drill, in rows about 8 or 9 inches apart. It prefers 
the looser and lighter soils ; and it is an old saying that 
“Barley may be sown in the dust, and Wheat in the mud.” 
When sown, as it generally is, after Turnips, the land 
should bo ploughed shallow, immediately after the full 
length of a furrow has been cleared by the sheep ; and if 
it lies thus some weeks before seed-time, it is better, in 
order to weather the soil, and so obtain the loosened con- 
dition of land to which reference has been made. The 
Barley crop, on well cultivated land, may be expected to 
reach at least f) quarters per acre ; it occupies about one- 
twentieth part of the arable-land of Scotland, and nearly 
onc-sixth of the arable-land of England, according to the 
imperfect statistics which have been published. 
Amongst the sorts may bo named the Common English 
Barley, early, tolerably productive, short-strawed ; the Che- 
valier, somewhat later, larger and longer-strawcd, of first- 
rate quality, and very productive ; the Annat Barley, even 
more strawy than the Chevalier, but not so liable to be 
lodged ; Common Bore, a four- or six-rowed Barley, of 
coarser quality, hardier, and adapted to poorer soils and 
harder climates. 
The harvesting of Barley is conducted as that of the 
other cereal grains, — the crop being, however, suffered to 
become more thoroughly ripe than any other before it is 
cut ; and in England it is laid in swathe by scythe or ma- 
chine, and not generally lied in sheaves. 
Potato Culture. —The lleld-eulturc of tiffs crop may 
best be copied from the Scottish farmer, who cultivates it 
to as largo an extent ns lie does evon Wheat; and not- 
withstanding the great risk which has, of late years, at- 
tended the growth of tiffs crop, it is still undoubtedly one 
of the most profitable that is cultivated. It is generally 
planted in drills or furrows 20 to 28 inches wide, rando by 
the plough, in land which has been well cultivated before 
winter, and dunged either broadcast in Autumn, as libe- 
rally as the farmer can afford, or in the drills, along with 
the sets in Spring. In the latter case, the carting out of 
the dung and spreading it in tho drills, and setting the 
Potatoes, and ploughing the driUs back so as to cover tho 
sets, all go on together; and the operation is conducted 
in March and early April. The plough opens the drills 
on one side of the working party, who are spreading the 
dung and planting the sets, and covers them up on tho 
other side of them, travelling round and round perhaps a 
dozen or twenty open drills, where the dunging, spreading, 
and planting aro proceeding. A dressing of guano and 
salt may be sown broadcast over the work before the last 
splitting of the drill which covers tho sets. Tho drills 
arc, by-and-by, lightly harrowed down, the sets come 
through, and, if there be liability to frost, may be covcrod 
up by the doublc-moiffd board-plough. The intervals be- 
tween the rows aro horse-hoed, and those between tho 
plants in the rows are hand-hoed, and the last operation is 
the earthing up the rows by the double-mmffd board- 
plough. When the leaves are withered, tho Potatoes aro 
ploughed out, every other drill being first opened by tho 
same double-boarded plough, the tubers are gathered, then 
the altcrnato drills, in like manner, aro ploughed out, 
