JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
May 17, 1883. ] 
FRUIT. 
s. d. s. d. 
Apples. 4 sieve 2 nto7 o 
.per barrel 20 0 40 0 
Apricots. rioz. 0 0 0 0 
Cherries. 4 sieve no 0 0 
Chestnuts. bushel 10 0 12 0 
Currants, Black.. 4 sieve 0 0 0 0 
„ Red.... 4 sieve 0 0 0 0 
Figs. dozen 0 0 0 0 
Filberts. ft. 0 0 0 0 
Cobs. 1001b. 0 0 0 0 
Gooseberries .... 4 sieve 0 0 0 0 
s. d. s. d 
Grapes . ft. 4 0to8 0 
Lemons. case 10 0 20 0 
Nectarines. dozen 0 0 0 0 
Oranges . 100 0 0 10 0 
Peaches . dozen 18 0 21 0 
Pears,kitchen .. dozen 0 0 0 0 
dessert. dozen 0 0 00 
Pine Apples, English lb. 1 0 2 0 
Raspberries. ft. 0 0 0 0 
Strawberries .... lb- 4 0 0 0 
POULTRY AND PIGEON CHRONICLE. 
PLOUGHING-IN OR FEEDING GREEN CROPS. 
(Continued from page 395.) 
As we have given so much space to a description not only of 
the results of the system of ploughing-in green crops, as well as 
the system of consuming them on the land by sheep, and the 
results, we shall now lay before our readers a statement show¬ 
ing the mode of carrying out plans of close cropping upon 
soils in general, but particularly upon those hill farms which 
we have previously alluded to. This is based upon our own 
knowledge and observation as to their capabilities under varying 
circumstances, although the breeding flocks or sheep of any kind 
may be dispensed with, and rotations laid out for the purposes 
of fertilising the land almost wholly by the ploughing-in of 
green crops, as distinguished from the old custom of feeding 
them on the land by sheep. By acting upon the principle of 
growing all you can and selling all you grow, except those green 
and root crops which may be ploughed-in, and also excepting 
such portions of the crops which may be required for feeding 
farm horses, and when other animals are kept, also dairy cows, 
fatting bullocks, and swine, the exceptions being made in con¬ 
sequence of any water meadows or pastures which may be 
attached to the holding 0 , remembering at the same time that 
many farms among the hills have little or no pasture lands 
except poor downs. 
To illustrate our ideas we will introduce a farm of 800 acres, 
similar to the one chosen to illustrate a sheep-breeding farm by 
Mr. E. P. Squarey before mentioned. These, especially in 
Wiltshire, are usually long and narrow ; the house and chief 
buildings lying in the vale, the arable lands running in a long 
parallelogram over the hills, where they meet other farms, which 
extend to the next valley. Thi3 arrangement insures a fair dis¬ 
tribution of the various qualities of soil. The lowest portions 
of the farm usually form irrigate! meadows or pasture 0 , and 
those fields lying immediately next to them comprise arable 
land of a superior character. The next division is lighter land, 
but good for Wheat, Barley, Sainfoin, and Clover. On the hills, 
however, we frequently find a thin soil, having been formerly 
down ; but sometimes the hill land is the strongest on the farm, 
especially in the counties of Hants and D >rset. We will suppose 
the farm we intend to set out for cropping and details of 
management to contain—of home land, 100 acres; field arable, 
450 acres ; hill arable, either very light or rather strong land as 
the case may be, 200 acres ; water meadows, 30 acres ; dry 
pasture in the vale, 20 acres—total, 800 acres. 
We will deal first with the home land, and set it out in a 
three-course rotation of (1) Wheat, (2) Lent Corn, (3) Pulse, 
or part root crops. This land, although the cropping may 
417 
be called severe, yet is in the vale and near the homestead, 
from whence yard dung can be laid out with little expense of 
cartage ; therefore the pulse crops may be taken for sale or for 
consumption with the roots by horses, cattle, or pigs, near to 
where they are grown, and the land manured chiefly from the 
homestead for Wheat. In preparing the Wheat stubbles for Lent 
corn of the following year, as fast as the Wheat is cut and set 
up the land should be ploughed between the shocks or stooks, 
and sown daily broadcast with mixed Turnip and Cole seed 
(not dwarf Rape), and manured with 3 cwt. of bone super¬ 
phosphate per acre only, because this will prove a beneficial 
manure as distinguished from the nitrogen, potash, and phosphoric 
acid supplied by the green and root crops ploughed in, or as soon 
as the Wheat crop is carted a portion may be scarified and 
drilled with the Giant or St. John’s Day Rye, also manured 
with superphosphate, which, by the time for sowing Lent corn 
in March or April, will generally yield a satisfactory bulk for 
ploughing in ; whilst the portion sown with Turnip and Cole 
seed will continue to grow in open weather until the seed time 
arrives for the Lent corn, and after the greens and seed stems 
are run up, a large bulk of green manure will in most seasons 
be ready for ploughing in. The best corn to be sown may be 
either Oats or Barley, whichever in practice may be found most 
suitable to the soil. In the third or last course, this division 
being fine productive land, one-third may be seeded with winter 
Beans and winter Vetches mixed, another third may be seeded 
with Trifolium, and followed by roots or Mustard for ploughing 
in, and the remainder may be autumn-tilled for early seeding 
with Mangold, to be carted off and stored for the cattle, &c., at 
the homestead, and the land all sown with Wheat and manured 
from the farmyard either before or after the sowing and harvest¬ 
ing of the pulse or root crops as may be most convenient. 
The next division, called field arable, extends over 450 acres. 
We will take 100 acres of the highest land and lay into Sainfoin 
to be mown and sold for hay, and which will remain for many 
years in a productive state if drilled at 14 inches apart and kept 
clean by horse-hoeing, &c., because there will be no sheep to eat 
out the crowns of the plants, and thus oblige the ploughing-up 
and cropping the land as usual at the end of four years. In the 
present case the crop will be mowed annually for hay, with a 
dressing of nitrate of soda applied, if necessary, every spring. 
The remaining 350 acres will be farmed on a three-course rotation, 
the land not being intended to be manured with farmyard dung, 
or only partially so. The rotation to be—first, Wheat ; second, 
Lent corn ; third, Clovers, &c., after the Wheat, which will be 
prepared for in the third course, as hereafter mentioned. As soon 
as the Wheat crop is cleared off the stubbles should as soon as 
possible be steam-cultivated or scarified only, and the land seeded, 
one half with common Turnips and Cole seed mix^d, the other 
half with Giant Rye, the whole to be manured with 3 cwt. of 
superphosphate per acre, as it is intended to produce crops for 
ploughing in as manure for the Lent corn, either of Oats or 
Barley as may be best suited to the soil. The last course will con¬ 
sist of Clovers, &c., to have been seeded for in the Lent corn, one 
half to consist of red Clover and Giaut Sainfoin mixed, the other 
half to be the long-haulmed Dutch and Alsike Clovers mixed, 
which will be alternated at the end of three years, both crops to 
be mown for hay to be sold off the farm, the second crop of red 
Clover, &c., to be ploughed in and pressed at the time of coming 
into bloom as manure for Wheat. The second growth after the 
hay crop of Dutch Clover, &c., to remain and be ploughed in also 
if the growth is promising ; if not, the land to be ploughed and 
seeded for Turnips or Mustard to be ploughed in for Wheat 
likewise. 
We have now to deal with 200 acres called “ Hill Arable,” pro¬ 
bably of mixed soil, and for the most part strong, with subsoil of 
chalk. This division will be cropped on a four-course rotation— 
Wheat, green crops, Lent corn, and Clover. The preparation 
for Lent corn will be commenced by seeding the Wheat stubbles 
with Trifolium immediately aiter harvest, or otherwise Mustard, 
to be sown in the spring, both of which will be ploughed in, with 
3 cwt. of superphosphate applied, and the land seeded for com¬ 
mon Turnips or Mustard, both to be ploughed in aud the land 
sown early with Lent corn, Oats or drege preferred. The third 
course will be Clover, seeded for in the Leut corn, one-half of the 
lain to be Red Clover and Giant Sainfoin mixed, the other half to 
be Long-haulm Dutch and Alsike, all to be cut as hay for sale, the 
aftergrowth of both crops to be ploughed in for manure. In case 
of failure, however, of either portion it should be cropped with 
Mustard or common Turnips broken down and ploughed in early 
and pressed, thus giving the land time to settle and become stale 
and mellow, for on the hills it should be sown the first on the 
farm, and of the red hardy sorts, like Golden Drop or the Red 
