JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
498 
[ June 16, 1881. 
yet it is so real that I venture to ask you to allow me to describe a 
plan which I have found thoroughly successful in preventing it 
altogether, while perfectly harmless. It is simply the application, 
before harnessing, of a mixture of one part of crude carbolic 
acid with six or more parts of olive oil. This should be rubbed 
lightly all over the animal with a rag, and applied more 
thickly to the interior of the ears and other parts most likely 
to be attacked. This application may need to be repeated in 
the course of the day, but while any odour of the acid remains 
the flies decline to settle, and the horse is completely free from 
all their annoyance. The nervous irritable state into which some 
horses get from the attacks of these insects is also not an infre¬ 
quent cause of accidents, and these, therefore, may also be 
obviated. Whether the dreaded tsetse of Eastern Africa would 
also fight shy of similarly anointed animals I cannot say, but it 
deserves a trial, and if successful would be an incalculable boon. 
It might also prove obnoxious to mosquitoes.— J. James Ridge, 
M.D., Loncl.—Enfield (in the Bally News.) 
HAYMAKING. 
With clear and settled weather a pleasant time is haymaking, 
for then the work goes on briskly. The grass is mowed, harvested, 
and carted in four days with the regularity of clockwork, and the 
stack is a green one, for well-made hay retains most of its colour 
as well as its sweet odour and nutriment. But when the weather 
is unsettled and showery it is a critical operation, requiring much 
watchfulness and caution, or the entire crop may be spoilt. Yet it 
must be granted that by the exercise of due care, and making the 
most of every interval of fine weather, much hay might be saved 
that under looser management is lost. The truth of this assertion 
was put fully to the test in the wet summer of 1879. I began 
haying on July 2nd, mowing two acres of grass on that day ; but 
rain set in again before night, and it was a fortnight before the 
first load of hay was carted. The weather contioued very un¬ 
settled, gloomy skies and heavy showers predominating so much 
that the haymaking was not done till the end of August, and yet 
most of the hay was saved in tolerable condition, being fairly 
green in colour and possessing a considerable amount of aroma. 
Very much of it was harvested without sunshine. For example, 
I find in my diary of that year the following note on July 25th : 
“ Made useful progress with hay, using tedding machine to good 
purpose. Carried five big waggonloads of hay by working till 
7.30. Sky only occasionally visible, and heavy storm clouds all 
the afternoon, but no rain.” 
A good barometer is indispensable in haymaking. The success 
in 1879 was due in no small degree to the fact of each portion of 
the hay being cut with a rising barometer. That was, and is, a 
fundamental rule never to be broken with impunity ; supplemented 
by the utmost activity in the subsequent drying and carting during 
every period of fine weather it goes far to ensure a full supply of 
good sound fodder for winter. The great difficulty is to tho¬ 
roughly imbue one’s workpeople with the importance of extra¬ 
ordinary exertions in a critical state of weather. I have a lively 
recollection of my mortification on a certain occasion some four 
or five years ago, when after a long day among the hay I was called 
away in the evening, leaving my then bailiff to collect and cart 
the remaining two loads which we had ready for the rick. He, 
however, only carted one load, because “ the dew was falling fast,” 
and so the other load was left out and quite spoilt by the wet 
weather which set in that night and continued for a fortnight. 
Last year the weather was so dry in April and May, that 
although Clovers answered well and were a heavy crop, yet 
the grass crop for hay was both thin and dwarf, which induced 
not a few farmers to put off the haymaking so long, hoping for 
showers and a stronger growth, that all the earlier growth was 
spoilt. Now it is sound practice to mow for hay as soon as the 
majority of grasses are in flower and before any of them fade, in 
order to secure the greatest possible amount of nutriment in the 
hay ; for if the grass be suffered to become sere and dried before 
it is mowed, its nourishing properties have almost all been ab¬ 
sorbed by the seeds, which it is well known require them for a 
full development, becoming full and plump at the expense of the 
stem and leaves. Acting upon this I was able to make excellent 
hay, but there was very little of it. Hot showery weather set in 
soon afterwards, and the aftermath was so abundant that both 
sheep and cattle improved and fattened unusually fast, and I was 
able to send several beasts to the butcher off the grass in prime 
condition before any were put in the yards for winter fattening. 
Not only is the aftermath, or second growth of grass, valued for 
fattening stock, but also for dairy cows. The milk is then at its 
best, yielding cream so rich that the butter is of a deep yellow 
and sweetest flavour. It is then that a supply for winter is potted 
in crocks, each containing about 30 lbs., and each entirely filled at 
one operation, and not in layers of different churnings, every 
possible pains being taken to pot it quite fresh, sweet, and free 
from taint. 
Reverting to the haymaking, let me urge upon beginners the 
importance of harvesting the hay gradually and of carting it 
before it becomes too dry to eventually develope its full flavour. 
I have striven to show the importance of briskness and promptitude 
in haymaking, but unless these desirable qualifications are tem¬ 
pered with prudence and sound judgment they are apt to prove 
mischievous. A clear knowledge of the right method and degree 
of dryness is only to be obtained by actual experience, for we 
must neither expose the hay to a scorching sun till it becomes 
brittle, nor must we collect it in a flaccid damp condition. There 
is a mean which we strive to attain, and which causes the hay to 
undergo a slight fermentation soon after its accumulation on the 
rick. It is brief in duration and beneficial in action, soon passing 
off and leaving the hay a dry, sweet, wholesome, aromatic mass of 
food, such as cattle love aud thrive upon. —Edward Luckhurst. 
VARIETIES. 
Illustrated British Ballads.— The fifth part of Messrs. 
Cassell, Petter & Galpin’s serial work on the above maintains the 
high opinion we formed of the first number. The ballads included 
in the present issue are the Children in the Wood, the Cruel Brother, 
Cumner Hall, the Demon Lover, John Gilpin, the Doom Well of St. 
Machon, and the Douglas Tragedy, all suitably illustrated. 
-Agricultural Experiments at Woburn.— These experi¬ 
ments were instituted last year for the purpose of ascertaining the 
value of dissolved and undissolved phosphates. The results already 
obtained show that Wheat cannot be profitably grown on the light 
soil at Woburn, and probably not on similar sandy soils elsewhere, 
for a limited number of years, even when the best artificial manures 
containing both mineral and nitrogenous constituents are applied to 
the land in much larger proportion than could be done in actual farm 
practice, on account of the cost of the manures. On strong Wheat 
land containing a large proportion of good clay, such as that at 
Rothamsted, Dr. Lawes has grown both Wheat and Barley on the 
same land continuously for about thirty years. 
- Homing Pigeons. —Why is it that the Pigeon returns to the 
spot whence it was taken ? It is simply because Nature, in the 
wonderful variety of her moods, has chosen to give us an example in 
the Pigeon of an indomitable longing for its home. Compelled to 
seek its food at a great distance from its nesting-place, this bird of 
strong flight has had implanted in it also an unerring instinct of 
direction. Once, therefore, the wild Pigeon used its instinct, and its 
wondrous endurance on the wing, solely for the purpose of returning 
as directly and as speedily as possible to its treasures of the nest and 
pleasures of home. But now in this, as in so many other instances, 
man has diverted natural gifts to his own ends, and the homing bird 
serves important purposes in peace and war. 
- Bees and Honey at Tunbridge Wells.—A n exhibition 
of bees, hives, and honey was held in connection with the Bath 
and West of England Society’s Show. This department of the Show 
was under the management of the British Bee-keepers’ Association 
in conjunction with the West Kent Association. The exhibits of 
honey, although small in number owing to the early part of the sea¬ 
son, were of first-rate quality. Mr. G. Allen of Orpington, Kent, 
showed twenty-six 2 lbs. sections, and upwards of thirty 1 lb. sections, 
and gained the first prizes in each class. In the class for lib. sections 
Mr. Cheshire of Avenue House, Acton, showed a good collection and 
was awarded second prize. Mr. R. Scott of Blindley Heath, Godstone, 
showed a good collection of small glass jars of extracted honey. 
Prizes were offered for observatory and other hives, and collections 
of bee furniture. The bee tent of the West Kent Association was 
erected in the ground, and proved a source of much attraction and 
instruction to the many hundreds of persons who witnessed the 
several displays of driving, &c., which took place during the several 
days of the Show. Mr. T. W. Cowan, Mr. J. M. Hooker, and the 
Rev. G. Raynor acted as Judges ; and these gentlemen, together with 
Mr. Jesse Garratt, the Hon. Secretary of the West Kent Association, 
and Mr. Huckle, the Assistant Secretary of the British Bee-keepers’ 
