220 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ September 6, 1833. 
guano and bone superphosphate may be applied with great advantage, as 
the distant cartage of farmyard dung is costly, and at the same time 
(iangerous on clay soils if early or heavy rains should occur, as the 
surface would then be tracked and injured, for these soils ought to be 
seeded in the first or second week in October. Then the question of 
drilling arises, for we consider that no farmer is master of his position 
on heavy land subject to yellow cress and black bent, unless the corn is 
drilled at 10 or 12 inches between the rows, in order that horse or hand- 
hoeing in the spring may be done if required. We have frequently seen 
the Wheat crops entirely ruined by weeds when sown broadcast ; in 
Clover lea, however, broadcast sowing often proves best, especially when 
sown after the presser. 
1land Labour .—In harvest this is frequently much neglected for want 
of labourers, and the root crops become foul with Charlock and other 
weeds, especially on the chalk hill farms. We must also call attention 
to the importance of thatching the corn and hayricks as fast as made, 
but in some localities none but professional or journeymen thatchers can 
be obtained ; and as they are of insufficient as to time, we advocate that 
every farm of importance should be able to command a thatcher as one 
of the staff of labourers on the farm. For many years we brought up 
several young men for this purpose, and although they were reluctant to 
undertake the work at first, yet in every case we found them after 
practice to make good rick-builders as well as thatchers. 
Live Stock was rather falling in price at the recent fairs, and should 
Ibe dry weather continue long into September the grass will be scarce, and 
the root crops will prove lighter than they previously promised to become. 
It may be a question, however, if sheep can be purchased at a price to 
pay for root-feeding on the land next winter, because of the short 
numbers in the country, as shown by the recently circulated statistical 
account of numbers of live stock in this country. Sheep during the hot 
sunny weather should always be in fold during the heat of the day on 
the arable land, in order that their droppings may be available, but have 
their range of park or pastures during the night and remaining period of 
their feeding. We have frequently noticed that sheep resort to shade 
where they can, and in the case of ornamental or other trees or hedge¬ 
rows they frequently shelter themselves, and leave what should be manure 
not only without benefit, but in fact is entirely lost. Where the grass 
is short this dry weather, and after having been fed during the summer 
with the dairy cows, is now getting stale. They should, therefore, now 
get a good change of fresh grass, Clover in the troughs, or early roots 
mixed with cake or corn meal in order to keep up the milking power of 
the cows, and also that they may not be let go dry too early ; for with 
great milkers it is dangerous for them to dry off their milk too soon, in 
which case they are sure to form fat internally, and likely to produce 
downfall in the udder and puerperal fever at the time of calviDg. 
MANURES versus STIMULANTS. 
It is an undoubted fact that great harm has resulted to agricultural 
progress from a misapprehension of the effect of manures in assisting 
plant-growth. The word “ stimulation” is at the bottom of this difficulty. 
Properly speaking there is no such thing as stimulating plants except 
by feeding them. Men sometimes take whisky, wine, or opium, which, 
though they contain no nutriment to support strength, operate on the 
nerves to impel them to abnormal vigour. The vegetable world indulges 
in no such excesses, if for no other reason than that plants and trees have 
no nerves to be stimulated. We may, indeed, force a more rapid growth 
of plants by giving such food as is easily assimilated ; but it is food none 
the less, and not stimulant. Some kinds of fertilisers may after a time 
become inoperative, yet it is because the soil has been fully supplied with 
that which the particular fertiliser in question furnishes and is deficient 
in some other ingredient. It has no parallel in the stimulating drug which 
loses its effect on the human system after repeated dosing. 
In the apparent effects of some fertilisers, such as salt, gypsum, and 
potash, on certain soils, there is something akin to stimulation; but the 
effect is on the soil rather than on the crop. {Salt, for example, is a 
powerful solvent and often produces effects inexplicable from its own 
manurial value. This beneficial effect, however, is due to the power which 
salt has in making available latent mineral fertility in the soil. By the 
use of salt the compounds of potash and phosphate previously insoluble 
are released and fitted for plant food. In other cases salt may decompose 
vegetable matter and release ammonia. Thus the crop may be greatly 
assisted by a dressing of salt without showing more than a trace of the 
salt in its chemical analysis. This, however, is not stimulation of the 
crop, for the plants only grew as they were fed, as truly as if the feeding 
had been a dressing of stable manure instead of a solvent to develope 
latent fertility in the soil itself. It is indeed true that the soil is stimulated 
to produce more than it naturally would, and unless feeding manures are 
used these fertilisers, which only act by making plant food available, will 
in lime cease to produce any effect. 
A common objection among the mass of farmers to commercial fertilisers 
is that they act as stimulants; but it is certain that the same objection 
might be urged with equal propriety against every kind of manure. The 
decomposition of stable manure in the soil gives off carbonic acid gas, 
which decomposes the particles of earth with which it comes in contact. 
So, too, in greater degree with Clover or other green herbage turned under 
in June, which decompose with even greater rapidity than manure. A 
well-worked summer fallow has its chief advantage in exposing as much 
soil as possible to the influences of air and heat, so as to make its fertility 
more available. Yet there are many farmers who scout the idea of using 
concentrated manures lest they exhaust the soil, while they think everything 
of the naked fallow. The effect of the la'ter is much the worse in this 
respect. The concentrated manure generally adds some fertility, while with 
the naked fallow the increased crop has been produced through taxing 
the soil to part with more of its strength than would occur naturally. 
The thorough cultivation which farmers should give hoed crops answers 
much the same purpose of this so-called stimulation. It developes ammonia 
and other plant food. Often the passing through corn with hoe or 
cultivator in the growdng season will start the plants into such vigorous 
growth as to make one think the corn had been “ taking a drink,” to use the 
language of a certain observant farm labourer. The expression was literally 
true, yet the drink -was ammonia, which the loosened soil had absorbed 
from air, and rains, and dews. The ammoniated "water of dews is the most 
stimulating of all manures ; but it is only so because it supplies food just 
in the right condition for plant roots to take it up. The same is true of 
liquid manures generally. They are immediately available, and thus help 
the crop to which they are applied. If it were possible to make the greater 
share of the latent fertility available each year the soil would soon be 
exhausted. On light soils this is sometimes the result, unless the land is 
manured as soon as cropped. Heavy soils cannot be exhausted to the same 
extent. The crop falls off while there is apparently plenty of fertility in the 
soil, but it is locked up in clods where the roots of plants cannot reach it. 
On such land under-draining and thorough tillage must precede and in part 
take the place of manure. 
The use of guano has been objected to by some because after a few years 
it leaves the soil poor. This is, however, only the result where continuous 
cropping with exhaustive crops is practised. With frequent seedings to 
Clover, selling none, but either ploughing it under or cutting and feeding 
on the farm, the use of guano should never leave the farm poorer. Pur¬ 
chasing stable manure, yet making none on the farm, tends to sterility as 
surely if not as rapidly as purchasing guano. The stable manure is not so 
immediately available, and hence the process of exhaustion would be slower. 
The immediate availability of the concentrated manure gives it an important 
advantage. The nimble sixpence is better than the slow shilling in 
manuring, as in business matters. It is, however, easy by diverting a part 
of this available fertility to growing Clover and other renovating crops, to 
get not only the nimble sixpence in the first crop, but also the slower shilling 
in the greatly increased fertility of the soil.—( American Cultivator.) 
Bath and West of England Society and Southern Counties 
Association. —At the Council Meeting held at Bristol on August 28th, 
Sir J. T. B. Duckworth, Bart., in the chair, a letter was received from 
the Hon. Secretary of the Royal Agricultural Society of Guernsey, stating 
that the Society having obtained a grant from the Island States of £136 
—an increase of £40 on the amount usually voted—it was their intention 
to spend this surplus in partly defraying the expenses of their poorer 
farmers (owners of good stock) in exhibiting at the meetings of the Royal 
Agricultural Society of England and Bath and West of England Society 
and Southern Counties Association, the object of the Society being to 
strain every nerve in order to encourage and guarantee the representa¬ 
tion of cattle from the island at the shows of these Societies. A letter 
was received from the Town Clerk of Brighton proposing that a deputa¬ 
tion of the Society should meet the Local Committee for the purpose of 
inspecting the proposed site, &c., for the 18S5 Show, on Tuesday, Septem¬ 
ber 4th. A deputation, with Sir J. T. B. Duckworth, Bart., as Chairman,, 
was appointed to visit Brighton on the date named, and power was given 
them to sign and seal conditions on behalf of the Society. The usual 
sums were granted for stock and poultry prizes at the Maidstone Meet¬ 
ing in 1884, and for the horticultural department of the Show. 
OUR LETTER BOX. 
Sowing Vetches ( S. IF.).—If your Carrots are raised about the middle 
of this month they will keep very well if carefully stored. The land may 
then be sown with winter Vetches, the sooner the better. Two and a half 
bushels of seed per acre will be enough. If half a bushel of winter Barley or 
Oats be mixed with the Vetches, then two bushels of the latter would ba 
sufficient. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
Camden Square, London. 
Lafc. 61° 82' 40" N. : Lone. 0° 8' 0" W. ; Altitude, 111 feet. 
date. 
9 A.M. 
IN THE DAT. 
a 
eS 
« 
1888. 
August 
and 
September. 
Barome¬ 
ter at 32« 
and Sea 
Level 
Hygrome¬ 
ter. 
Direction 
of Wind. 
| Temp, of 
Soil at 
1 foot. 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature. 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
sun. 
On 
grass. 
Inches. 
deg. 
dev. 
dee. 
dee. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
In. 
Sunday . 
26 
30.137 
67.4 
60.7 
N.W. 
62.9 
79.8 
50.8 
118.0 
45.9 
Monday. 
27 
30.070 
64.4 
55.9 
s.w. 
68.2 
76.4 
54.9 
112.7 
49.4 
_ 
Tuesday. 
28 
30.022 
66.6 
60.6 
N.W. 
63.3 
76.0 
59.3 
117.3 
W.l 
__ 
Wednesday .. 
29 
29 837 
64.9 
60.6 
N.W. 
64.0 
72.3 
59.0 
117.4 
53.6 
_ 
Thursday .... 
80 
29929 
61.5 
56.6 
W. 
63.7 
71.7 
57.0 
117.3 
51.4 
0.067 
Friday. 
31 
29.806 
61.1 
57.4 
W. 
63.5 
65.7 
55.2 
78 9 
50.6 
0.347 
Saturday .... 
1 
29.590 
56.7 
54.7 
S.W. 
61.6 
66.7 
50.6 
110.9 
45.4 
0.1.58 
29.913 
63.2 
58.1 
63.2 
72.7 
55.3 
110.4 
49.9 
0.572 
REMARKS. 
26th.—Thick mist in early mornine, fine hot day. 
27th.—Calm and warm, but rather overcast. 
28th.—Fine, bright, and warm. 
29th.—Dull at first, fine afterwards. 
30th.—Breezy, good deal of cloud, and slight rain at night. 
31st.—Dull and calm, with slight rain ; heavier in even ng. 
1st.—Fine morning, cloudy afternoon, rain in evening. 
With a more cloudy iky the exceptional range of temperature lias ceased, and the 
past week presents no exceptional features. The temperature was above the average 
but on’y slightly.—G. J. STMOX8. 
