408 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ Hay 14, 18S5. 
PROVISION FOR WINTER. 
( Continued from page 3SG.) 
Twice as valuable as common Turnips, decidedly superior 
to Swedes—Swedes showing 1*5 per cent, of albuminous or 
nitrogenous compounds, Ivohl-rabi, the Turnip-stemmed 
Cabbage, showing 2 75 per cent., is more hardy, bearing ex¬ 
posure to extreme cold in winter and to drought in summer 
much better than Swedes. Ivohl-rabi is worthy of a high 
position among crops grown specially as provision for winter; 
yet its culture can by no means be termed general, it being 
the exception rather than the rule to meet with a good 
breadth of it upon a farm, so slow are farmers generally to 
adopt a new introduction, well tried and of proved merit even 
as this plant is. It required the soil to be clean, well-tilled, 
and thoroughly manured; in point of fact, the cultural de¬ 
tails recently enumerated for Mangolds answer perfectly for 
Kohl-rabi. Like Cabbage, it bears transplantation well, and 
is, therefore, often sown in a seed bed about the third week 
in March for transplanting in May, a certain saving being 
effected in the cost of seed when this is done, but we much 
prefer drilling on ridges prepared as for Mangolds early in 
May, the Large Green being our favourite sort. When the 
plants from the drilled seed are large enough for thinning 
many of them may be used for filling gaps in the early crop 
of Turnips, or be planted out alone if the weather is showery 
enough to give the plants a fair start. The bulbs keep well 
in the store bed or in clamps, and are taken up for storing 
with the Mangolds. Cattle and sheep are fond of it, and its 
importance and value will be apparent when it is realised 
that it yields a crop of a mean weight of 28 tons per acre. 
We have not tried it for cows, but we may safely do so, for 
Dr. Voelcker taught us long ago that it was an excellent food 
for milch cows, producing much and good milk, the butter 
made of such milk having a pleasant taste, altogether unlike 
the disagreeable flavour that characterises butter made from 
the milk of cows fed upon Turnips. 
The example of a single season enables us confidently to 
predict that with home farmers at any rate ensilage will in 
future play an important part among our store of winter 
forage ; not as taking the place of hay, for as much hay as 
possible will continue to be made, but as an invaluable auxi¬ 
liary to the hayrick silos must be brought fully into use. In 
a very wet summer an extra quantity of silage will probably 
be made if storage space can be obtained for it; in ordinary 
seasons coarse herbage, and all grass passed over by cattle 
or to be had upon headlands and hedges, instead of being 
mown and thrown in the yards as litter, will be converted 
into savoury and wholesome food in the silo. So far as our 
experience goes—and practically we have only to deal with a 
small silo—we consider it indispensable that the interior of 
the silo should be faced with Portland cement, that the pres¬ 
sure should be applied at once when the silo is filled and re¬ 
tained till it is empty, only enough of the weights being 
removed at a time to enable us to cut out the silage in trans¬ 
verse sections. If the whole of the weights are taken off at 
once, and the silage so left for several weeks, mildew is likely 
to attack and spread into it with considerable rapidity. Of 
course, there is the usual amount of ignorant prejudice and 
stupidity to combat and overcome, but a little tact and firm¬ 
ness soon sets that right so far as having one’s orders 
executed faithfully goes. The master’s eye and hand tell in 
this, as in all other things, better than a mere order to do 
this or that ever can do, and the satisfactory results which 
follow the filling of a soundly built silo form an ample reward 
for a little extra exertion and care. 
We might go on and enlarge upon the advantages of the 
extended culture of forage and root crops for winter store, 
and our justification for doing so is ample, for never were 
farmers more straitened in means wherewith to maintain 
their live stock in a healthy and sufficiently sleek condition 
than during the winter that is past and the spring that is 
fast merging into summer. Grass now grows apace ; all the 
crops of the farm look well, and are so thriving that the sight 
is most pleasant. But let us look forward, and take all care 
that our aim and purpose is to so link the seasons together 
that unity of purpose and results may hold good the year 
round. Well may we inquire if our cropping is correct; if it 
is quite the best arrangement we could have, or if we might 
not do better ? Proceeding upon the principle that a farm 
should be self-supporting so far as the growth of all the food 
for sheep, cattle, and horses goes, we shall then see if our 
crops are calculated to afford us a full supply of such food, 
and there need be no question of the disposal of any surplus 
of what is always a marketable commodity. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Warm showers fell day after day in the last week of April, and the 
effect upon all vegetation was magical—every crop literally sprang into 
growth with a rapidity and vigour only to he witnessed in favourable 
spring weather. Corn, seeds, and grass, all are growing so fast that 
considerable progress is visible daily. The young plants of Mangolds 
are visible all along the ridges, and so moist and warm is the soil 
that we have no fear now of a repetition of the stagnation of growth 
of last season. Weeds, too, grow apace. Hand and horse hoes 
must therefore be kept busily at work now to keep them under, and the 
surface soil well broken and pulverised. Potatoes will also soon be 
visible along the rows, and then the horse and hand hoes should both be 
brought into brisk use before the earthing is done with the. double- 
breasted plough. Spring-sown corn is ready for the roller, which must 
be passed over it at once before the plant gets high enough to sustain 
injury from it. Hops, too, are growing very fast, much of the growth 
being already half way up the poles, and the tying with soft rushes will 
soon be finished. The horse hoe must be passed frequently between the 
plants to keep down weeds, for the warm nights which are so favourable 
to Hop growth also bring on the weeds. 
Dairy cows now go out daily upon grass, but they still lay in the 
yards at night. Store cattle have been out upon the calf paddocks for a 
few days, for the growth of grass was so luxuriant that we did not con¬ 
sider it safe to let in the calves upon it till it was reduced sufficiently to 
avoid risk of hoove. Calves especially are liable to suffer from it if they 
are allowed to gorge themselves with young grass; but all cattle are 
subject to some risk from it, and a watchful eye must be kept upon them. 
Taken in time hoove can be cured, for it is simply an outcome of the 
stomach being overladen with a mass of crude food. Gases are generated 
in such quantities that the stomach becomes distended very much, and 
prompt measures have to be taken to relieve it. Red water may also be 
expected to prevail among cattle soon after they are first let out upon the 
pastures. This, too, must have prompt attention. When severe it is 
often accompanied by costiveness, and our aim must be to relieve the 
stomach by repeated doses of Epsom salts, giving a pound of it at first 
and half-pound doses at intervals of two hours. Ewes and lambs are 
now being folded upon Italian Rye Grass, which forms excellent succu¬ 
lent and fairly sound food for them. A little dry food is also given to 
prevent scour, and rock salt is kept in the folds. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
Camden Square, London. 
Lat. 51° 32'40" N.; Long. 0° 8' 0" W.; Altitude, 111 feet 
DATE. 
9 A.M. 
IN THE DAY. 
1885. 
Barome¬ 
ter at 328 
and Sea 
Level 
Hygrome¬ 
ter. 
P . 
O 
3 d 
| Temp, of 
Soil at 
1 foot. 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature. 
Rain 
Hay. 
Dry. 
Wet. 
So 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
sun. 
On 
grass. 
Sunday . 
3 
Inches. 
29.692 
deg. 
50.3 
deg. 
46.5 
S.E. 
deg. 
49.9 
deg. 
61.4 
deg. 
37.7 
deg. 
94.2 
deg. 
33.1 
In. 
Monday. 
4 
29.541 
49.5 
46.6 
N.E. 
49.2 
60.3 
44.2 
100.8 
39.2 
0.116 
Tuesday. 
5 
29.566 
45.4 
42.6 
E. 
49.6 
50.7 
42.3 
80.3 
41.8 
0.' 98 
Wednesday .. 
6 
29.368 
48.0 
44.8 
S.W. 
49.5 
55.2 
43.1 
89.4 
38.7 
Thursday .... 
7 
29.6.58 
45.5 
40.7 
W. 
48.2 
54.2 
39 3 
96.1 
37.8 
0.103 
Friday. 
8 
29.942 
46.2 
41.3 
S w. 
47.2 
55.3 
31.1 
102.2 
26.9 
0.031 
Saturday .... 
9 
29.958 
48.9 
43.8 
w. 
46.8 
58.4 
36.6 
106.6 
31.6 
0.050 
29.675 
47.7 
43.8 
48.G 
56.5 
39.2 ‘ 
95.7 
35.6 
0.741 
REMARKS. 
3rd.—Close oppressive morning, fair afternoon. 
4th.—Generally cloudy, but some sunshine and showers ; wet evening. 
5th.—Dull and damp morning, wet afternoon. 
6th.—Wet day, but with glimpses of sun in morning. 
7th.—Fine morning, very wet afternoon. 
8th.—Cold and bright morning, showers in afternoon, fine night. 
9th.—Generally fine and bright, rain in evening. 
Temperature much lower, with frost on grass on two nights, that in the early morn¬ 
ing of the 8th being rather sharp.—G. J. SYMONS. 
