JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
May 10, 1883. ] 
395 
adopted on such a farm of 800 acres. He says—‘-'The lower por¬ 
tions of the farm usually form irrigated meadows or pastures, 
and the land immediately lying next to them, consisting of 
100 acres, comprise arable lands of a very superior character, 
producing at frequent intervals Wheat, Barley, and Turnips of 
good quality. The next division includes what is called the field 
arable land, which is weaker in staple, but is especially adapted 
for Wheat, Barley, and stock, and answers promptly and grate¬ 
fully to a liberal application of manure. The next and last 
portion, that called down arable, is of a still lighter description, 
except that in some instances this is, together with the remaining 
portion of down pasture, the strongest land on the farm, par¬ 
ticularly in the counties of Hants and Dorset; and the proportion 
which it ought to bear to the arable is one of the vexed questions 
of Wiltshire agriculture.” 
Although written in 1861 the statement by Mr. Squarey gives 
only the result of feeding the flock entirely upon the green and 
root crops and hay as applies to Wiltshire for the most part, yet 
we find Mr. Darby in his essay referring to Dorset county states— 
“ The expense of feeding stuffs and artificial manures alone upon 
the best-farmed districts amounts to from 25s. to 30s. per acre per 
annum, and the labour bill also is large.” He further states, Mr. 
Cains of Chiselborne gives it as his experience that but for the 
extensive use of oilcake he could not make a profit. “ I must 
make four rents out of my farm in order to make it pay,” states 
Mr. K-, and moreover, he declares, “the wear and tear of iron 
on it alone costs me £100 per annum.” If, then, the farmers’ 
revenue has been greatly augmented by realising from larger 
flocks and more productive corn crops, it should not be forgotten 
that his outlay has increased in the same proportion. If his 
prospects are bettered his risks also are heightened. If he labours 
for grand results the work requires the exercise of skill and enter¬ 
prise of no mean kind, but his profits must of necessity be slow 
and liable to great fluctuations. 
These statements go far to show that if four rents are to be 
made before it can answer, that the amount of one rent is in¬ 
vested, and frequently more, previous to its accomplishment. 
When it is further considered that the whole of the sheep stock 
on the farm and the purchased food, also the dead stock and 
implements required, together with the heavy labour bills conse¬ 
quent upon what is called attendance on the flock, is a serious 
investment connected with the sheep-breeding and feeding system. 
In some cases it amounts to 40 or 45 per cent., and never less 
than 30 to 35 per cent., on the capital employed for and in con¬ 
ducting the farming business in these districts. The interest to 
be charged upon so large an investment', s one of the causes 
which has induced us to take up the present subject, and endea¬ 
vour to ascertain if some mode of farming these hill districts 
cannot be found, yielding as much or more profit than the best 
systems of sheep farming. In attempting to show this, which we 
hope to do in our next week’s paper, we hope at any rate to have 
the satisfaction of inducing the home farmer to think over the 
subject carefully, and also induce the landowners to think that 
while such large amounts of capital are required to farm their 
land in times of depression, that much land must of necessity 
remain untenanted, 
(To be continued.) 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Horse Labour .—Horses have been nearly constantly employed, for 
although we have been benefited by some fine rains, yet the pastures 
laid up for hay have been rolled when the tillage land was too damp 
for free working. The time for planting Potatoes is now over, still 
if any remain to be set they would if planted now come up quickly 
as the land is moist and also of hij.h temperature, so that their 
growth and progress wou d be insured, and therefore the latest sorts 
may produce a good crop if the land is well manured. The seed 
time for Mangolds still cmtinues favourable, for the land is every¬ 
where moist enough to vegetate the seed at once as soon as planted 
or drilled ; it is favourable, too. this yar for planting in the stetch, 
the dung being buried in the centre. If artificial manures have been 
ridged-in, the hand-dibbling of the seed answers as well or better than 
the drill. We have, however, found the work answer a good pur¬ 
pose where the hand drill used for garden purposes has been used, 
and run along on the top of the stetches ; the same with Carrots, for 
when the land is stetched at 18 inches apart between the lines and 
artificial manures are applied the horse-hoeing can be done at a much 
earlier date than when drilled on the flat. 
Where roots are required for cattle before the Mangolds are ready, 
it is a common practice to sow some Imperial Swede seed with them, 
for when the Swedes are sown at this early period they will ripen 
early and be ready a month earlier for cattle-feeding. In the same 
way Kohl Rabi or Cabbage may be obtained ; in fact, it is always best 
to have some beds of Cabbage plants of the Champion Drumhead 
variety ready for planting amongst the Mangold or other root crops, 
our plan being to plant with the spade, introduced at an angle of 45°, 
and on being lifted up partly the plants are introduced at the back of 
the spade before the spade is removed. In this way they are not 
only much more likely to start well, but they always make larger 
heads, and plants of a much larger and stronger size. This work is 
done best by men to use the spado and women to introduce the plants. 
The Clover seeds should have been sown at the time of seeding the 
Lent corn, if it has not been done; the weather has lately been 
favourable for seeding either in the Wheat after Potatoes or Lent 
corn after roots fed off. The late rains have been favourable to the 
early growth of the young Clovers, and the Italian Rye Grass is now 
fit to cut in some cases. The dairy cows should now have some in 
their racks when they come in to be milked. The odd horse or mule 
will now be employed in carting grass, &c., for the cattle and horses, 
for the forwardest Trifolium will soon be fit. 
Live Stock .—The young cattle in the boxes may have Italian Rye 
Grass at once with their usual allowance of cake and bean meal. 
2 or 3 lbs. of cake and 1 lb. of bean meal per day in the meal state, 
mixed with a small quantity of Mangolds cut with Gardner’s cutter, 
will prevent waste between the intervals of grass-feeding. The 
young heifers, too, intended for the dairy in the future may have 
grass cut up round the borders and hedges, and will do remarkably 
well upon it; and in the sandy loam soils in the enclosed districts 
the grass is not only valuable for feeding cattle, but breeding sows in 
the yards also, as any young stems of wood if not eaten will tread 
into manure ; and the borders may be cut the second time in the first 
week of July, and answer an excellent purpose, because it not only 
furnishes food to pay for cutting, but it effectually keeps down the 
weeds. Where the hedges are trimmed the borders are kept in a 
cleanly state, and the hedges and ditches also. 
We know a farmer who keeps a milk-selling dairy of twenty cows, 
which during the summer have little other grass than that afforded 
by the banks and borders, but the cows have 4 lbs. of cotton cake 
per day each ; but the wood growth is cut close, and therefore 
cut each time with the grass, Cow Parsley, Hogweed, &c., and no 
complaint is made of the quality of the milk. Large stores of Man¬ 
golds in many cases still remain for feeding the fatting bullocks in 
the boxes; but when they draw near to the close a few should be 
retained for mixing with the cake where the cattle go upon Trifolium 
or Clover and other grasses. It is a good plan, too, to insure a fair 
succession of Clover to cut a portion of the crop early, so that the 
second cutting may be early also, and fit in between the other grasses 
for horse and cattle-feeding ; but it should be also remembered that 
when the early, the second early, and the latest varieties of Trifolium 
are cultivated the supply will extend into the month of July, and be 
the means of saving the Clover crop all round for hay. This is im¬ 
portant where much stock is kept for the winter, or where the hay is 
cut and made for sale. In the case of buying breeding swine we 
recommend the purchase of Berkshire sows of the purest type, and 
for mating with them boars of the largest white Yorkshire type and 
of the purest breed. This cross will give all the benefits to be 
derived from swine-breeding. 
SOIL EXHAUSTION—SPECIAL WANTS OF SPECIAL 
CROPS. 
(Continuedfrom j )a 9 e 354.) 
Over the largest part of the kingdom hay generally follows com. 
In some places Clover alone is grown; in others, a mixture of 
Clover and grasses; in others, grass alone. Perhaps those who 
grow Clover only have good reasons for so doing; but when the 
special wants of plants are attended to it will be found that a mix¬ 
ture of grasses and Clover produces more hay. Indeed, the grass may 
he looked upon almost as an addition to the crop, for each requires 
such different soil-conditions so far as their food is concerned that 
the one hardly interferes with the other. When hardly enough of 
the food each wants is present less than a full crop will be reaped, 
but by growing both together instead of separately this may he 
accomplished. 
A heavy grain crop leaves the soil deficient in nitrogen and gene¬ 
rally in phosphoric acid, unless phosphates have been liberally applied 
to the grain. Grasses, however—all grains are grasses—require these 
very things, and poor crops will follow unless they can find these 
substances in sufficient quantities. Hence the reason of so many 
farmers growing Clover hay unmixed with grass. Clover, though 
notably rich in nitrogen itself, either does not want that element 
from the soil as Ville maintains, or uses such compounds containing 
it that grasses will not touch. Then, though it needs phosphoric 
acid, it seems to have a particular power of attacking those com¬ 
pounds of it in the soil which refuse to give up their phosphorus to 
grain crops. Give it available potash, and the soil is poor that will 
not produce one crop of Clover or other leguminous plant—Lucern, 
Sainfoin, Beans, Peas, and Vetches. 
When Clover alone is grown potash salts—the chloride or kainit 
are generally used—alone will supply on ordinary soils all that is 
