174 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 
[ August 19, 1880. 
conceived through the experiments of Messrs. Lawes and Gilbert, 
who for a long series of years have proved the possibility of grow¬ 
ing the same kind of crops upon the same soil annually. We 
have in consequence introduced and taken notice of the practice 
of Messrs. Prout and Middleditch, for the purpose of removing 
all impressions from the mind of the home farmer as to the actual 
necessity of change of crops, unless it is to obtain some such 
advantages as the rearing and feeding of cattle and sheep on the 
home farm. 
Having referred to the rotations adapted and applicable under 
varying circumstances to heavy and flat-lying soils we now pro¬ 
pose to refer to the mixed loamy soils, which are usually undulat¬ 
ing. We find clays as a subsoil varying from strong and tenacious 
to a mild and marly brick earth, with surfaces varying from a 
kind of sandy loam to a friable hazel loam. These soils, notwith¬ 
standing the strength of the subsoil, are capable of being cropped 
in a different way from table lands, as instanced by a farm we 
occupied for many years, which we cropped in rather a peculiar 
manner, with the twofold object of growing corn, pulse, roots, 
grass, &c., and to provide for a heavy stock, both of cattle and 
sheep. In describing the system of cropping pursued we will 
again take a farm of 200 acres of arable land. The cropping is, 
correctly speaking, a five-course ; we will therefore take one 
year’s cropping of the whole 200 acres in divisions of 40 acres 
each, as we used to crop and cultivate them. The first division 
consisted of 40 acres of Wheat grown after Clover lea, pulse, and 
root crops in part, which will be more fully described in the fifth 
division. The second division of 40 acres was cropped, 20 acres 
with Oats, either winter Oats or white Canadians, and followed by 
stubble Turnips sown between the shocks ; and 20 acres of Oats and 
Barley mixed as drege corn, and succeeded by an autumn fallow. 
The third division of 40 acres, cropped 20 acres with Mangold after 
stubble Turnips fed off by sheep eating cake, &c., and 20 acres of 
Potatoes planted after an autumn and winter fallow. The fourth 
division of 40 acres, cropped with Wheat and part Lent corn, 
according to circumstances of the season, &c„ 20 acres of Wheat 
after Mangold pulled off for box-feeding of cattle, &c., and 20 acres 
of Lent com sown after Potatoes, which were sometimes sown 
with Turnips also as a double crop, the Potatoes being sold and 
the Turnips pulled off for feeding sheep and cattle. In the year 
1860 the Potatoes proved a full crop, and the Turnips weighed 
28 tons per acre. The fifth and last division of 40 acres cropped 
with Clover, pulse, and Turnips, &c.; 20 acres of Clover and 
Giant Saintfoin seeded in the Wheat, grown after Mangold, 
10 acres of Beans and Peas mixed, or with Beans and roots as 
a double crop, and 10 acres cropped with Trifolium of three sorts, 
and part Vetches, all sown in autumn, and followed in the spring 
by Swedish Turnips, common Turnips, Cabbages, &c. In this 
five-course rotation the crops succeed each other during the five 
years in the same way as in the five divisions, excepting the 
alternation of Clover and pulse crops. And in this way the 
annual produce will be—of Wheat GO acres, Lent corn GO acres, 
pulse 10 acres, Clover 20 acres, Potatoes 20 acres, root crops 
50 acres, and green fodder crops 10 acres. In conclusion it will 
be observed that not only a large acreage of sale crops are grown 
in this last rotation, but a large provision is made and secured 
for the feeding of cattle and sheep, and thus maintaining the 
fertility of the land, but also keeping the land clean by the 
constant work and cultivation, and quick succession of crops, 
giving the opportunity to keep under the couch and weeds at a 
little expense chiefly by forking out by hand labour. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Horse Labour .—During the impediment to harvest work which has 
continued at intervals up to the time we are writing, the horse labour 
of the farm must have been various and of a jobbing character. 
Unless a favourable change takes place in the weather it will be im¬ 
possible to continue the work of the reaping and binding machine, 
because the Wheat cannot be cut and tied when the straw is damp 
or wet without risk of serious injury to the grain. These observa¬ 
tions apply with equal force to reaping of any kind, whether by 
machine with hand tiers to follow, or by hand labour. In every 
case when corn is to be tied into sheaves whether of Wheat, Oats, 
or Barley, it should not be cut faster than it can be tied. The 
question of tying is of great importance, especially in a wet or 
showery harvest, for in case the corn is cut and tied at intervals 
whilst the straw is dry, and it is properly set up in shocks of a 
moderate size, only a portion of the grain can be injured. Laying 
out and spreading dung either from the farmyard or cattle boxes 
ought to be done during intervals of obstruction to harvest work. 
Stubble Turnips may now be sown daily as fast as the corn is cut, 
and as soon as the crop is set up in shock on one-third of the land 
the other two-thirds may be ploughed and sown with Turnip seed 
every evening, and finished off whilst the ground is soft and moist, 
leaving the other third whereon the crop is standing to be sown after 
harvesting the corn. Sowing Trifolium should also be done imme¬ 
diately after the stubble Turnip seed is sown, for the slugs being 
the greatest enemy we have to fear, the sooner the seed can be sown 
the more likely it is to evade their depredations. Although the best 
way is to sow the Trifolium seed and harrow it in on the surface, yet 
this plan does not secure it against the slugs as well as shallow 
ploughing, for that disturbs the slugs. Ploughing shallow also gives 
an opportunity for dragging out any lumps of couch or onion grass 
which may be found. We recommend all three sorts of Trifolium to 
be sown—the early crimson blossom, the second early pink blossom, 
and the latest of all the perfect white blossom. 
Hand Labour .—This will now consist principally of attending the 
harvesting of the different corn crops, such as setting up the corn 
into shocks as fast as it is cut and bound by the reaping and binding 
machine, or otherwise, in the absence of machinery. Hand labour 
will be employed in cutting, tying, and setting-up, and this is com¬ 
monly done by the acre, giving an opportunity for the men to employ 
their wives and families in assisting and earning more money to their 
common advantage. When the corn is too wet for cutting there will 
be hoeing and singling late-sown Turnips to be done ; the mowing of 
second crops of Clover may be done at such times, and early in the 
morning whilst heavy dews prevail. Trimming the quickset hedges 
too may be done at intervals, especially in those cases where the 
borders and ditches have been cut, and the grass carried away for 
feeding cattle, pigs, &c., in the yards. Men should also be at work 
preparing straw and piling it away for use in thatching the corn and 
hayricks. We must again advise the home farmer to use every 
endeavour to obtain a man capable of thatching the ricks as a regular 
labourer upon the farm. Just at this time it will have to be decided 
as to what portion of the second growth of Clover shall be cut for 
hay or left for seed, and there are various circumstances likely to 
occur and too numerous to mention here which must eventually 
decide the question, and in this case the judgment of the home 
farmer will be necessary in deciding the course to be pursued. Shep¬ 
herds will now require great caution in all districts where low-lying 
meadows or irrigated meadows prevail, because it will be dangerous 
to feed the sheep entirely upon such pastures only, and at the same 
time allow them to remain thereon at night time; for after the 
serious losses of last year by the fluke rot in sheep we advise that 
the grass land alluded to be not fed at all by sheep; but in case 
there is a necessity for feeding some parkland pastures even these 
are dangerous, unless the precaution is taken to give the sheep a 
liberal allowance of oilcake and cracked Beans, and allow them to 
retire for the night to an arable field producing Clover, Saintfoin, or 
the mixed grasses, or otherwise Vetches and tall Rape, or early 
Turnips, Cabbages, &c., with rock salt always within reach. This 
generous and mixed system of feeding, together with the dry land 
night quarters, will generally keep the animals sound, although 
whilst feeding a few hours daily in park lands they may possibly 
take into the system the entozoa or fluke egg. Let it be borne in 
mind that we cannot trust to this mode of feeding entirely if the 
sheep run upon grass land lately flooded, nor yet to the irrigated or 
low-lying meadows. Cattle now have abundance of grass feeding 
where the changes of pasture has been attended to properly. It is 
important, however, where grass may be short that the dairy cows 
may receive oilcake with advantage both in the milk and its produce, 
and with benefit to the pastures. 
THE AMERICAN HARVEST. 
Vast as was the cereal product of the States last year, it will 
be greatly exceeded this season, and the whole of the prodigious 
surplus over what the Americans themselves will consume is 
practically bespoken for the English market, for the intelligible 
reason that there alone can it "be always sold at a price. This 
surplus is a very serious fact, of which mere figures give but a 
vague idea. In one of the interesting reports recently contributed 
by Mr. Victor Drummond, Secretary of the Legation at Wash¬ 
ington, with respect to the industry and commerce of the 
United States, he quotes with approval the estimate of the New 
York Bulletin, that the surplus of American Wheat at the close 
of the present harvest may exceed the average requirements of 
Europe by from one hundred million to one hundred and fifty 
million bushels, and naturally enough he adds that this must 
produce exceptionally low prices for breadstuffs. The opinion 
thus given was committed to paper before the end of June, when 
the harvest prospect was as yet uncertain ; but a month later 
served to enlarge the estimate. At the end of July we find an 
eminent New York firm calculating that the harvest of Wheat 
will represent a total of five hundred million bushels, or fifty 
million bushels more than the enormous yield of 1879 ; that the 
Oat crop also will largely exceed that of last year ; and that 
Indian Corn may reach a yield of fifteen hundred million bushels. 
The surplus of Wheat available for Europe over and above what 
sufficed for previous years of average European harvests they put 
at two hundred and thirty-three million bushels. Now, the 
entire export of Wheat from the States in the twelve months 
ending the 30th of June last was in round numbers one hundred 
