296 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ April 10, 1884 
"Wheat crops. He says, “ I give you an abstract of my report:— 
* Your soil is unusually rich in nitrogenous and organic matters, 
and it also contains more potash than most clay soils, which 
accounts fully for the fact that your Wheat and Beans got 
blighted, and made lots of straw and haulm in wet and cold 
seasons like those we have had for the last six or seven years. 
On the other hand, your soil is very deficient in phosphoric acid, 
and not over-rich in lime.’ ” This is only a small quotation from 
the report by Dr. Voelcker. It is, however, sufficient for our 
purpose of giving opinions obtained from our own practice. In 
all good land, but especially in those strong soils rich in potash 
and lime, sulphuric acid, &c., being deficient, nitrogenous manures 
should be avoided, but taking care that carbonate of lime obtained 
by chalk, or lime in its pure state, should be considered as manures 
more essential than many others for producing healthy plant 
growth. The best strong soils, when clean and free from couch, 
really require little or no ordinary manures, except mineral 
manures, such as bone superphosphate, or pure bone meal drilled 
with the seed, for then the sulphuric acid required and silica 
also will be available as food for the Wheat plant, and give a 
more healthy growth, enabling it to withstand with more or less 
success the influence of adverse seasons, and reduce the pro¬ 
bability of injury from the attack of mildew and its germs or 
spores, which may prevail, no matter from what cause or source. 
In a letter from Sir J. B. Lawes to Mr. Little he enforces a 
previous opinion, by giving some particulars of plots of land 
which had grown Wheat only for a long series of years, and 
which had been “ well and judiciously manured,” and states 
distinctly that the remarkable variations in the proportion of 
offal corn, which his figures show “cannot be accidental,” and 
he adds; “ we know that in bad seasons the best crops are 
attacked with mildew, if that be the prevailing disease.” 
The conclusion we arrive at from the perusal and study of 
both Sir J. B. Lawes’ and Dr. Yoelcker’s letters to Mr. Little is 
that the greatest produce of straw in the Wheat crop subjects 
it to the attacks of mildew; but the use of mineral manures 
to a great extent diminishes the injury by producing stiffer 
straw and less foliage, for gross foliage is always attractive 
to the germs or spores of the mildew fungus. We also from 
these facts arrive at the conclusion that we are also well 
repaid for our endeavours to avoid mildew even in fine 
seasons, for the effect of mineral manures generally gives a large 
crop of grain, and it being of greater weight per bushel gives it 
a full value in the market. We therefore give it as our opinion 
that the land cannot be successfully cultivated for the pro¬ 
duction of cereals on any soil where lime, or the carbonate of 
lime—chalk, is more or less absent. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Horse Labour .—After nearly three weeks good dry March weather 
the rain, which commenced to-day while we write, March 31st, will, if 
not too continuous or persistent, assist the horses by accelerating the 
working of the land into a fine seed bed for Barley ; for upon some of 
the strong soils the land has turned with a rather tough and cold furrow, 
but has dried so quickly as to become hard and difficult to reduce into a 
sufficiently fine tilth as a preparation for various seedings, such as Barley, 
Oats, and Mangold. In fact there will be now more than ever quantities 
of land laid into permanent pasture under the influence of a wide-spread 
and popular opinion that the cereals will not pay for cultivating or pro¬ 
ducing under present prices of grain. In consequence we must ask the 
home farmer to be sure and reduce the land to a fine tilth under any 
circumstances, for whether the grass seeds are sown on the Barley, Oat, 
or Wheat crop, or in case of the gra s being sown on a fallow without 
taking a corn crop, still in every case the land should be firm and very 
fine, otherwise much seed will be thrown away by not vegetating at the 
proper time. The preparation will still be going on for Oats and Barley 
seeding, and should be reduced to a fine state, and thus not trusting the 
weather, which is a speculative transaction entirely on account of the 
uncertainty of the climate. A different idea as regards the seeding for 
the arable land prevails to a considerable extent, and the success so far 
of the ensilage question will begin to have an effect upon the minds of 
some farmers as to the policy of sowing with the Clovers the early and 
coarse sorts of the meadow grasses, and chosen with a double object in 
view—to be converted into hay as formerly, or ensilage under the new 
system, or fed by sheep and cattle as occasion may require. We have 
recently received so much information on the subject of making silos in 
the most economical manner, that it is being considered now whether any 
expense of consequence need be incurred where dry firm soils exist, 
especially those of chalk, sand, and limestone. In America a silo has 
frequently been improvised on almost any soil, and we are noticing 
almost daily that some farmers in this country, especially those who can¬ 
not afford an expensive silo, have turned out very useful ensilage from 
quite an ordinary pit under varying circumstances of soil and situation. 
On the chalk hill farms ensilage will be good food for in-lamb ewes as 
noticed in Mr. Wood’s lecture the other day, and it proves better by far 
than trusting to roots and hay entirely to maintain them in good health 
and condition until lambing time. We are informed that the cheapest 
silos have been formed by making a pit of the required size as to depth 
length, and width upon a chalk soil, which is sure to be dry, and will 
answer a temporary purpose without even cement, as applied to the sides, 
bottom, or ends, if covered with planks and loaded with dry earth has 
succeeded in preserving the ensilage in good form and condition. This 
may be done in any field where the materials are grown, whether it refers 
to Rye or Clovers, Sainfoin, or mixed grasses, yet in those cases where 
bullocks for fattening or dairy cows being fed at the stalls a silo of a 
permanent kind will answer the best purpose. Still, as we have so much 
yet to learn upon the subject, we shall defer any further remarks to a 
future time, as the question is really so extensive that events may easily 
occur to make it worth while for some farmers to wait until the present 
agitation has subsided on to something like a level basis, both as regards 
test of silo and other important matters in connection with the subject. 
Hand Labour .—This is still very various, for the planting Potatoes, 
and manure carting, filling, and spreading, will require some hands 
where this work is still going on. Sowing the grass seeds by hand 
will be required where men are found equal to it, but the best sowers 
by hand are nearly all dead, and this work is now mostly done by 
Bennett’s hand-barrow sowing machine, but even that requires more 
care in adjusting than is often taken to properly and evenly seed the 
land, for all light grass seeds should be sown separately from the heavy 
seeds like Clover, &c., because they will not run with regularity in the 
mixed state from Bennett’s machine. Upon strong soils where the Oats 
or Barley is seeded to Clover, the water furrows should be carefully 
struck and made out, the earth from the spade should be widely spread, 
otherwise the small grass seeds will be too deeply buried. 
Live Stock .—Easter being at hand, young lambs will be required, and 
are at this time selling well, quite irrespective of beef and mutton, and in 
the near future will be sure to sell well, because those in prime condition 
do not meet any foreign competition. With respect to the feeding of 
young lambs to be sold fat, this is a critical period, for any want of good 
and sufficient food being available, either for the lambs or their dams, it 
will reduce the condition of the lambs to a state from which they will 
not easily recover. The roots such as Turnips and Swedes, the latter in 
particular, will have lost much of their nutriment for stock-feeding 
unless they have been crowned down as we term it, for our practice 
formerly consisted in cutting off the greens and stems of them down to 
the crown of the bulb, and in this way they will remain sound in the 
land for months and prove good food for stock up to midsummer, for on 
various occasions we have been feeding the roots on the field where 
grown until midsummer in prime condition. This, however, was a plan 
we adopted before the Mangold crop became well known and available 
as food for sheep, because for many years it was repudiated as good for 
ewes and lambs. Those who have ensilage for feeding their fatting 
cattle, dairy cows, and farm horses, will now find it a good thing ; but 
there are many circumstances which will require consideration as between 
it and Mangold, for even as food for farm horses both are very good 
indeed, and it enables them to perform more easily the work of the 
farm at the busiest period of the year, for when horses are kept on dry 
corn and hay only in the spring months, it is prejudicial to their health 
and power in work, even with an extra bait of corn, as compared with 
succulent roots or freshly preserved grass out of the silo. Dairy cows 
especially will frequently require abundance of succulent food or brewers’ 
grains to enable them to maintain their best milk record. 
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. 
Rain 
1884. 
March 
and 
April. 
Barome¬ 
ter at 32« 
and Sea 
Level 
Hygrome¬ 
ter. 
Direction 
of Wind. 
1 
| Temp, of 
Soil at 
1 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 . 
80 
29.851 
42.2 
40.1 
N.E. 
42.8 
5'..8 
36.2 
76.9 
30.6 
— 
Monday. 
31 
29.538 
48.0 
44.7 
S.E. 
43.8 
54.6 
41.0 
85.0 
40.6 
0.011 
Tuesday. 
1 
29.607 
53.3 
49.1 
S.E. 
44 3 
59.7 
43.4 
93.7 
38.4 
— 
Wednesday .. 
2 
29.637 
58.4 
52.4 
E. 
46.0 
68.4 
43.7 
107.0 
37.2 
0.030 
Thursday .... 
8 
29.504 
58.1 
53.3 
N.E. 
47.9 
67.2 
47.7 
106.5 
41.7 
0.066 
Friday. 
4 
29.578 
50.8 
47.4 
N.E. 
48.5 
62.8' 
42 9 
104.7 
38.7 
0.122 
Saturday .... 
5 
29.378 
52.6 
49.4 
E.N.E. 
49.2 
57.6 
45.9 
74.7 
42.3 
— 
29.585 
51.9 
48.1 
46.1 
60.2 
43.0 
92.6 
38.5 
0.229 
REMARKS 
30th.—Fair, generally dull, but a little sunshine ; slight fog at night. 
31st.—Dull, slight rain about 9.30 A.M. 
1st.—Fine and warm, but with occasional sprinkles of rain. 
2nd.—Very fine and warm ; bright lightning in N.E. at 10.50 P.M. with rain. 
3rd.—Loud thunder at 4.10 A.M. with short sharp shower; fine day. 
4th.—Generally fair, with rain after 9 P.M. 
6th.—A fair day, with occasional spots of rain; parts of afternoon and evening very 
fine and clear. 
The early days of April have been very warm, with, as is frequently the case after 
s uch weather, rather sharp thunderstorms in the evening and night of the 2nd and 
early mcrning of 3rd. The former storms were several miles N.E. of this station ; that 
J n the early morning of the 3rd appeared to be in the N.W. of London, and to judge from 
the exceptional brilliancy of the flash and the long reverberations of the thunder the 
stroke must have been of exceptional violence, but as no structual damage has been 
eported it probably struck between two low-lying clouds.—G. J. Symons. 
