500 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ December 6, 1883. 
be rafter or half-ploughed to lie during the winter and turned over 
in the spring, for it will then, as Sir J. B. Lawes says, prevent, 
like any other rooting crop, the loss of a large amount of 
fertility. It can likewise be successfully treated as regards 
tillage by the operation of scarifying with a strong implement 
like Coleman’s, but only with the points in operation, for then 
the tillage maybe considered complete by combing out the couch 
without breaking its roots into short pieces like the action of the 
same implement with shares used; now this latter point is a 
matter of so much importance that it should be avoided at all 
events. 
The after tillage is of great consequence, for the object 
should still be carried out of not breaking the white roots of the 
couch, but to bring them to the surface and deal with them in 
an unbroken state as much as possible. After the deep scarifying 
with Coleman’s implement we advise that, except in chain har¬ 
rowing and rolling, the work should be done entirely with 
Howard’s self-lifting drag harrow, and then if dry weather 
occurs and lasts loug enough, the couch being loosened from the 
soil it may be burned There is, however, an important con¬ 
sideration well worth our notice, for in the case of showery 
weather setting in just before the burning is done, the cultivation 
and future operations must not be delayed in consequence; but 
the couch which was ready for burning had the weather proved 
fine should be immediately carted away to a heap, to be either 
stifle-burned by a strong fire or left to decay as manure for 
pastime land. 
The. advantage of cleaning the land by carting away the 
couch is that the next ploughing or scarifying may proceed 
without hindrance, for the above observations will apply to all 
further tillage which may be found necessary. It is not every 
farm where steam cultivation can be obtained exactly when 
required if the power is only hired, but when it forms part of 
the cultivating power of the farm it will be found invaluable; 
for whether the deep-pointed cultivating tines are used in the 
autumn or spring, their action in lifting the clods and tufts of 
couch, however deeqfiy buried in the soil, will be found complete, 
because lifted wholly and bodily to the surface for future tillage, 
whereas when ploughing or shallow cultivation is only applied, a 
large or considerable portion of the roots will be left in the soil, 
and they are sure to grow and make their appearance in the 
future, even when left below the ploughing depth. 
N e now come to the point of considering the operations 
necessary to destroy the twitch or surface grass, and as this 
sort of grass is usually found upon the surface of strong or 
heavy soils, we need scarcely speak of its destruction as 
requiring an ordinary naked fallow with all its attendant 
expenses for tillage. In the autumn period, the month of 
August, September, or the early part of October, if the land 
is .deeply ploughed with an 8-inch furrow, the skim coulter 
judiciously used, the grass on the surface will be turned 
under, so completely buried, that the land may immediately be 
worked down and sown with any green or catch crops like Bye 
and Vetches, which may be either fed off with sheep in the 
spring and scarified, not qfioughed, worked down, and a second 
time seeded for either green crops or roots. After this, when 
the land may be ploughed for Wheat or winter Oats, the twitch 
roots and stems will be found dead if the work stated has been 
properly performed. We must now refer to those grasses or 
weeds which infest different soils, but are deep-rooted and very 
difficult to eradicate, especially upon strong land, which cracks 
open in dry seasons, into which the seeds of some will fall and 
others will propagate from the roots which may be left in the 
soil. It is therefore necessary that the whole of the following 
weeds should be forked out as the best mode of eradicating 
them. Broad-leaved Dock, Sheep Sorrel or Narrow-leaved Dock, 
Coltsfoot, Black Bent or Spear Grass, Corn Mint, tall Oat-like 
or Onion Grass, Hogweed, and common Nettle, with some others 
known only in certain localities. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Ilorsc Labour. —Wheat-sowing has now been so nearly finished in 
those districts where autumn sowing prevails that it will employ horse 
labour only at favourable intervals; but in the northern counties 
and Scotland much land is from necessity held over for spring seeding 
with Wheat in consequence of climatic influences. The horse labour, 
therefore in most districts in England will be now employed in ploughing 
the land intended for Lent corn, Potatoes, Mangold, and other root crops. 
The manner of lyiDg the land during the winter months varies in different 
districts, and we must admit that those methods in use and approved by 
the experienced cultivators of the different soils and climates may be 
accepted generally as the best course to follow. Still it is necessary to 
remember that Sir J. B. Lawes in his papers relating to fertility in soils 
goes far to introduce alterations in the lying of land during the winter, as 
also the policy of cropping with early catch crops, such as stubble 
Turnips and Rape, also the seeding with Rye, Trifolium, and Vetches, in 
order to retain not only the fertility of the land and its condition, but by 
the growth of the green or catch crops to obtain at all open and mild 
intervals of weather during the winter and early spring months the 
greater part of the nitrogen that enters into their composition. “We 
know besides,” says Sir J. B. Lawes, “ that these plants are only slightly 
influenced even when they are at all by the nitrogen of the manure that 
the soil may place at their disposal. This double proof is of such value 
that you ought to realise its full importance.” Thus we see how the 
question of lying the land during the winter months is of far more 
importance than the old style of deep and naked fallows ; because we 
are now advised not only practically but chemically that the ordinary 
mode of fallowing is a mistaken policy unless the land be full of couch, 
in which case it is our only alternative before starting on any improved 
system of cropping the land in the future. 
Hand Labour. —Hedging, ditching, banking, and the planting of 
White Thorns where good and secure fences against cattle and sheep are 
required will now for some time be the chief work. Great attention 
should be paid to the water meadows, for although the trenches of both 
kinds needed for feeding with and draining away the flood waters, which 
have lately been so very beneficial owing to the deposits of soil left on 
the turf, yet the drowners or labourers employed in irrigating only allow 
the flood water to remain on the surface for a stated time, after which it 
is changed and diverted into other channels and divisions of the meadows 
with the same object. Irrigation may be continued with benefit even in 
the event or duration of ice or snow, because it is proved that the 
temperature of pasture lands as well as water meadows are highest when 
covered with either ice or flood water. Planting of land for woodlands 
with Larch Fir, Sweet Chestnut, and on the borders Scotch Fir for shelter 
to the woodlands, may be done during all open weather. The latest plan 
for either Larch or Chestnut plants is to set them close, about 2 feet apart 
each way when required to be thinned, and the thinnings sold for hop 
poles. In this way they pay well in certain districts ; and even after taking 
large numbers for this purpose, it is often considered a good plan to leave 
Larch trees enough for timber, reserving the Chestnut stools for producing 
a future crop of underwood, which in due time will furnish a supply of 
valuable hop poles. 
Live Stock .—Fatting cattle should now go into the stalls or boxes, the 
latter being by far the best accommodation for them. Stalled bullocks 
are never so comfortable either at feeding time or when lying down as 
animals which can eat and lie down without any interference with each 
other, and in well-littered boxes they are much more comfortable and lie 
warmer than tethered cattle. Where the fatting cattle have been grazing 
during the autumn they will as usual have left portions of grass uneaten 
on certain parts of their pastures. Store cattle, either steers or heifers, 
will do well to follow and eat down the coarsest grasses which have been 
left by the fatting cattle, especially if they go into littered yards and 
sheds at night time, eating a few roots and sweet straw. The dairy cows 
may be treated in the same way, except that as the nights get longer 
they should lie under cover, and at milking time, night and morning, 
should each receive in addition to Cabbage and hay some 2 lbs. of 
decorticated cotton cake at each feeding time. Sheep stock, especially 
the in-lamb ewes of any breed which are now forward and ready to lamb 
about Christmas, should be constantly changed from the best pastures to 
drier ones at night time, and we think without root-feeding, except a 
small bait or fold of Thousand-headed Kale with hay or sweet straw in 
their racks at the same time in the afternoon ; but retiring for the night 
to the driest pastures on the farm, for the arable land makes a bad lair 
for ewes in lamb at thi3 time of the year, when either heavy rains or 
frosty nights are expected. Dry stock, either hoggets or wethers, do not 
do so well nor dress the land so regularly when feeding off root3 at this 
time of year, but should be fed with good Clover hay and cake, or bean 
meal mixed with cut roots in troughs. 
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. 
d 
c» 
1883. 
Nov. and Dec. 
Barome¬ 
ter at 32 a 
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. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
in. 
Sunday . 
25 
29.101 
53.9 
52.2 
S.W. 
43.2 
55.2 
46.2 
55.2 
40.6 
0 2 oT 
Monday. 
26 
29.119 
46.5 
45.2 
s.w. 
44.0 
51.2 
44.4 
68.4 
40.3 
— 
Tuesday. 
27 
29.913 
38.6 
37.5 
w. 
43.3 
48.6 
35.0 
62 8 
31.3 
— 
Wednesday .. 
28 
30.310 
51.0 
498 
s.w. 
43 2 
55.8 
35.9 
05.5 
35.0 
— 
Thursday ... 
29 
30.397 
42.6 
41.9 
s. 
44.0 
51.7 
39.0 
55.8 
36 8 
— 
Friday. 
30 
30.287 
40.2 
45.2 
w. 
43.6 
51.4 
41.5 
55.8 
37.3 
0 207" 
Saturday .... 
i 
30.252 
43.8 
41.7 
N. 
44.4 
52.2 
39.8 
58.5 
39.3 
— 
29.916 
46.1 
41.8 
43.8 
52 3 
40.3 
602 
37.2 
0.464 
REMARKS. 
25th.—Rainy morning ; fair afterward-!; lightning in W. at 9 p.M. ; fine sunset. 
20th.—Wet early ; fine day. 
27th.—Cold, damp, misty morning; fair-day. 
28th.—Fine and mild ; brilliant sunrise and sunset. 
29th.—Generally overcast. 
30th.—Fine bright morning ; overcast afternoon ; rain in evening. 
1st.—Fine clear day ; beautiful sunset. 
A fair mil 1 week, noticeable chiefly for the brilliant effects of colour at sunrise and. 
sunset.—G. J. Symons. 
