December 14, 1882. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 561 
WORK ON THE HOME EARM. 
Much time has been spent in horse labour lately in carting and 
storing the Mangold crop, which is now generally completed ; and on 
those farms where the couch has been carefully heaped in readiness 
for the purposes of bottoming the farmyard or flooring the cattle and 
pig pens, it has been almost the only work which could be done with 
advantage and without displacing other more important work on the 
home farm during the stormy weather of the past three or four weeks. 
Still, at some drying intervals a few acres of Wheat have been sown 
in fair condition as regards the face of the land in burying the seed 
and finishing the work ; but with the weather which has since been 
deplorably wet it is impossible to say how much seed will perish, 
especially upon some irregular and mixed soils. 
Hand Labour .—Men have lately been employed in various ways, 
such as filling the couch into carts for purposes as above stated. We 
have lately employed some of the men to examine the draining on 
meadow land, where the appearance indicated partial stoppage of the 
pipes. The same has been done on the arable land, and at the same 
time where a new or fresh drain is required it has been marked out 
for doing the first opportunity. On some fields on the mixed soils 
there will, after such a succession of wet seasons as we have had, be 
a few bunches of couch left; but this work may now be done by 
either women or old infirm men by using the three-grained fork. 
This, however, should not be delayed, but ought always to be done 
before the roots are fed off, as, after the sheep have trodden it into 
the land, it is difficult to see it, and more so to lift it without leaving 
portions in the land. It is also desirable wherever Mangold, Carrots, 
Cabbages, or any roots have been removed from the land that it 
should be looked over, and any grass and Docks, &c., forked out 
before attempting to plough or seed the land. 
Live Stock .—The dairy cows will now require much attention in 
various ways, for on pastures which are low-lying the tread of the 
cattle is very injurious for either early grass or to lay up for hay next 
spring. The cows in milk should, therefore, get some of the Drum¬ 
head Savoy Cabbages in their pens or stalls night and morning, with 
a run during the daytime on very dry pasture or old lea ground. 
They should have also at the mangers 3 or 4 tbs. of decorticated cotton 
cake, and chaff of sweet Oat straw mixed with meadow hay. But one 
thing must not be forgotten—that every animal should have access 
to rock salt in their manger, as it is a great assistance in keeping up 
the flow of milk. The horned ewes and lambs have done well lately, 
although the weather has been so wet, with the exception of an in¬ 
crease of foot rot and epidemic lameness, for as the lambs run on to a 
fresh fold every day they can find a clean lair in it, whereas the ewes 
when fed in troughs with cut roots will find clean food ; yet in lying 
back they have space enough to choose a lair, and in dirty weather 
like what has prevailed lambs will choose their lair in advance, but 
run through the lamb gate to suck, and return again to their fold. 
The tegs or haggs, as they are called, if properly trough-fed with 
sufficient roots and hay, with cake in addition, will be doing well; 
but in the event of any misfortune by loss of the root crops from 
frost, &c., it may reach a disaster, as so much money is invested in 
their cost. 
TUSSOCKS AND MOLES IN PASTURES. 
We have a field of old pasture which until this year has been 
good fine grass land, but this autumn the greater part of it is be¬ 
coming covered with coarse tussocks of useless grass, of which I 
enclose a specimen. The field was dressed with lime and earth a 
year and a half ago. It is grazed, and at haymaking time any 
parts that seem to require it are gone over with the scythe. Our 
neighbours assure us that the cause of the deterioration of the field 
is moles, of which there certainly are many traces both old and 
recent exactly in that portion of the field which is now covered 
with objectionable tussocks. Is it likely that this is the true 
reason, and what do you recommend us to do ?— Robeston. 
[When the tussocks of coarse grasses prevail on old pasture land 
they often indicate that the land is too wet on the surface, although 
not requiring to be drained ; yet on strong clay soils the surface 
may be relieved of superfluous water by a few open trenches, 
which are undoubtedly beneficial. These tufts of coarse grass 
may be cut up with the turf-cutter, and either burned or used for 
litter in yards or cattle pens. If burned the ashes may be spread 
with benefit on the land where the tussocks prevailed. There 
is another cause of tussocks. Frequently in sheep-feeding the 
animals will eat out the white Dutch Clover and finer grasses, 
causing them to die out, and as the cattle refuse the coarser sort 
of grasses they will then form into tussocks, which sheep and cattle 
will both refuse. If, however, such grass land were fed off by cattle 
only, the finest grasses and Clovers would be likely to hold their 
own against the encroachments of tussocks, especially if manured. 
We do not think that moles would produce the coarse grass 
unless it is indigenous to the soil thrown up by them, in which 
case it would be advisable to trap the moles and prevent them 
throwing up any subsoil. Our opinion tends to the belief that 
the moles may be allowed to work even with benefit if the hills 
thrown up were spread about once or twice in a week. In 
the month of July or August 10 lt»3. of permanent white Clover 
seed may be sown and chain-harrowed in, and if the land is strong 
4 cwts. of bone superphosphate may be applied per acre. If, how¬ 
ever, the land is gravelly or sandy white Clover and yellow Suck¬ 
ling may be sown in admixture, and 2 cwts. of nitrate of soda or 
3 cwts. of best Peruvian guano applied per acre. We incline to 
the opinion that constant feeding has impoverished the land, and 
if sheep have not been grazing thereon that the best Clovers and 
grasses have died ; therefore, in the case of fresh seeds being sown 
and manure applied, it may be well the next summer to take a crop 
of hay to encourage the growth of the best grasses and newly sown 
seed plants. But at any rate, when the tussocks have got posses¬ 
sion they must be removed before any better grasses will have 
any chance to get a footing. It is a good plan in pastures to em¬ 
ploy an old man with a barrow at low wages to continually attend 
to and remove twice a week all the droppings of the cattle to a 
heap of earth made to receive them, and form a compost to apply 
as manure to the pasture in the winter. The same man may then 
at intervals spread the molehills.] 
SUNDAY POULTRY SHOWS. 
A long- list of poultry shows which either extend over Sunday, 
or, which is practically the same thing, close on Saturday night, 
draws our attention to the subject. We have before animadverted 
upon this, as it seems to us, very inadvisable arrangement. The 
present is a fitting opportunity for again stating our objections to 
it. They are, roughly speaking, that the protraction of a show 
over a Sunday interferes with some of the special conditions which 
make any such exhibition useful and successful. We will give 
them seriatim. 
1, The first object of every show is, of course, to enable the 
public to see and learn what good and pure-bred poultry are, and 
to enable fanciers to compare their specimens. The artificial re¬ 
straint of a pen, and all the turmoil involved in an exhibition, 
confe=sedly do the birds exhibited no good, and are liable, if great 
care is not taken, to do them some harm. All experienced exhi¬ 
bitors know that much depends upon the length of shows, and 
know to their cost that long shows are very prejudicial, especially 
to young birds. We believe that few fowls suffer at all from occa¬ 
sional exhibitions at one-day shows, and probably not many from 
the ordinary two-days, but directly they are confined for three or 
four days it is far otherwise, and every day seems to add greatly 
to their fatigue. Now this being the case, it is obviously useless 
and mischievous to keep them confined during a whole day which, 
from the custom of this country, cannot be one of public exhibition. 
So much fresh air and exercise is lost to the birds, and nobody 
gains thereby. We must not, however, take it for granted that 
there is often absolutely no reason for the arrangement. There 
may be in particular places special obstacles to the only show¬ 
room being spared on other days than Saturday and Monday. 
This is hardly likely to be frequently the case. The ordinary 
reason, however, given for it is that shows on Saturday evening 
pay. The working classes, it is said, then have money, and spend 
it in coming to exhibitions which they otherwise would not enter. 
There is some truth in this, and nowadays, when the promoters 
of all such undertakings have much financial difficulty, it is not to 
be disregarded. We contend, however, that so detrimental is long 
confinement to exhibited poultry that even this inducement should 
not have weight with show committees. If people will not come 
to a show on other evenings than Saturday they are not likely to be 
a class who take real interest in it or are likely to be benefited by it. 
2, Not only is confinement trying to poultry, but still more so 
are long journeys and exposure. All should be done that may 
make their transit to and fro as easy and expeditious as possible. 
Satarday nights and Monday mornings never favour locomotion, 
and have in our own experience often proved specially disastrous 
to travelling fowls. It is not long since we exhibited at a show 
which closed on a Saturday evening. There was a clause in the 
schedule to the effect that all exhibitors might have their birds 
fed and taken care of in the show room till Monday morning. 
We naturally signified our wish to avail ourselves of the permis¬ 
sion. The birds ought, therefore, to have started on the return 
journey early on the Monday ; great was our astonishment to find 
them before mid-day waiting at our station, very remote indeed 
from the place of show. They had been turned out on the Satur¬ 
day night, had waited here and there through Sunday, and, 
needless to say, were none the better for their travels. This is 
