42 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ July 12,1881 
clean, besides which it can he done at any time, in any weather except 
in frost, and when the corn is near harvest. Forking out we have 
always found not only the cheapest way of keeping the land clean, 
but also the most effective, for, in fact, it bids defiance to the weather, 
and enables the farmer to crop his land closer under the most profitable 
rotation. The attempt to clean land by horse labour before seeding 
for a crop is frequently abortive, not only in the object of cleaning 
the land, but is the forerunner of late seeding and failing crops ; and 
in such seasons as we have had for some years past the attempt to 
carry out any system by horse labour alone has left a number of farms 
throughout the kingdom in a most deplorable and foul state. 
Hand Labour is now of extreme importance, for hoeing and singling 
the roots must be done, ricks must be thatched, the straw drawn and 
piled in readiness, hedges must be trimmed, and border grass and weeds 
cut to prevent seeding, and to maintain the fences—especially of White¬ 
thorn—not only within bounds, but effective against live stock. The 
late cold meadows of certain districts will for some time yet require the 
hay to be made from them, which will employ all the hands which can 
be obtained ; but in certain outlying and thinly populated districts the 
hand labour must be supplemented by machinery, such as the mowing 
machine, the tedding machine, and by no means forgetting the elevator, 
both in haying and harvest, which does by the use of the odd horse what 
was formerly the severest manual labour on the farm—pitching from the 
carts or waggons on to the stack. 
Live Stock .—In some districts the dairy cows are almost frantic, 
being teased by the flies ; in which case we like the animals to be taken 
to the stalls, receiving some green fodder in the racks, for in hot sunny 
weather the animals do not feed from about ten o’clock A.M. until four 
o’clock p.m., and will endeavour to obtain shelter under trees, where 
they are very uncomfortable and with nothing to eat, and also leave 
their droppings where it is entirely lost. Let the home farmer consider 
these points, and he will find it great economy in various ways, but 
especially in the gain of milk obtained from the cows. The time for the 
purchase of both ewes and lambs for stock is now arrived, and various 
fairs are being held in the different counties where the Down varieties 
and long-woolled breeds are sold. As the prospect for roots is good, 
stock will be dear, and not likely to pay for wintering on the arable vale 
farms, even if they get cake and hay in addition to the roots. But, we 
ask, why should a custom which yields no profit be followed in this 
blind way merely because it is customary, when green crops ploughed 
in will yield more profit, giving full crops at little cost ? for it should be 
remembered that the only reason which can be given by the advocates 
of feeding roots on the land is that it enables the land to bear crops of 
corn. Granted ; but the capital employed to carry out the system is 
great, and the cost of labour also connected with stock, to say nothing 
of Tisks and losses by disease, as well as the impediments at seed time, 
&c., arising from necessities attending the management of sheep. 
A CHAT ABOUT MANURES. 
If you think it worth while to allow the space I will try and 
estimate very roughly the relative positions of farmers and gardeners 
with respect to the all-important question of manures. Although it is 
desirable and necessary for farmers in most cases to use artificial 
manures more or less, particularly where cereal crops are intended to 
follow each other, such use should only be supplemental to the grand 
foundation of considerable applications of home-made manure from 
well-fed animals. Of the reasons why this is so we have, perhaps, a 
good deal to learn, notwithstanding M. Ville and other authorities to 
the contrary. One reason, I suppose, is that it supplies such a necessary 
and healthy strength in reserve owing to its so gradual absorption by 
the soil, and the way it enables the surface soil to retain moisture, so 
that we may apply the same manurial ingredients in almost any 
quantity in other forms to certain crops of the farm and the outdoor 
garden without obtaining such satisfactory results. A singular and 
suggestive example of this may be seen in the garden of Sir J. B. 
Lawes at Rothamsted, to whom, by the way, all who are in any way 
interested in agriculture owe a debt of gratitude, which I fear has not 
yet been adequately appreciated. On the lawn adjoining the mansion 
is a little and carefully guarded plot of common red Glover, luxuriant 
in growth and full in plant, yielding more than one cut per year, and 
it has so remained with no other attention than occasional partial 
resowings for, I think, thirty years or more. On adjoining soils of 
similar formation, although every possible treatment has been tried, 
red Clover will not grow for more than two years in succession in 
accordance with ordinary experience. The solution of the riddle is 
found in an old garden soil continually fertilised—perhaps for 300 years 
—with natural manure very largely in excess of the actual require¬ 
ments of the growing crops. Well, then, the all-important foundation 
being laid and kept up, nothing is wanting but the artificial supplement. 
For the farmer, as compared with the gardener under glass, this is, as 
it seems to me, a comparatively simple matter, though of course one 
which even he can only satisfactorily cope with by much thought and 
care and experimental experience. At first sight it is delightfully 
simple, as he only requires three manurial ingredients in his artificial 
manures—namely, nitfogen, phosphates, and lime, rarely more than the 
two former. Potash, important factor as it is (good soils differing 
from bad in nothing so much, perhaps, as in the presence or absence 
oE potash), I do not mention amongst the necessary supplemental, 
because sufficient dressings of home-made manure will supply it in 
abundance. It is true that I have had remarkable results from its 
application in a specially soluble, and, I believe, rather unusual-f oim 
in exceptional cases, therefore I had had time to replenish exhausted 
soil in other ways. In such cases, and I am afraid there are some to 
be found, potash salts of the proper kind would, I feel sure, produce 
striking results, and I believe they are tried far too seldom. 
The soil has a very strong power to retain potash near the surface when 
once applied in any form, so that one application will very perceptibly 
benefit two or more crops, hence the certain storage of this ingredient in 
sufficient quantities from liberal dressings of the manure from well-fed 
animals. Nitrate of soda, on the contrary, is here to-day and in the sub¬ 
soil to-morrow, and all dressings beyond the requirements of the present 
crop is at least wasted if it is so fortunate as to avoid absolute injury. 
In the first place, then, the farmer has only to buy his few ingredients 
separately or otherwise as cheaply, as pure, and as soluble as possible. 
So far there is no difficulty when the purchase is approached with a small 
but adequate knowledge of chemical properties, and the mind free from 
bias in favour of particular dealers and their ordinary or extraordinary 
compound formulas. Until both farmers and gardeners know much more 
of what they require, and exactly how they require it, in artificial 
manures, than the ordinary manure dealer can prescribe for them, they 
will be a long time obtaining the best results. Yet how often is the 
contrary principle acted upon. But I am trespassing too much on your 
space to say more on the purchase of manures, even if this were the 
place to say it, though there is much to be said. In short then, the 
farmer, given his few pure soluble chemical ingredients, has only to apply 
them economically, and that is, as I have said, a question only of com¬ 
paratively simple experiment. 
If I mistake not, however,—though here I am stepping into a much 
less familiar sphere—the gardener under glass must approach this subject 
in a much more guarded fashion. The intrinsic value per ton to him, 
greater or less bulk, are things of minor importance, except as guides for 
purchase. True, he also only wants the three ingredients named, with 
the addition of a fourth in potash, but that is only the veriest alphabet 
of his required knowledge. How he wants his ingredients is the diffi¬ 
cult point for him to determine, rather than what he wants, and in the 
answer to this I cannot thinking that gardeners have more to learn even 
than farmers, because their lesson is so much more complicated, although, 
I believe, the extraordinary success many of them have achieved by 
patient intelligent attention to details in plant culture is a great lesson 
for farmers. 
A discussion arose in this Journal some weeks since, in which the 
merits of night soil were discussed as a manure for Grapes. One of the 
correspondents endeavoured to prove an error in its use from the fact of 
its low intrinsic value—probably 30.?. to 40.?. per ton ; whereas, if I am 
right in my premisses, the mere intrinsic value, so long as the manure 
contained any fertilising properties, was no argument at all to the point. 
Manure in a form too concentrated and too soluble is, I imagine, for a 
gardener under glass, a thing of much danger and doubtful merit. It 
seems to me, then, that he has to determine first what he wants, secondly 
how much of it, and thirdly in what form, besides, perhaps, when to 
apply it, to produce the very best and safest results. On all these points 
theory to him, unfortunately, is of very little service, and practice every¬ 
thing ; so that in the elucidation of these problems by patient experi¬ 
ment only he has indeed abundant scope for all his energies. How 
many gardeners, as well as farmers, use artificial manures of the composi¬ 
tion of which they are ignorant ? Whereas, surely the initial step for 
intelligent experimental comparison of each with the the other, or either 
with other manures, is to know before the application of them, approxi¬ 
mately at any rate, the composition of every manure with which 
experiments are made. 
Your correspondent “ Inspector ” surprised me on page 533, last 
volume, by the prominent mention of my name, and he also appears to 
have been mistaken in thinking I expect a crop of seven quarters of 
Barley per acre. Although I hope I am of a somewhat modest tempera¬ 
ment, that would not be a modest estimate for light land in an eccentric 
climate.—F. J. Cooke, Flitckam Abbey, Lynn. 
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. 
rt 
*3 
« 
1883. 
July. 
aw o 
> 
Hygrome¬ 
ter. 
a . 
O-d 
3 a 
5 o 
gcg 
a5 r Xi^ 
H 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature. 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
snn. 
On 
grass. 
Sunday . 1 
Monday. 2 
Tuesday. S 
Wednesday .. 4 
Thursday .... 5 
Friday. 6 
Saturday .... 7 
Inches. 
3 .119 
30.094 
29.875 
29.832 
29.901 
30.856 
29.881 
deg. 
67.2 
72.0 
70.6 
59.1 
62.3 
66.3 
64.4 
deg. 
58.2 
61.7 
66.6 
57.4 
57.2 
58.3 
58.8 
p, 
E. 
E. 
N.E. 
S.E. 
S.E. 
W.S.W. 
deg. 
62.1 
62.7 
64.8 
64.2 
62.4 
62.5 
62.8 
deg. 
78.5 
84.7 
80.7 
73.2 
71.8 
74.8 
74.5 
deg. 
52.0 
55.2 
62.2 
55.8 
51.9 
51.6 
57.5 
deg. 
123.8 
127.6 
119.4 
114.4 
1173 
118.4 
124.0 
deg. 
47.2 
49.3 
58.4 
53.0 
46.8 
46.0 
50.4 
In. 
0.186 
0.087 
0.019 
29.937 
66.0 
59.7 
63.1 
76 9 
55.2 
120.7 
50.2 
0.242 
REMARKS. 
1st.—Fine, bright, and warm. [till midnight. 
2nd.—Very warm and fine during day ; heavy rain at 10.30 r.M. ; lightning from 11 p.m. 
3rd.—Lightning till 3 a m., and thunder from 4 to 5 a.m. ; very oppressive morning, finer 
afterwards, cool evening, lightning after 10 p.m. 
4th.—Much cooler ; rain in morning; fine afternoon and evening. 
5th.—Gusty wind in morning; dull at times during day ; fine calm evening. 
6th.—Overcast in morning ; fine afternoon and evenmg. 
7th.—Overcast at times, but generally fine and pleasant. 
Another very fine summer week.—G. J. Symo:;s. 
