80 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. r January 27, im. 
delay, for in our climate we usually get either night frosts or rain ; 
in either case the land often cannot be seeded. 
This matter we have often referred to under “Work on the 
Home Farm,” by recommending that the ploughing should never 
be done at the late period, unless it can be seeded at the same 
time ; but this involves special arrangements of the working 
power both of men and horses, so that as fast as the land is 
ploughed it should be drilled and finished off, so that at any time 
of the day if rain should set in the work may be safe against any 
succeeding weather. We have often heard it readily admitted 
by practical men that this plan of proceeding is desirable; but 
that upon some farms, unless a considerable number of men and 
horses are available, it cannot be carried out exactly to an hour 
without some disadvantage as regards economy of labour. From 
this circumstance we can see the advantage of a presser follow¬ 
ing the ploughs and drilling the seed, and covering in with the 
harrows at one operation, in order that upon change of weather at 
any period of the day the work shall be in a finished state so far 
as it has been done as not to suffer in any respect. There is 
another point from which an advantage is to be derived, because 
the drill tubes follow in the line of the presser grooves, depositing 
the seed with such regularity and depth that the seed will not 
only be well covered, but the young plants will find a firm bottom, 
so desirable for the successful growth of Wheat. The comparison 
with ordinary drilliug is therefore in favour of the new machine 
in various ways, and we reckon that a saving of seed would occur, 
amounting to one-fifth, if seeded by the press drill. 
Referring to the seeding of Oats after lea, or the seeding of 
Beans or Peas, the advantages of burying the seed at a good depth 
and with a regularity not attainable by the ordinary drill, owing 
to the saving of seed, which would be considerable, as well as the 
importance of all the work necessary being done simultaneously. 
There was also exhibited at the Carlisle meeting a machine for 
planting Potatoes in the balk or stetch, two rows at a time. This 
was brought out by Messrs. Murray & Co., Banff, and it was 
awarded a silver medal, and called a “Potato Planter,” price £1810.f., 
which when tested by the Judges on the grass in the yard gave 
every satisfaction. The Potatoes were deposited at perfectly 
equal distances, and in a length of 56 yards there was only one 
miss in each row, which probably would not have happened had 
the machine been working in the field. The cups which take up 
the seed are each a link of an endless chain merely hooked into 
each other, and on the end of each cup is a tail, which, as the 
chain turns over the supporting wheels, rise up through the bottom 
of the succeeding cup, thus not only ensuring the seed leaving the 
cup at the right moment, but clearing out any dirt that may 
have accumulated there. This is an important improvement, and 
effectually remedies a hitherto existing fault. Motion is com¬ 
municated to the cups by means of the well-known Ewart’s de¬ 
tachable drive chain, and there is also an adjustment for properly 
balancing the machine when going up or down hill. The seed 
can also be dropped at three different distances apart by a very 
simple arrangement of change wheels. The machines are made 
either for double or single rows. We can see very plainly that 
this machine is of great consequence, either for large or small 
occupations, when the hand labour is scarce. There is also greater 
surety of a regular setting than when done by hand-dropping, for 
we have often seen the seed irregularly dropped by the planters, 
and often a line or part of one missed altogether for want of 
sufficient care between the persons in planting. 
These machines are made for planting between the stetches, so 
that the manure may be either yard or box manure laid between 
or artificials sown broadcast, so that when the stetches are reversed 
the manure and sets are covered in at one operation. With respect 
to the single-row planter we have no doubt but this may be made 
to answer the purpose of planting after the plough as the work 
goes on, the application of manures being the work of hand labour. 
We understand at the trial of the machine whole sets were only 
used ; it is, however, just a question whether cut sets would work 
so well in the cups. For the present we conclude our notice of 
implements, &c., but hope to return to the subject at another time. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Horse Labour .—This will be resumed when the frost and snow 
have gone; and as soon as the land is sufficiently dry the fallows, 
which have been left exposed during the winter, may if quite clean 
be scarified and reduced to a fine tilth in readiness for the drilling of 
Barley. We have sometimes known it done in the month of January, 
and it is no bad rule to take the first season, as the produce at harvest 
is more likely to prove a malting sample than that obtained from 
late sowings. At any rate we prefer sowing Barley early rather than 
Oats. We may observe that Beans, Peas, and summer Tares may be 
sown or drilled at the earliest season, whether it happen in the end 
of January or first week in February, in preference to either Barley or 
Oats ; and we consider a fresh furrow better than a stale one for any 
pulse crop, but especially for Peas, and for this crop we like to plough 
and sow simultaneously. We must also call attention to the advan¬ 
tage of a mixed crop, such as Beans with Peas or Vetches in admix¬ 
ture, for practically all these are more or less speculative in their 
yield. The object, therefore, of mixing is to insure as near as possible 
a full yield from one of them, for we find it is very seldom that Beans 
and Peas or Vetches suffer similar injury from the effect of the 
season, whether it is very wet or very dry. There is one point, how¬ 
ever, worth notice by the home farmer—that in a very dry season, 
although it may be and is generally favourable for the yield of Wheat, 
but the reverse for Lent corn and the pulse crops—the home farmer 
should be early in sowing his Barley and pulse crops, for this will be 
found correct management nine years out of ten, whether the season 
after seed time proves wet or dry. 
In consequence of the stormy weather in the autumn very few 
fields under autumn tillage could be entirely cleaned and freed from 
couch in a satisfactory manner; and at the time of fallowing, when 
the land was intended to lie the winter months, we advised that all 
those fields which were not cleared of couch fit for deep ploughing 
should be only rafter-ploughed, and thus left for the winter. As the 
frosts lately have been severe this land must have been greatly bene¬ 
fited by them, so that as soon as the land can be worked, and yield to 
harrows and drags, clearing off the couch may commence immediately 
where it has been rafter-ploughed only. Any of those fields which 
have been deeply ploughed and left for the winter, although the land 
has been benefited by frost, yet still require much costly labour 
to clean out the couch as compared with the rafter-ploughed 
land where the grass was kept on the surface. When the yard or 
box manure is intended to be applied for early Potatoes or, in fact, 
second earlies, it will forward the work to have the dung in heap 
near to where it will be required for use. Still, we do not advise the 
use of dung for early Potatoes, owing to the time required for laying 
out and spreading. We prefer rather to apply the best guano as a 
hand-dre 3 sing strewed into the. furrow with the Potato sets at the 
time of planting. This practice is so simple, and takes so little time 
when the guano is mixed with damp ashes to prevent its flying before 
the wind, that where Potatoes are planted on a large acreage the 
time saved in the application of the artificial manure as compared 
with that of dung often makes the difference between a good seed 
time and a lost one, for often whilst carting and spreading dung is 
being done the Potatoes might have been planted and the land dressed 
with guano. Besides which, our long experience enables us to say 
with confidence, irrespective of the time gained in planting, that the 
application of 5 cwt. per acre of the best Peruvian guano or its 
equivalent has generally proved equal to any amount of town, yard, 
box, or stable manure which may be applied for the crop. We state 
this in order to show the home farmer that it is not necessary, as the 
market gardeners say, to apply heavy dressings of costly manure and 
labour in order to obtain a successful growth of Potatoes. 
Hand Labour .—The cattle man now on the farms where stock of 
all ages are wintered must be careful to feed and shelter the animals 
according to their age and the purposes for which they will be re¬ 
quired. For instance, the calves intended for beef at the earliest 
period should be kept entirely under cover in twos or threes, and fed 
with a fair allowance of cotton cake—say 2 lbs. each per day—with 
sweet hay chaff, and from 15 lbs. to 20 lbs. of cut Swedes per day, the 
cake being in meal and mixed with the cut Swedes. It is sometimes 
preferred to give maize or barley meal at the same cost as decorticated 
cotton cake, and to this we offer no objection. The calves intended 
for dairy stock may have cut Swedes and hay mixed with sweet 
straw in chaff, and be kept in well-littered yards and sheds. The 
cattle rising two years old will now, if intended for early killing, be 
well fed with an allowance of 4 lbs. of linseed cake meal and 2 tbs. of 
bean or maize meal per day with good sweet straw ad libitum, and 
about 56 lbs. of cut Swedes with the meal strewed over. They will 
then, if well bred and healthy stock, whether heifers or steers, be 
ready for sale at from twenty-four to thirty months old if they have 
been for the duration of twenty weeks kept in separate boxes under 
cover. The heifers for the dairy rising two years old will now for 
the most part be in calf if the bull has run with them as we 
advised in August last, and should be fed in yards and sheds with 
about 40 tbs. of cut roots per day, with 2 lbs. of cotton cake, and 
ordinary hay or straw mixed in chaff. In this way they will be in 
good condition at calving time, without being in too high condition, 
as when overfed often induces the quarter-evil or parturient fever 
at calving time. Cattle in the boxes of any age, whether of cows, 
heifers, steers, or oxen, should be fed at the outside allowance of food 
for at least twenty weeks before sale, and they often pay well for 
holding on at liberal feeding until the end of June or early part of 
July, especially when a good lot of Mangold has been carefully pre¬ 
served for their food. The food we recommend for these is the same 
as that given to the baby beef animals, except that in case the Man¬ 
golds do not hold out good Clover, Trifolium, or Saintfoin ad libitum 
should be given instead. 
VARIETIES. 
The Palace Cdp Coloured Dorking Hen.— -Mr. J. Taylor’s 
celebrated old Dorking hen (formerly Mr, Parlett’s), the winner of 
