November 2, 1882 .] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 417 
rally out of condition, the driest and best loamy soils must be 
cultivated for corn as well as roots, and must be managed or let 
for that purpose. If the land is of strong clay and flat-lying or 
hilly, if of a north or north-eastern aspect, it had better go into 
grass, except the altitude should be great, then a crop of timber 
offers the best opportunity for profit. But then we are brought 
face to face with the expenses of cultivation and planting, and, 
therefore, it must run to waste as hillside or mountainous land, 
and capable of rearing only a few forest ponies or horned sheep, 
such as those kept in the hill districts of Scotland, or the small 
white-faced horned sheep of Wales and some of the western coun¬ 
ties of England ; in this case no outlay will be required except 
for the first purchase of the stock. 
Let us now refer to hilly strong land, as well as the flat-lying 
clay soils, and of these soils many thousand acres of them have 
within the past six or seven years fallen into or been returned on 
the hands of the proprietor. Supposing that the land is foul with 
couch or twitch, the distinction we make is that couch means the 
strong-leaved and white-rooted grass which lies deeply rooted in 
the soil; the twitch we consider is the creeping or narrow-leaved 
variety which runs upon the surface, with shallow bunches of roots 
which adhere to the surface soil from nearly every knot or joint 
in the stems of the grass, and thus forming a mat on the surface. 
In either of these cases, if we go to the expense of tilling the land 
it will be very costly to eradicate them. In fact on the cultivated 
arable land, if these grasses by bad farming have prevailed for 
some years their seeds will have been dropped and buried in the 
soil by the cultivation ; and if we clean the land ever so well and 
sow the best kinds of permanent grass, still the couch or twitch 
will propagate from the seed and claim part possession of our 
surface, upon which we have made a large expenditure for the 
purpose of destroying them. When this occurs it is of the utmost 
importance to consider which will gain the ascendancy in the 
pasture, but this will entirely depend upon the course of manage¬ 
ment both as to manure and the system of feeding—in fact the 
general management of the turf, whether it should be cut for hay 
or be fed off only by live stock. Even then it depends upon the 
kind of stock which are kept and the food they consume, for it 
must be remembered that the feeding is also a manurial question, 
and must be allowed for and considered in any outlay made for 
artificial manures, or the value of farmyard or town manure, 
applied either by themselves or mixed with earthy compounds. 
It is also necessary to consider in what state each field is as 
regards the last crop, whether it is now in stubble of corn crops 
or in Clover lea, or covered with weeds. Another point to be 
considered is, In what state is the surface 1 Does it lie in small 
ridges, or is it laid into the wide high-backed ridges peculiar to 
some of the midland and western counties with deep furrows ? 
It is almost impossible to obtain an even sward or growth of turf 
on these small ridges, the furrows being only a series of hollows 
to hold water on the surface, unless it has been effectually under¬ 
drained with pipes in a judicious manner. The wide high-backed 
ridges, however, lie comparatively high and dry, and are more 
easily cleared of the water on the surface even though the land 
be strong, and if draining is required it is more easily effected by a 
pipe drain in each furrow. It i3 clear that if no cultivation can be 
done, or as little as possible, to produce a profitable turf in accord¬ 
ance with the capabilities of the soil, it is most important to under¬ 
stand which soils should be rejected as hopeless for the purpose 
of forming into pastures. We should say that sandy, thin, 
gravelly, peaty, and thin chalky land should be considered as 
unprofitable in pasture, and seldom worth the expenses of seed 
and tillage even under the best of management, unless production 
can be accomplished by irrigation either upon the ridge-and-furrow 
system with flood water, or upon the principle of catch meadows, 
where the position of the land enables the water with or without 
flood deposits or liquid manure to be spread over large areas of 
land assisted by the peculiar incline of the surface. There can 
be no doubt that in various districts of the kingdom, but more 
especially in the western, midland, and north-western counties, 
there are large areas now comparatively waste, where farms and 
parts of farms of considerable extent can be turned to a pro¬ 
fitable purpose as pasture, if the points to which we have pre¬ 
viously alluded are considered in relation to the varying circum¬ 
stances enumerated. 
After these prefatory remarks we shall endeavour to describe 
land under varying conditions of profitless and wasteful occupa¬ 
tion, and explain the means whereby they may be renovated 
and improved, to enable the home farmer to accomplish as much 
as may be possible under the circumstances by which he may be 
surrounded. It has been asserted, and even considered as a rule, 
that a good pasture cannot be maintained from the time it is 
seeded until it becomes a permanent pasture with a large accu¬ 
mulation of humus on the surface, without a break or period of 
barrenness after the first few years. But we deny that this is a 
matter that cannot be avoided, we only view it when it happens 
as resulting from want of care and intelligence in various ways. 
First of all, if the annual or even perennial grasses are used in 
conjunction with the best permanent meadow grasses, they will 
for a time promise well, but when they have decayed the surface 
is left bare to some extent, giving an opportunity for weeds or 
inferior grass to get possession. This vacancy, caused by the 
failure of the annuals and the time which may intervene before 
the permanent grasses can get full possession of the surface, is 
caused in several ways. First by the serious mistake of not sow¬ 
ing exclusively the permanent grasses and Clovers ; also if the seed 
has been selected without judgment, and by trusting to others 
that which should be done by the home farmer himself, various 
failures may occur, such as old seed mixed with new, seeds un¬ 
cleaned, and of sorts not suited to the soil. Still, much depends 
upon the condition of the land and manure applied as well as its 
fitness for the soil; also, if unsuitable stock are allowed to injure 
the young seeds, the pasture as a permanent one will be delayed. 
But the greatest cause of failure of the young plants of grass is 
because the land is not made rich enough with properly selected 
manures to maintain their vigorous growth. 
(To be continued.) 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Horse Labour .—The weather has been very suitable for ploughing 
and pressing the Clover leas on dry soils for Wheat, because, although 
the late rains have been rather heavy for the strong flat-lying soils 
with a fallow surface, the greater portion of these soils intended for 
Wheat have been seeded before this date. Still, it is not too late if 
the weather should prove open and dry enough to drill the Wheat 
and work it off, and complete the work simultaneously ; and this is 
really necessary in the month of November, for the records of our 
climate in this month are that slight morning frosts or rains prevail, 
both of which cause a delay of the operations of seeding for Wheat, 
and the work consequent upon it. Where the land is composed of 
dry loams, gravel, or sandy loam, the first fortnight in November is a 
good time for drilling Wheat, and especially if the land is in a high 
state of cultivation and situated in a warm and sheltered district. 
There is no fear of the Wheat becoming what is termed winter-proud 
if sown in November. It is, however, quite necessary to sow from 
to 3 bushels of seed at this time of the year, as the small birds and 
rooks are very likely to search for the grain when it shows the first 
blade, and they destroy much of it, especially after ordinary drilling, 
as the seed lies near the surface ; but when the seed is deposited by 
the press drill it falls into the grooves formed by the rings of the 
presser, and is consequently buried a good depth under the surface, 
and is not so likely to be injured by the birds. The extra seed we 
advise is especially necessary, too, upon farms on an estate where 
the home farmer is called upon to conduct his operations when game 
is preserved thereon, particularly where rabbits prevail, for in this 
case there are frequently a large number of rats, which shelter them¬ 
selves in the banks and burrows, and we have known large areas of 
Wheat destroyed by them, as they search for the grain as soon as 
germination commences. These, together with rabbits, are a sad 
nuisance where encouraged to any extent. We, however, do not 
object to rabbits being preserved and reared for profit upon rough 
and waste lands, but they should be confined by wire-net fencing 
