November 30,1882. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 513 
yellow, or what we term beeswax, clay. It has during the past 
thirty years been fairly well tile or pipe-drained, and has borne 
fair crops of Wheat, Oats, and Clover when the seasons were 
favourable. It was always very heavy tillage, but during the 
past twenty-five years it has nearly all been chalked with a heavy 
dressing of upwards of 30 tons per acre, and greatly improved 
thereby. This statement is made with the view of showing that 
the basis favourable both for tillage and pasture had been laid by 
draining and chalking. For many years this was farmed on the 
old four-course system of Wheat, Oats, Clover and grass, and a 
winter and summer fallow. As the farm was unsuited for sheep¬ 
feeding, a dairy of cows had been kept, and in its management 
about ten or twelve years ago some of the fields only needed for 
hay crops with mixed Clovers and Eye Grass were left to become 
pasture and fed entirely by cows. Yery little grass food was 
obtained, and, never receiving any manure, the Clovers died out 
and were succeeded by the Carex or Carnation Blue Grass, with 
some other worthless sorts, amongst which was the Black Bent, 
and Fiorin or Water Grass. But what made the land lie colder 
was that it was left in ridges 84 feet wide, the same as it was laid 
when in tillage. This circumstance alone did injury, and seriously 
impeded the prospect of obtaining a permanent turf, especially as 
it was fed off by dairy cows living only upon what they could 
obtain in these fields and some poor meadows, without ever 
obtaining any cake or corn, and in the winter time getting but 
little else besides straw or inferior meadow hay. 
About seven years ago, however, a change of tenantry occurred 
on the farm, and the present tenant, a most enterprising and prac¬ 
tical farmer, inaugurated an important change in the management 
of these neglected pastures. An improved method of feeding the 
dairy cows was also adopted, which were not only largely increased 
in numbers, but were of the improved Guernsey breed, and main¬ 
tained especially for butter-making purposes, and assisted during 
summer and winter by 4 lbs. of cotton cake daily, in addition to a 
full bite of the best grass in summer, with a liberal allowance of 
Mangolds and good hay in the winter. They were expected to be 
beneficial, and proved profitable in two ways—first by yielding a 
large quantity of the best butter, and secondly by leaving valuable 
dung both on the pastures and in their stalls. When inspecting 
this farm with the present tenant about five years ago we advised 
him, in addition to his liberal mode of feeding the cows, to adopt 
a plan which had succeeded with us on various estates as to the 
manuring, and the plan has been carefully carried out by applying 
yearly about 4 cwt. of bone superphosphate per acre, and by each 
alternate year applying a liberal dressing of not less than 18 or 
20 tons per acre as a compost of earth and farmyard dung, with 
some ashy town dung mixed together in the following manner. 
The earth obtained from various sources, such as roadside earth, 
couch, bank and border earth, and the proceeds of trenching in the 
meadows and ditches, and carted at all leisure times to large heaps 
made just within the fields or at the side of the roads contiguous 
to the pastures where it was intended to be applied, and each heap 
when made had a quantity of dung laid upon it of about one-third 
of its bulk, which was immediately turned up together and care¬ 
fully mixed, and allowed to remain to amalgamate and decay, in 
readiness for laying out on the pastures, which was done in the 
early autumn on part of them in each year as the compost became 
ready and sufficiently decayed and commingled. We viewed this 
farm in the spring of 1879, before the plan of manuring had been 
continued long enough to show its effect; but on going over the 
farm again in the last week of the month of May this year 1882 
we were greatly astonished to find a most extraordinary improve¬ 
ment on all the pastures which had been treated as before described, 
those which had been manured longest showing the best results ; 
for upon two fields which had been the longest under treatment, 
although no seeds of any kind for renovating purposes had been 
sown since the Clovers, &c., had died away, yet there were some 
of the heaviest crops of the best herbage we had ever seen, com¬ 
posed of Yellow Suckling, permanent Ked Clover, and various 
kinds of useful pasture grasses. The weight of the crop for hay ' 
we estimated at 2 tons per acre of the finest quality, for the grasses 
were so thick on the land that they could not grow coarse. This 
was the result entirely of the feeding of cattle with cake and the 
dressings of composts especially adapted for the purpose in every 
way. Not only were the dressings of rich manuring value adapted 
for strong soils, but were also effective in setting the earthworms 
to work, a matter of the highest importance upon this otherwise 
impervious clay soil. At the same time, the earthy compost we 
consider eminently useful in encouraging the appearance and 
growth of the best grasses indigenous to the soil, and this we 
regard as most encouraging to the home farmer. 
In the stocking and cropping of these pastures no sheep had 
ever been allowed to graze upon them, and dairy cows only had 
fed thereon after the hay was cleared. It must also be borne in 
mind that for the three years previous to our last visit hay crops 
had been carried off in each yet r, yet the improvement was as we 
have stated, which is a striking illustration of the wisdom of saving 
the grass for hay, and feed the aftermath only. But after the 
new grasses are thoroughly established we do not object to graze 
with cattle and take a crop of hay in alternate seasons. 
In concluding our remarks we must urge the great importance 
to the home farmer of selecting each kind of seed separately, and 
endeavour to make himself acquainted with the shape and 
characters of them, so that in his own interest he may be able to 
examine and understand, after having ordered the kinds of seed 
which he requires, whether he has obtained them, and that he 
may then have the satisfaction of making his mixtures of seeds in 
his own way. We read in the Journal of the Eoyal Agricultural 
Society of England just issued that mixtures of grasses for'per¬ 
manent pastures have been brought before the notice of the Seed 
Committee of the Eoyal Agricultural Society, and examined by 
their consulting botanist, Mr. W. Carruthers, F.E.S., which had 
been purchased as containing the kinds and proportions of seeds 
recommended by a practical authority in the Society’s Journal^ 
and have been found to contain a large proportion of Eye Grass, 
Yorkshire Fog, and other worthless grasses. Nothing can show 
more forcibly than these facts the actual necessity of the home 
farmer having all his seeds required delivered separately, in order 
that he may not only scrutinise them as to their genuineness, but 
also have the opportunity of mixing them in such proportion of 
sorts as his soil and climate may render necessary in his own 
judgment and experience, or in accord with the experience of the 
most practical men. 
WOEK ON THE HOME FAEM. 
Horse Labour .—In nearly every district in the kingdom the seed¬ 
time for Wheat has been greatly delayed : even upon the hill farms 
and lightest soils the work of much Wheat-sowing has still to be 
done, and what has been done for the most part was succeeded by 
heavy rains in the night or day after seeding, which we know is 
much against the prospect of getting a regular plant of Wheat. 
When, however, we consider the condition of the heavy flat-lying 
soils in any district, seeding the land with Wheat in a satisfactory 
manner has been impossible unless done in September, and unless we 
get an immediate change of fair weather without frost but little 
Wheat will grow on such soils this year. It may be stated that we 
never had any reason to regret it when in the months of February or 
March we have sown what is called April Wheat. It has a bearded 
ear and yields a coarse strong sample of Wheat in the grain. We 
have obtained enormous crops of straw which is generally very stiff 
and strong, being well adapted for thatching farm shedding, ricks of 
hay and corn, and for sale in the towns for littering horses and 
cattle in stalls it is much valued ; the yield of grain, however, is 
sometimes disappointing as to quantity, for the heaviest crops of 
straw seldom reach 40 bushels per acre. The horses have been fully 
employed where the land is high and dry by carting and heaping 
for store the crops of Mangold and Carrots, also in ploughing the 
stubbles to remain during winter. Upon the strong-land farms, how¬ 
ever, the work for the horses for some time has been almost nil as 
