CARTER AND CO.’S GARDENER'S VADE-MECUM FOR 1862. 
washed outsides. Mr. Baldwin estimates Die loss as follows : 
Within the last tliree or four years we have. made agri- 
cultural tours through 25 of the 32 counties of Ireland ; 
and from careful consideration of the subject, and having 
in some instances used a tape-line and weighing-machine 
to assist our judgment, we have come to the conclusion 
that one-twentieth of the hay crop of Ireland is permitted 
to rot in field cocks. The portion on the ground, as well 
as that on the outside of the cocks, is too often only fit for 
immure. And the loss of aftermath, and of the subsequent 
year's crop (if hay or pasture), sutlers to the extent of from 
0 d. to Is. per acre. If we unit© all these sources, the loss 
sustained annually in this country is something serious to 
contemplate. On an average for all Ireland, it is not under 
20 per cent., or a fifth of the actual value of the crop. We 
have about 1,500,000 acres under meadow in Ireland, the 
average produce of which, last year, was 2 tons per acre. 
The total produce of hay was 3,000,000 tons, the value of 
which, at the eurront rate, would bo, at least, £12,000,000 ; 
one-fifth of which (£2, 400, 000) is, as we have shown, 
lost by mismanagement to the Irish farmer. 
Bean and Pea and Flax Harvest are referred to 
in the months of February aud April, where their cultiva- 
tion is discussed. 
AUGUST. 
This is the harvest month. Wheat, Oats, Barley and Beans are being cut by hand and horse, and carried home as soon 
nS 'The Horse-labour accordingly, excluding such horse-hoeings of green crops ns still continue, is almost entirely confined 
- i The reaping machine is being drawn or pushed, and the harvest cart or waggon is at work, me 
to harvest operations. The reaping machine is Demg drawn or pusueu, auu sue i™ s m ' ~ 
plough, too, is set to work as soon as the stubble is cleared, in preparation for Winter Beans and Rye and Vetches , and the 
ploughing of clover leas, either with or without a previous dressing of manure, goes on when possible tor Wheat. 
Hand-labour reaches in this month its greatest agricultural activity aud intensity throughout the year, and accordingly 
wages are at their highest. 
The Cereal Grains and Harvest Operations.— 
There are some particulars in the management of our cereal 
grains in which they arc alike, and of which therefore a 
statement common to all of them may be mado. All our 
White corn crops come generally in our rotations after green 
crops or manured fallow crops of some kind or other. 
Wheat succeeds Fallow, Clover, Beans, Turnips, Mangold 
Wurzel, or Potatoes. Oats come-aftor Turnips or Potatoos 
or Mangolds, or newly broken up land or Clover. Barley 
generally comes after Turnips. The four-field rotation, 
Wheat, Turnips, Barley, Clover, is the general rule in 
England. — (1) Wheat or Barley; (2) Clover and Grass 
seeds; (3) Oats ; (4) Turnips— or ( 1) Turnips ; (2) Wheat 
or Barley ; (3) Grass ; (4) Oats ; (5) Beans or Peas ; (6) 
Wheat — are common rotations in Scotland. The cereal 
crops arc generally considered the exhausting crops of the 
rotation ; but it is evident that this depends on the cultiva- 
tion to which the land is subjected during their growth, 
aud on the use that is made of their produce. This idea 
nevertheless rules our rotations, theso crops being taken 
when the land is, by previous treatment, at its best, and 
being followed by crops whose management restores the 
richness of the land. There are exceptions to this rule, but 
they obtain only where the land has acquired too great 
riclmess aud needs depletion, or whore it is in the hands 
of its enemies, i. e. of those who, having the power, are 
disposed to beggar it. In the fen districts of England 
Cole seed or Turnips are followed by Oats, and that by 
Wheat ; the extra tendency to straw being taken off by the 
less valuable crop of grain, and so a possibility of a stand- 
ing Wheat crop being obtained : and thus again, in the best 
managed land under the four-field rotation, that system is 
being modified by Wheat being taken after Turnips and 
followed by Barley. After folded Turnips, Wheat is found 
to be the best standing crop, and the Barley finds after it 
quite enough food to yield a crop without its being of so 
luxuriant a growth as to spoil the sample. Apart from 
these exceptions, however, the place of all these crops in the 
rotation is, and ought to be, alter a manured crop, such as 
Turnips, Mangold Wurzel, or a crop which by its growth 
feeds the land, as Clover docs ; the clover root being in effect 
a liberal dressing of the soil. 
The next general aspect of theso crops is that presented 
by the question which has latterly excited a good deal of 
discussion, namely, thick or thin seeding ; but it is not 
worth while discussing this question on general principles ; 
it must suffice to refer to the data furnished by experience, 
with reference to each particular crop of ttie series, and 
this is done in the paragraph descriptive of each. 
The cultivation proper to these crops is much alike, ex- 
cepting the seed-time. The seed is generally sown in rows 
from 6 to 12 inches apart ; the fields are harrowed or hoed 
when the crop is up, and they may be rolled or not, accord- 
ing to the condition of the soil. The crop is hand-weeded, 
if necessary, before coming into ear, and even after, if 
much weeds or the wild oat exist among it, which can be 
distinguished only after earing : and the harvest operations 
aro pretty much alike for all. 
Harvest-work in the corn-field is done either by contract 
or at day s’ wages ; and the price per acre varies from 8s. to 
12s., und even more per acre, according to the bulk of the 
crop. The corn is either mown, or reaped, or bagged. If 
mown to tie, it is best mown up against the standing corn, 
as otherwise the scythe is apt to cut the ears from the Straw, 
as each new stroke is driven up against the swathe. A 
strong lad follows each scythe and gathers the corn in 
sheaves, laying them upon ties which have been pulled and 
placed by a child preceding him ; another lad or woman 
ties : a man, two strong lads and a child thus make a 
party. 
In “bagging,” as it is called, a heavy hook is used: a 
wisp of straw is out first and doubled up, or a stick is used 
instead, held in the left hand, and with the right the heavy 
hook is driven against the corn close to the ground, and so, 
by successive strokes, the corn is cut, perhaps a foot deep, 
up against the standing crop ; the wisp or stick in the left 
hand serving to guide it to a standing place as it leans 
against the crop. A dozen such strokes will clear 3 or 4 
yards in length, and the workman returning backwards 
upon his work, gathers what he has cut against his leg into 
a sheaf, and places it on a tie that has been pulled for him, 
and laid convenient. 
In reaping, each man is of course more independent, 
pulling his own tie and making his own sheaf; though 
here also it is usual to have a bandster, who ties after several 
men or women. The sheaves should bo about 10 inches 
in diameter, and as nearly as possible the full length of the 
straw. They are set up six of a side in shocks or stooks, 
with two head sheaves, butt to butt, over them, as a roof : 
or they are sometimes set up only two of a side, witli two 
small sheaves overhead, hanging, ears down, and tied to- 
gether by a band, as is tho practice in some parts of the mid- 
land counties. It is the general practice in England to mow 
the barley and leave it in swathe ; but where the crop is 
tall and bulky, it is better tied in sheaves, whether it be 
oats, barley, or wheat. 
The whole practice of harvest work is, however, being 
altered by the use of the reaper ; which, as in the case of 
