102 
CARTER AND CO.’S GARDENER’S VADE-MECUM FOR 1862. 
easy, by examining a plant very early in the season, to 
ascertain the position of the young ear, and the flagging 
may be easily done w ithout injury to it, either by hook 
brandished horizontally to right and left, or, even when 
the plant is very tliiok and very succulent, by the scythe. 
The necessity of a hardened stem, and of lotting sunlight 
play upon it, is an argument for their sowing at wide 
intervals. 
Green Manuring. — It is not generally at this season 
of the year that plants are sown to bo ploughed in, because 
thus early you can sow seeds wrhose produce shall deserve 
a better fate ; nevertheless we may refer to the practice 
here as oftentimes furnishing a cheap and efficient method 
of fertilizing the ground. If the ground is poor after a 
corn-crop wiiicli has been early harvested, you can often 
get, before winter, a luxuriant growth of vegetable matter 
which, then ploughed in, shall be a useful contribution of 
fertilizing matter towards a green crop in the following 
year. The practice of ploughing under a growing crop to 
rot in the land and supply organic matter by its decom- 
position there, is chiefly adopted on very sandy soils, which 
are either deficient in organic matter, or in which (hungry 
soils as they are called) it rapidly rots and disappears. 
For this purpose the succulent White Mustard, the Came- 
line, another cruciferous plant, or Rye itself, may bo some- 
times used. The ordinary plan is to sow it broadcast, and 
plough it under by the aid of skim coulter and heavy chain 
dragging from the beam of the plough, by which the whole 
growth, though it may bo two feet high, is buried perfectly ; 
and it should bo done before the plant comes into bloom. 
The practice of green manuring is of the same fertilizing 
kind as the ploughing under of Clover-root or old sward, 
which everybody knows to be the richest kind of dressing 
that can be. But for special green manuring special crops 
are grown, such as Italian Rye-grass, Clover, Buckwheat, 
Lupine, Rye, Spurry, Rape, Mustard, Vetches, which have 
all been used for this purpose ; many of them, as the two 
first, and Rye, Rape, and Vetches, are better used as food for 
sheep folded on the land ; and the Lupine, too, has latterly 
been warmly recommended for this purpose on all very 
light sandy soils. Sometimes, however, it is not convenient 
to procure stock for the consumption of a green crop, and 
then the cheapest way of making use of it, and adding to 
the upper soil, where it will be immediately available, a 
store of valuable matter, which has been taken from the 
air and from the subsoil, is to plough it under. 
The Lupine has beeu recommended to be sown about 
one bushel per acre, rather in June, however, than in May, 
in row's twelve inches or more apart, on light sandy soils. 
The horse-hoe will keep it clean, and sometimes a largo 
produce of valuable seed is obtained, of great value as food 
for stock, while the green plant, if fed down, is a capital 
forage for sheep folding, or for any other kind of stock. 
Mr. Crisp, of Butley Abbey, states in a recent number of 
the ‘ English Agricultural Society’s Journal,’ that he ob- 
tained fifty waggon loads of sheaves off eighteen acres sown 
with eighteen bushels, and that the quantity of grain was 
estimated at forty to fifty bushels per acre. 
Kohl Rabi. — This has latterly become a more favou- 
rite crop, owing to the failure of Turnips, and tho large 
produce which some growers have obtained. Mr. Lawson, 
in the ‘ Agricultural {Society’s Journal,’ calls it the root ot 
dry summers ; but it seems during the past, year to have 
been less injured by the excessive wet and cold than many 
other sorts. When Mangolds and other roots have been 
universally small, tho Kohl Rabi docs not seem to have 
suffered in the least. It is either sown in seed-beds in 
March, April, and May, to bo transplanted respectively in 
May, June, and August, or it may be drilled in rows where 
it is finally to stand. If sown in soed-beds for transplant- 
ing, a pound of seed, or thereabouts, sown in a well- 
prepared bed, will furnish plants for an acre. If dialled 
on the land, four pounds per acre will be needed. 
Kohl Rabi prefers the heavier class of soils, which should 
be reduced to thorough tilth, and richly manured during 
autumn. The plant will benefit by dressings of super- 
phosphate. Seed sow’ll early in March will furnish plants 
ready to transplant early in May. When drilled in the 
field, they may be sown in rows twenty -six or twenty-seven 
inches wide, and singled out to fifteen or sixteen inches, as 
for Mangold Wurzel. The produce is large and good for 
cows ; and, so far as analysis can determine, it is more 
nutritive. It is hardy, and withstands any frost ; and 
while past experience proves it well adapted for dry sum- 
mers, that of the past has proved tliat it flourishes in 
watery weather also. 
The Cabbage is a useful field plant, grown largely 
for this purpose in North Lincolnshire and elsewhere, on 
clayey soils. The land is ploughed and manured in 
autumn in raised drills, into which the plants are 
dibbled about midsummer, the work being generally con- 
tracted for, labour, plants and all, at about 25s. per acre. 
Tf Drumhead Cabbage-seed be sown in beds late in August 
and pricked out into other beds in November, and again 
planted out in the field in February and March, they will 
be ripe and fit for use in early autumn. 
If sown in April and May, and transplanted as soon as 
big enough, which is the practice on the clay soils of 
North Lincolnshire, they furnish ample store of winter 
food. The Cabbage likes a stiff soil, and all the cultiva- 
tion for it should be done before winter. A very large 
produce, sometimes exceeding forty tons per acre, is ob- 
tained. The rows may be three feet wide, and the plants 
two feet apart in the richest land ; but other and smaller 
intervals may be adopted if the land is not in such good 
condition. The Drumhead is the best sort, producing a 
substantial and firm mass of food. The Thousand-headed, 
also a field Cabbage, has an open growth, and must be 
folded on the ground or cut as forage, as it cannot be 
stored. 
Buckwheat is sown ono bushel per acre in rows 
twelve inches apart, in the middle of the month of May, 
on any light free soil. It is not a desirable crop, except 
for poor sands, and as a produce worth growing for poultry 
and for game, unless indeed, as already said, it be grown 
as a green crop to be ploughed in. 
JUNE, 
Turnip Cultivation is the great business of this month in England. In Scotland, the latter part of May, or indeed as 
early in tho month as possible, is the best seed-time for the Swedish Turnip, and then the Hybrids, Hard Yellow Turnip, 
and Soft White Turnip, follow in succession. Rape, too, may be sown this month; Mangold Wurzel, Carrots, and Parsnips 
may be horse-hoed and singled. Cabbages and Kohl Rabi continue to be transplanted. Clover is mown for forage; 
Vetches, too, are mown and carried to the feeding-stalls and stables, care being taken, when they are still very young, to let 
them wither for a day in swathe before being given to horses. 
Tho Horse-labour in June accordingly consists of ploughing and cultivation in tho Turnip-field, and carrying of manure 
and green food. 
Tho Hand-labour includes hoeing, weeding, &c., of tho growing crop, and dung-filling, &c., connected with Turnip cul- 
ture. Sheep are washed and shorn in May and June ; and Dairy operations are at their height. 
Turnip Culture. — By the introduction of the Turnip I tirely altered ; and though the Mangold Wurzel, Kohl Rabi, 
into cultivation, the relations of agriculture has been en- | Carrot, & c. are now to some extent taking its place, yet 
