288 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ March 20, 1884. 
we must look to the advantage of having a well-covered lea of stems 
and roots of Grasses for ploughing-in as a preparation for a cereal 
crop, such as Oats or drege, or probably Wheat, for the rotation 
would probably be as follows : Wheat out of lea, fallow for roots 
fed-off, Lent corn in which the seeds will be sown to remain as 
follows :— 
SEED FOR AN ACRE. 
Sainfoin, milled seed. 
Giant White or Dutch Clover 
Yellow Suckling ditto. 
Crested Dog’s-tail Grass . 
Yarrow (Milfoil) . 
True Sheep’s Fescue. 
lbs. 
... 14 
... 5 
... 4 
... 4 
... 3 
... 4 
Total seed per acre 
... 34 lbs. 
In this mixture we have included those Grass seeds which are 
peculiarly adapted to dry, stock, or hill farms for furnishing pasturage 
for sheep of the best quality and the most productive in seasons of 
drought. At the same time, when the lea is ploughed it will furnish 
a valuable turf of roots and stems as manure for the succeeding 
crop in the rotation. We have introduced Sainfoin into this mixture, 
although it is frequently said it will not answer except on land with 
chalk or limestone subsoils, but this is not the case exactly in our 
experience, for we have known it take well on various dry soils where 
the land was not deficient in chalk or lime, which been applied in its 
cultivation. So long as we are considering the question of seeding 
for Grasses and Clovers it will be found that we have cautiously looked 
forward to possible events or circumstances which may render it 
beneficial to the farmer to alter the rotation, and thus be prepared for 
any and every change at all likely to make the growth of the cereals 
more profitable than at the present time. Under the rotation and 
seeding recommended, whether the lea is ploughed for cropping with 
cereals or any other produce, the lea will furnish abundance of 
roots and stems to manure the land quite irrespective of the droppings 
of sheep or cattle which may have been feeding on the leas. 
We will again call the home farmer’s attention to seeding before 
named for medium or heavy soils, for we contend practically this 
mode of seeding enables him not only to break up the lea at one 
year under any rotation with benefit, but place him in a position to 
throw every field seeded in this way into permanent grass without 
any further expense of re-seeding if circumstances should requii’e it. 
It must also be remembered that in those cases where a dairy is kept 
the produce will be available for hay, ensilage, or feeding by dairy 
cattle, and young cattle of any description, and thereby adding to 
the resources of the farm under any circumstances in which the 
farmer may be placed. Again, there is another point to be considered 
upon the question of the cultivation of flat-lying heavy clays, such as 
those termed London clays, which are frequently ploughed in 8-feet 
ridges. Now, the usual course or rotation of cropping is as follows :— 
Wheat, Lent corn, and seeds. If, however, the seeding we have 
recommended is adopted upon such land, if it is clean and free from 
couch there is no reason why there should be a fallow at all if the 
lea was ploughed in early and sown with Wheat, when the rotation 
would be as follows :—Wheat out of lea, Beans or Peas, Oats, or 
drege, grass seed mixture as above stated for heavy or medium soils. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Horse Labour .—Although the general horse labour is forward in most 
districts, yet delay has occurred to some kinds of work. It is time now 
to begin the seeding for Lent corn on all soils, but on some flat-lying 
strong land the drilling of Peas and Beans must be urged forward. It is 
now too late to lay out composts of earth and dung upon pastures intended 
for mowing, but where they are intended to be grazed by cattle and 
sheep it is not too late if a few dry days should occur. After these com¬ 
posts are laid out and spread they may be soon ready for chain-harrow¬ 
ing and rolling. This will serve to fix the manures to the surface, and 
with the assistance of the usual showers of April will advance rapidly, 
and the cattle in feeding on the land will tread in the compost and 
render it effective for the whole of the summer. These dressings are 
necessary, more particularly where dairy cows are fed, because they rob 
the pastures more than any other cattle. Some labour will now be re¬ 
quired in harrowing and rolling on the young Wheat, especially where 
it is intended to be seeded with Grass and Clover seeds, for the seeds 
will generally take well if the previous preparation or crop has been a 
fallow, Potatoes, or roots fed off by sheep, for by seeding in this way we 
have known fine crops of Clover after Wheat, and Grass in the Wheat 
eddish fit for folding twice in the autumn if Rye Grass, but in Clover we 
often get an abundant crop fit to mow for the soiling of horses and cattle. 
We have done this when the autumn season has proved favourable for 
four or five years in succession. Some farmers will tell us that it injures 
the growth of Clovers during the following spring and summer, but that 
is not our experience. When we have mown the Clover in autumn it has 
always proved superior in growth the next season to any that may have 
been fed by sheep in the autumn. In case of hindrance on the tillage 
land set some horses to roll the grass, both in pastures and Clovers on 
the arable |land; other horses will be for the time when off the land 
be employed in fetching chalk or lime when near to those districts 
where chalk soils occur. We are then, after putting the chalk in a dry 
place, such as a shed or barn, in a position to screen it with the ash 
screen, so that when the drilling of root-crop seeds begin we may be able 
to drill screened chalk with the other drill manures instead of ashes as 
usual. This plan is more necessary and effective upon those soils where 
the roots are liable to suffer from clubbed roots. Farmers or writers 
attribute this clubbing of the rootlets to various causes, but the true 
cause is the absence of carbonate of lime in the land, and which is 
readily supplied by about twenty bushels of fine chalk per acre. This is 
a great economy as compared with a heavy dressing of 30 tons per acre of 
chalk in a rough state, and after it has been applied it is several years 
before full beneficial action of chalk in the land is obtained. In various 
parts of the kingdom the chalk pits are but little used or have been for 
twenty years past, for it is a heavy tax on both landlord and tenant, 
although they may arrange for each to bear a certain proportion of the 
expense, although the chalk may be within a few miles of the land to be 
dressed. It is really the basis of profitable farming, for although we 
may force much land into a full production of straw, yet the yield of 
grain will be more or less deficient if carbonate of lime is absent in the 
soil. 
Hand Labour .—This is the month for setting out any draining re¬ 
quired on the farm, for after a few hours’ rain, when the land dries off 
on the surface, it is easy to see the extent of the land requiring to be 
drained, for the dry land will show a white brown colour, whereas the 
parts which have a wet subsoil will show very dark. Looking at any 
field from a distance of irregular soil, some of which is too wet, it will be 
seen as if a chart had been made, coloured to show the wet and dry parts 
of the field separately. Full employment for women as well as men will 
now be ready, specially where the planting of Potatoes is going on. 
Women also on any fields in which the couch or twitch exists only in 
tufts or bunches, may with great advantage be forked out by women, as 
it is not heavy labour, and is well suited for them if they are disposed 
to work. That is not the case everywhere now, although for many years 
we employed a set of women winter and summer about various kinds of 
light work to great economy ; but this cannot be done without having a 
number of females at work constantly on the farm, either in the fields or 
under cover in the sheds and barns as may be required, for where they 
are constantly employed they are not only better able to do the work of 
the farm, but their labour is frequently more effective and cheaper in all 
they are able to undertake than that done by the men, especially if they 
work only two or three together. The irrigated meadows should now be 
laid dry and the water turned off from those parts which will be fed by 
sheep first, and then turned on where the grass will be required for hay 
or ensilage. 
Live Stock .—The working horses of the farm should still receive about 
12 lbs. each of roots per day either of Carrots or Mangold, and although 
during the winter they may have received sweet Oat or Barley straw with 
their two bushels of Oats per week, yet now this being the commence¬ 
ment of the busy period they should have good field hay instead of 
straw. The bullocks in the boxes should now be living upon a full 
allowance of cake not exceeding 4 lbs. and 1 lb. of bean or barleymeal 
each per day, mixed and given with the cut roots, not to exceed 56 lbs., 
and we wish it to be known as the result of our experience that they 
should have only sweet straw without any hay at all, because when well 
fed in other respects they will enjoy better health at less cost. Lambs 
fatting for the Easter markets should now receive the best of food in 
advance of the ewes, but it should be remembered that the ewes likewise 
ought to receive full allowances of cut roots, with cake and beanmeal 
strewed over them in the troughs, and the best hay on the farm in addi¬ 
tion, for the most experienced shepherds say fat ewes make fat lambs, 
and this is no doubt true, because they give full quantities of the richest 
milk. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
Camden Square, London. 
Lat. 51° 32' 40" N.; Long. 0° 8' 0" W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
HATE. 
9 A.M. 
IN THE DAT. 
3 
c3 
« 
1884. 
March. 
Barome¬ 
ter at 32« 
and Sea 
Level 
Hygrome¬ 
ter. 
Direction 
of Wind. 
| Temp, of 
Soil at 
1 foot. 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature. 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
sun. 
On 
grass. 
Inches. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
In. 
Sunday . 
9 
29.532 
42.1 
40.6 
N.W. 
40.3 
50.6 
38.4 
84.3 
36.1 
0.214 
Monday. 
10 
29.239 
40.4 
40.0 
w. 
41.3 
50.2 
39.2 
87.8 
36.7 
0.656 
Tuesday. 
11 
29.2.58 
39.6 
38.6 
N. 
41.4 
46.0 
367 
63.0 
35.3 
— 
Wednesday .. 
12 
29.697 
43.3 
40.6 
N. 
41.6 
51.6 
89.9 
76.2 
36.8 
— 
Thursday ... 
13 
30.1 ISO 
50.0 
47.4 
S. 
41.7 
56.2 
41.7 
84.7 
38.1 
— 
Friday. 
14 
30.160 
50.5 
47.3 
S. 
43.0 
60.6 
46.7 
95.6 
43.3 
— 
Saturday .... 
15 
30.134 
52.6 
50.1 
N.E. 
44.1 
67.2 
45.5 
99.8 
39.5 
— 
29.729 
45.5 
43.5 
41.9 
54.7 
41.2 
84.5 
38.0 
0.770 
REMARKS. 
9th.—Rain early, then fine throughout. 
10th.—Squall about 6 A.M., then fine ; rather fine sunset; misty evening. 
11th.—-Very heavy rain early ; fair all day. 
12th.—Some fog early, then fine ; cooler in evening. 
13th.—Pine all day; slight squall of wind at 1 P.M.; cloudy at night. 
14th.—Fine morning, and warm sunny day. 
15th.—Foggy early, subsequently fine sunny day. 
Heavy rains on the first two days, the last two days quite warm and summerlike.— 
G. J. Stmons. 
