August 31,1882. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 213 
is no substitute for blood ; there is no elegant carriage horse with¬ 
out it, no quick-stepping hack without it, and no fast-enduring 
hunter without a large portion of it. Our cavalry must feel this 
loss very much, for it ought not to be overlooked that blood gives 
pace, and that pace is power. In conclusion, we assert the remedy 
is in our own hands. Let Her Majesty’s plates of £100 be re¬ 
established for high weights and long distances, let the princes 
of the realm throw their influence into the scale, and the nation 
would soon respond to the example. It is a national subject, and 
worthy of all the patronage which can be bestowed upon it. The 
agricultural societies of the United Kingdom should follow on with 
the Royal Agricultural Society, and call for weight-carrying 
thoroughbred stallions. We may thus recover what we have lost, 
and again obtain a sufficient supply of the description of horses so 
needful for doing good service throughout the country. We can¬ 
not conclude entirely without stating that for some of the ideas 
and plans suggested we are indebted, not only to J. Gamgee, sen., 
of the New Veterinary College, Edinburgh, but also to the Right 
Hon. John Evelyn Denison, both of whose essays in the Journal 
of the Royal Agricultural Society for the year 1863 will be found 
well worth perusal. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Horse Labour .—In all cases where the Wheat stubbles are foul with 
couch the land should be autumn-fallowed ; but the manner of doing 
the necessary tillage is important. Some farmers are never satisfied 
unless they plough the land deep the first time. Now in our expe¬ 
rience this is wrong, for if the couch and black bent grasses are buried 
deeply it, as it were, doubles the work of cultivating to bring them to 
the surface again. In fact, they are not entirely brought up again, 
but the grass roots are divided and left in the land after much work 
has been expended. We have, therefore, always in commencing the 
work of autumn-fallowing, if done by steam power, cultivated long 
ways and cross ways, with the cultivating tines on, to the depth of 
the previous ploughing, and then comb out the lumps of couch, &c., 
with Howard’s self-lifting drag harrow ; we know of no other drag 
worth using in comparison with it for such a purpose. In case the 
work of autumn-fallowing is intended to be done by horse labour only 
we advise the raftering or half-ploughing, and after this turn the 
raftered furrows back again by what is commonly called back- 
stetching. This moves the whole of the surface ; but it should not 
be raftered too deeply. After a drying day or two the land will work 
freely, and should be dragged across first, and then twice more, re¬ 
versing the direction of the first work by transversing the direction of 
the dragging, which will then, if the weather has been favourable, 
have reduced the fallowed surface into a condition ready for the use 
of the roller and harrows. Much extra horse labour may, however, 
be saved by carting the couch away, although some earth may still 
be attached to it without continuing the tillage labour to reduce the 
grass into a state to burn, and which in the event of rainy weather 
succeeding cannot be done. After couch has been carted away to 
heap to rot or laid at once on to pasture land the fallow may remain 
until after Wheat-sowing has been completed ; it may then be deeply 
fallow-ploughed to lie during the winter. 
It is now time to arrange the acreage for green crops required now 
to be sown with seeds of Trifolium, Winter Vetches, Rye, and Winter 
Barley. These, however, should be sown on land quite free from 
couch. Previous, however, to seeding for the green fodder crops 
stubble Turnips should have been drilled with artificial manures 
upon land intended for Mangolds next year, so that they may be fed 
off by sheep or reduced by grinding and ploughed in as manure, which 
plan will wonderfully forward the tillage for Mangolds, and manure 
it also to a certain extent. We will suppose also that Mustard seed 
has been previously sown on the fallow break upon land coming in 
for Wheat, in order that the green crop of Mustard may be ploughed 
in before sowing the Wheat at about the middle of the month of 
October. In seeding for Trifolium, if a succession of spring and 
summer fodder is required, three sorts should be sown. The quantity 
of seed should be 25 lbs. per acre, especially as this year the seed is 
cheap. For earliest growth we like the early crimson variety ; second 
early, the pink blossom sort; and for the latest use as green fodder up 
to a week or ten days in July we pi'efer the perfect white-blossomed 
variety as being the latest for green food we have ever grown. Too 
much seed cannot often be sown, for it has many enemies, especially 
the small white slugs, for we have known the first and second seeding 
carried away by them after seeding with 20 lbs. and 25 lbs. per acre 
respectively, and we have afterwards succeeded by sowing 30 tbs. per 
acre as late as November 13th. In sowing Rye we like the Giant or 
St. John’s Day sort, and when it is saved for seed the bulk of grain 
will be greater than the ordinary variety, and the straw, which is 
very long and strong, is very much more valuable than that of any 
other cereal. Winter Vetches, too, may be sown so as to secure a 
succession, because the early sort, which is a small grain as compared 
with the ordinary variety, comes in for feeding a fortnight earlier— 
a matter of importance in some seasons both for cutting up as green 
fodder either for horses or cattle as well as for folding off by sheep. 
Hand Labour .—Men will now be employed in hoeing the late 
Turnips. The women will be employed in forking out couch where 
there is but little either in the stubbles, or anywhere else in fact ; 
for a few shillings per acre spent in this way not only saves much 
horse labour, but it frequently forwards the seed time in the spring, 
also for the various crops; besides which, forking out couch can be 
done in any weather, whereas working it out by horse labour can only 
be done in favourable weather. Some men will now be employed 
filling manure cart from the yards and cattle boxes to be laid out and 
spread immediately on the lea ground intended for Wheat, and to be 
ploughed in as soon as possible, in order that the Wheat may be sown 
on a stale early-ploughed furrow. 
Live Stock .—The ram sales are now nearly over of the Hampshire 
and Sussex Down flocks, but for the Shropshire Downs and all the 
long-woolled breeds the sales are on. The sales of all sorts have 
realised more money than those of last year, and we are pleased to find 
that the health of the flocks and freedom from lameness is very 
marked and decided as compared with many years past. The ordi¬ 
nary off-going flocks, either of horned Dorsets, Long-woolled, or of 
Down sheep, are all selling at very high prices, such as ought to 
make the home farmer and agriculturists in general ask-themselves 
the question, Can they pay for fattening at such prices as they are 
now making ? Let men of business make careful calculations as to 
the cost of fattening sheep or bullocks where not only hay is added 
to the roots for the purpose, but cake of either linseed or cocton sorts 
to be added also ; and take notice also of the money invested, and 
the time before the money as regards manure obtained is returned, 
and the interest it gives for investment; and after having made fair 
calculations as to the facilities for obtaining artificial manures, ask 
the question whether manure cannot be bought cheaper than it 
can be made by cattle-feeding? We call attention to these matters 
because it is not only a matter of extreme importance, but of great 
interest to the home farmer. It also requires an intricate'calculation 
to decide the matter without bias, and in perfect fairness as a matter 
of business ; for why should parties blindly follow, without making 
such calculations as the case may require, an old traditional system 
of feeding stock, without reference to the peculiar circumstances by 
which the cases are surrounded, not only as it affects the profit on 
stock, but also the profit on the production of corn ? 
CROPS IN NORTH DURHAM. 
The fate of the fruit has long been known, but the hopes and 
fears of the success or otherwise of the harvest are now absorb¬ 
ing every man’s mind, even to the exclusion of Egyptian matters. 
Two weeks of bright warm weather, following suddenly a two- 
months spell of showers, has made a wonderful change in the 
appearance of the country. Corn is rapidly changing its colour ; 
and although a field or two has been cut, the harvest will not be 
general in this cold bleak country for a fortnight. The change 
has been so sudden and so marked that the farmer’s especial 
trouble just now—and he always has one on hand—is that grain 
may be prematurely ripened, and the yield light consequently. 
Potatoes are looking well, but from what we hear the yield will 
not be an average one in quantity, but quite up to, if not beyond 
it, in quality. 
Turnips are a great success. The showery weather of late has 
benefited them in a most marked degree ; and now that the land 
has got warmed by the hot sunny days of August, we may expect 
a more than average crop. 
Mangolds are not much grown in this thin soil, and what I 
have seen of them are not looking at all well, though I am tol l 
that there are some excellent crops further inland, a statement 
which is most likely to be true, as Mangolds like the alluvial 
vales. 
Beans are said to be the crop of the year, but not many are 
grown. 
Hay is all harvested, and the aftermath, or “ fog ” as it is 
called here, is growing abundantly. Second crops of Clover are 
especially good—a great boon to the dairy farmers in this populous 
neighbourhood, where there is an almost continuous demand for 
green food.— Peter Ferguson. 
Scotch Harvest Prospects.—A Glasgow telegram says Re¬ 
ports published concerning the harvest prospects in Scotland state 
that the hay crop is one-fourth above the average, that Turnips 
everywhere are a full crop, and that all kinds of grain are better in 
quantity and quality. Potatoes show considerable evidence of 
disease, which will increase if the weather is wet. It is estimated 
that the Scotch harvest, including Turnips, is five millions sterling 
better than last year.” 
Canadian Agriculture. —The report of he Minister of Agricul¬ 
ture of Canada for the year 1881, states that th-‘ exportation of cattle 
through Canadian ports, principally to Great Britain, were 45,535 
cattle and 62,401 sheep. A large importation of Clydesdales has 
been taking place, and the first-prize horse of this class at the late 
Reading Show has been forwarded to Canada. The export of phos¬ 
phate of lime also increased from 12,000 tons in 1880 to 15,601 last 
