JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ March 17, 1881. 
222 
The sowing of Clovers and grass seeds may now be done imme¬ 
diately after the sowing of the corn. If, however, grass seeds for 
permanent pasture are to be sown in the corn, we advise the home 
farmer to think over this matter with great care before he under¬ 
takes to lay much land now in arable into permanent pasture. 
Although at the present time corn sells at a low price we are by no 
means sure that this will last long enough to make it preferable. 
We have written much lately upon the question of laying land into 
permanent pasture, and its manuring and after treatment, yet when 
considering the work and cropping of the home farm we should ask 
ourselves the question whether we may not obtain nearly all the 
advantage we can expect from feeding a larger quantity of grass 
land without converting it into permanent pasture. Let us consider 
seriously whether our object of obtaining more grazing land cannot 
be obtained by a course of cropping whereby the land, having been 
seeded with permanent grasses, including Clover and Saintfoin, may 
not with benefit be fed for two or three years, and then fall into 
rotation for the growing of corn, &c., as before.' Before deciding 
upon a matter of so much consequence in the future, we will suppose 
that a large area of our arable land has been converted into perma¬ 
nent pasture, and times may occur again in which corn and pulse 
will be dear. Circumstances we can neither foresee or control may 
occasion this, such as bad crops in America and other States whence 
we receive our supplies of grain, or from wars which may interfere 
with commerce. If we, then, had our two or three-year-old leas to 
deal with as arable land we should be in a better position to avail 
ourselves of an altered state of corn prices than after having dis¬ 
posed of so much of our arable land by converting it into grass for 
a permanency. 
Hand Labour .—Shepherds and cattle-men will now often require 
some assistance from other men on the farm, unless women are found 
as constant workers, as they always used to be, and may be now with 
advantage to the farmer, in connection with preparing roots for 
stock. The breeding flocks will this year lose the greens of the 
Swedes in many instances; and as these are always made use of in 
feeding the stock lambs, the substitute now must be trough food, 
and similar to that which we have always recommended for feeding 
lambs for the fat markets—namely, the lambs to run forward into a 
fold without any greens or anything but trough food, which should 
be Swedes as long as they will continue in feeding condition. Cut 
and pass them through Gardener’s cutter twice, and then mix them 
with cake and corn both in meal, so that it may adhere to the cut 
roots. In this way the lambs are sure to do well, except when we 
commence feeding with Mangolds, which is dangerous food for lambs. 
For many years we suffered greatly by losses of our fatting wether 
lambs by stoppage of urine whilst eating Mangolds ; but the ewe 
lambs do well. It is not, however, found that lambs in store con¬ 
dition will suffer to the same extent as fatting lambs. Now is the 
time to obtain a good supply of calves for suckling as veal, for on 
the cheese-making farms they will be disposed of at a moderate 
price. Hereford and Devon calves we like best for making veal. The 
Shorthorn calves will grow and make as much weight but not the 
quality. In a suckling dairy, which pays well where farmers are not 
situated with the full advantage for the sale of milk, Shorthorn cows 
may be kept and should calve early, being fed well upon roots and 
cake, so that their own calves may be sold about this time and then 
be ready to take the full number of purchased calves. As they will 
at such a time be cheap and plentiful, we put two to each cow for a 
time, and by feeding the calves with balls of cakemeal at first, and 
afterwards with cake, malt, or maizemeal in troughs. This will carry 
them on for a long time, two to a cow whilst in full milk, and the 
calves will be of a capital quality both in fat and colour. The 
yearling and two-year-old heifers will now be depending much upon 
Mangold and straw or inferior hay. The home farmer will this year 
learn the full value of Mangold, as the Swedes are nearly all decayed ; 
in fact, Mangold is like money, you can never have too much if you 
only know how to spend it. 
VARIETIES. 
Mr. Pettigrew’s Fdtcre Address.— Owing to the great number 
of visitors and letters I receive from all parts of the country, it seems 
desirable that it should be widely known that I am about to leave 
Sale; that on and after the 24th of this month my address will be 
Peel Crescent, Bowdon, Cheshire. But my connection with the 
nursery at Sale will remain till the end of May, or till my plants are 
sold. It is my intention to go to Scotland for three months—June, 
July, and August—to seek health, and if I find it to return to 
Bowdon, and there establish an apiary for my own advantage and 
incidentally for the advantage of all bee-keepers. It will be a bee 
farm managed to the best of my ability. An account of it, including 
income and expenses, will be given annually to the public. — 
A. Pettigrew. 
- Fish as Food for Fowls. —We have recently heard from a 
poultry fancier that he has for some time been giving refuse fish, 
such as the heads, Sue., to his birds, and that he has found this effect 
a great improvement in their laying. The fish scraps are boiled and 
then mixed with meal of some kind. If any of our readers have 
the opportunity of getting fish refuse cheaply it may be worth their 
while to give the matter a trial. Fish undoubtedly contains much 
that is necessary for egg-production, and we are assured that the 
taste of the eggs is in no way affected by the feeding. 
- The Hog Trade in America.—T he hog production of the 
country, now mostly confined to the corn-producing States of the 
west, is, says the American Cultivator, larger than ever before known 
in the history of the business ; while the exports of hog product 
on a large scale show a gain over the corresponding time last year. 
Since the 1st of November, for instance, the movement of meats, 
including barrelled pork, has reached the enormous number of 
260,000,000 tbs., or 50,000,000 tbs. more than the same period last 
year; and lard exports have reached 105,000,000 tbs., or 20,000,000 
pounds more than last year, the aggregate product amounting to 
365,000,000 lbs., against 300,000,000 tbs., equivalent to the product of 
about 360,000 hogs. 
- Management of Farm Machinery. —All farmers now-a-days 
use more or less of machinery, and necessarily learn much of its work¬ 
ing and management; but they learn for the most part only in the 
slow and dear school of experience. The elements of physics—of 
natural philosophy—should be part of the common school course in 
all rural districts, and time for the study could easily be gained by 
devoting less to useless extravagances—the impractical extensions 
of arithmetical puzzles and of algebra. As to the wearing away of 
bearings—causing uneven, jerky motion, hard for the horses and 
damaging to the machine—we can only advise the application of oil 
wherever there is friction, frequent in proportion to the rapidity of 
the movement, with all possible care to prevent sandy dust from 
entering to grind away the surfaces. Farm machinery is especially 
exposed to this source of injury, and it is for farmers themselves to 
invent or select and apply means of protection. The manufacturers’ 
care ends when they have put a smoothly running effective machine 
into the farmer’s field, and got the money for it. Their interest after 
that is naturally heaviest on the side of wear and tear. Every person; 
venturing on the use of a machine, from an Apple-parer to a grain- 
binder, should study it so thoroughly as to be familiar with every 
part, and with the reasons for their paiticular shape, size, and adjust¬ 
ment. He will then know what to avoid while it works well, and 
what to do if it shows symptoms of disorder or ill-function.—( New 
York Tribune.) 
-Experiments in Potato Growing.—A n important series 
of experiments were conducted last season by Mr. James A. Gordon 
of Arabella, Ross-shire, Scotland, with the view of ascertaining the 
disease-resisting power and the productive properties of the follow¬ 
ing varieties of Potatoes :—Champion, New Yictoria, Suttons’ 
Magnum Bonum, and Suttons’ Reading Abbey. The land was as 
nearly as possible equally manured, and the yield was as follows :— 
No. 1, Champion . 13 tons 2 cwt. per acre. 
No. 2, New Victoria. 12 „ 1 cwt. „ 
No. 3, Suttons’ Magnum Bonum. 9 „ 2 cwt. „ 
No. 4, Suttons’Reading Abbey.. 4 „ 13 cwt. „ 
All were planted in the end of March in drills 32 inches wide. No. 1 
came away most vigorously, and had very large shaws, which, over- 
lying Nos. 2 and 3 on either side, perhaps slightly reduced their yield. 
No. 3 had also rank stems and promised a large crop. In No. 2 there 
was less growth of shaw, and still les3 in No. 4, which never gave 
promise of a heavy yield. In No. 4 black spots were observed on the 
shaws about the middle of August, and by the end of that month 
they were nearly all black. Black spots were seen on No. 3 about 
the 24th of September; but, though the leaves became black, the 
stems remained green. Nos. 1 and 2 also showed a few small spots 
on the leaves about this time, but on the whole they retained their 
green hue very well till lifted on the 8th of October. In No. 1 a 
good deal of disease was found among the tubers. About 10 per 
cent, had spots on them, and about one-half would be marketable, 
the remainder being undersized or diseased. Of No. 2 about three- 
fourths were fit for the market, and only a trace was seen on this 
variety. The condition of the tubers in Nos. 3 and 4 was similar to 
that of No. 2. All were of good quality, Nos. 2 and 4 being the best 
when cooked, as well as the best shaped. No. 1 showed a slight black- 
