552 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[June 28, 1883. 
labour of rolling and harrowing, preferring to cart the couch away, 
although not quite free from the soil, to large heaps in the corners 
of the fields, so that a large quantity of ashes may be available for 
manuring the land for Wheat, as we consider that 300 bushels of 
stifle-burnt ashes per acre a sufficient dressing on a fallow preparation, 
if applied just previous to the last ploughing, to produce forty bushels 
of Wheat per acre of an average season upon sound loamy soil. 
There will be but little waste time for horse labour on the land 
with average weather, but at all leisure times the horses may be em¬ 
ployed in fetching chalk and heaping in readiness to be applied to 
the land the first opportunity. This is a favourable time for chalk¬ 
carting, as it is at all times heavy carriage; but now the roads are 
firm and the chalk dry it is easier work. In those districts where 
chalk is not to be obtained the question of liming must not be for¬ 
gotten, and if lime is stored at the farm in a dry shed it will then be 
ready when required for the dressing of either pasture or arable land. 
The Wheat fallows may be now cross-ploughed at any interval of 
delay in other tillage work, such as the completion of Turnip-sowing. 
Many farmers will now be carting manure to heap in the field where 
required, especially in case of the land intended for the Wheat crop 
is lying at some distance from the homestead. It is, however, worth 
consideration whether farmyard dung should be drawn long distances 
when we have artificial 'manures of equal efficacy obtainable for 
dressing land for the Wheat crop ; and in such case the advantage of 
ploughing in green crops, such as second-growth Clover, or on a fallow 
surface late Vetches and Turnips, may be further considered as saving 
the long carriage of manure. Upon farms, however, where a large 
flock of sheep are kept, all green and root crops will be fed off on the 
land, and thus prepare the land for Wheat; upon heavy land, how¬ 
ever, where no sheep are kept the system of ploughing in green crops 
has long proved a successful practice ; but in the opinion of many 
farmers the keeping of stock sheep is considered a necessity, but we 
cannot, and do not, acknowledge that as correct, but view the matter 
as it exists as a fashionable style of farming, only practised by the 
majority, without any inquiry as to the benefit to be derived as com¬ 
pared with ploughing in green crops for manure, either on very 
light land or heavy strong soils. 
Hand Labour .—Hoeing and singling the root crops will employ 
men, women, and boys with benefit, if properly directed and super¬ 
intended. Mowing water meadows, too, will be going on, for in 
many cases the mowing machines cannot work amongst those narrow 
beds and numerous water channels and carriers. Hay-making in the 
meadows and pastures should be pushed forward in order that this 
kind of work may not interfere with the harvest for early Peas, 
winter Oat3, as the early White Oats will require cutting probably 
ten days before the general Wheat harvest commences, even in 
southern and eastern counties. 
Cabbages where they have not been on the land may now be planted. 
The first to be planted is the Champion Cattle Cabbage, and next 
the Drumhead Savoy, the latter being the best for milch cows. Our 
plan is to either stetch the land and bury the dung in the centre of 
each stetch, or otherwise to lay the dung out and rake it into every 
third or fourth furrow, and set the plants directly over the manure 
on top of the furrow. Many persons suppose that the planting can¬ 
not be done without injury to the growth of the plants in dry 
weather, which may be true if planted in the usual way with the 
setting stick. For more than twenty years past adopted the plan of 
setting with a light spade introduced at an angle of 45°, with women 
to follow introducing the plants at the back of the spade, the man 
putting his foot on earth adjoining the plant and passing along. This 
plan is well adapted either for dry weather or damp, for the plants 
are buried deeper and feel the moisture from the subsoil immediately. 
While the land is too deep and adheres to the spade it is better than 
the setting stick, which kneads the soil round the plant. Again, in 
case of very large or very small plants they can be buried with re¬ 
gularity in spade-planting, but not so with the setting stick. 
Live Stock .—All the young calves may now lie out at night, but 
it should be upon dry pasture situated above the fog level, which 
often occurs at night time in the neighbourhood of rivers or brooks, 
as it is from this cause that many promising young stock animals 
suffer from the quarter-ill, which is one of the most fatal diseases 
the cattle breeder has to contend with, but it refers especially to the 
heifer calves, as the steers are not so susceptible of this complaint. 
Most of the stock lambs of the various breeds of sheep are now being 
weaned, and they should be well fed out of hearing of their dams, 
and upon the same principle as they have been fed previously in 
advance of the ewes. 
REVIEW OF BOOK. 
Life on the Farm—Plant Life. By Maxwell T. Masters, M.D., 
F.R.S. London : Bradbury, Agnew & Co., 1883. 
The set of seven small volumes edited by Mr. J. C. Morton, 
and called the “ Handbook of the Farm Series,” is intended to 
discuss the cultivation of the farm, its live stock, its cultivated 
plants, farm and estate equipment, the chemistry of agriculture, 
and the processes of animal and vegetable life. The present 
volume, which deals with the phenomena of plant life, has been 
entrusted to Dr. Masters, and could not have been placed in 
better hands. The main facts and processes of vegetable physi¬ 
ology are briefly but clearly described, the chief stress being laid 
on those points which are of special use to the farmer. Where 
necessary these are illustrated by the results of actual experiments. 
Thus, under the head of the Evaporation of Water from the Leaves 
of Plants, and, again, under that of Manures, copious reference 
is made to the long series of experiments carried on by Sir J. B. 
Lawes and Dr. Gilbert at Rothamsted. 
We may take as an illustration of Dr. Masters’ mode of treat¬ 
ment, his remarks on the Principles of Manuring and on the 
Apparent Power of Selection of Plants. The nitrogenous and 
the saline substances, he says, are taken from the soil, used up in 
the plant, and removed in the crop. The annual produce of hay 
on unmanured land at Rothamsted is about 23 cwt. per acre over 
an average of twenty-five years, the range of variation, according 
to season, being from 8 to 39 cwt. The most highly manured 
plot has yielded for the same period an average of 64 cwt. of hay 
per acre, varying in different years from 40 to 80 cwt. The decline, 
not only of produce, but also in mineral and nitrogenous ingre¬ 
dients in the soil, has been most marked in the continuously 
unmanured plots at Rothamsted. To insure continued fertility 
therefore, and to obviate exhaustion, some restitution must be 
made ; and this is effected by the addition at the right time, in 
the right condition, and in the right quantities, of an appropriate 
manure, or the exhaustion may be compensated by suitable rota¬ 
tion. But it has been found experimentally that different crops 
will extract the soluble materials out of the same soil in different 
proportions. Nor is the chemical constitution of the plant a guide 
to the description and amount of manurial constituents which 
will be most effective. Thus Wheat removes more phosphoric 
acid from the soil than does Barley ; but, notwithstanding this, 
the application of phosphates to the soil is more beneficial to 
Barley than to Wheat. Cereal crops and Grasses generally are 
specially benefited by nitrogenous manures, though they contain 
relatively little nitrogen as compared with Clover and other legu¬ 
minous crops, which are nevertheless not particularly benefited 
by nitrogenous manures. Beetroot and Potatoes, again, which 
contain a considerable proportion of potash, are not proportion¬ 
ately benefited by the application of potash manures, though they 
are to some extent. The theoretical explanation of these facts is 
that by virtue of the varying osmotic and digestive powers of the 
plant particular species take what they want and take it when 
they want it, and are not induced to take more by the addition 
of larger supplies. The practical conclusion is that it is not safe 
for the farmer to trust too implicitly to the results obtained by the 
chemist in the laboratory, and that it is not necessary to supply 
to the land all the constituents that have been removed from it, 
or that would be contained in the crops it is wished to grow, but 
that we should apply all or some, more or less, according to 
circumstances. On these and other points the practical agricul¬ 
turist will find a safe guide in this little volume. 
OUR LETTER BOX. 
Cow Unsatisfactory (J. P .).—When a cow fails to bring a calf it is 
well to try another bull, at the same time mix a little barleymeal with the other 
food you give ; if with green fodder cut a little into chaff to mix with meal. 
There is, however, frequently a constitutional tendency towards barrenness, 
and especially when the cows continue to make flesh and fat whilst giving milk. 
If change of food and mating the cow with another animal does not succeed in 
producing a calf the cow had better be sold as soon as her milk diminishes in 
quantity so as to be unprofitable. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
Camden Square, London. 
Let. 51° 32’ 40" N.; Long. 0° 8' 0" W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
DA.TE. 
9 AM. 
IN THE DAY. 
0 
*5 
1883. 
June. 
Barome¬ 
ter at 32« 
and Sea 
Level 
Hygrome¬ 
ter. 
Direction 
of Wind. 
I bmp. of 
Soil at 
1 foot. 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature. 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
snn. 
On 
grass. 
Inches. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
Iu. 
Sun. 17 
29.935 
56.2 
48.9 
W. 
78.0 
62.9 
41.3 
110.1 
38.1 
0/60 
Mon. 18 
29.971 
58.4 
52.4 
N. 
57.8 
08.8 
40.9 
116.5 
42.7 
— 
Tues. 19 
29.92 5 
54.2 
51.2 
N.W. 
78.7 
67.2 
48 6 
111.6 
48.4 
0.015 
Wed. 20 
29.830 
58.8 
52.4 
E. 
58.6 
02.6 
49 3 
100.7 
45.2 
0.245 
Thurs. 21 
29.894 
59.8 
55.5 
E. 
58.** 
04.7 
52.3 
103 3 
52.4 
0.908 
Friday 22 
30.087 
57.3 
51.7 
N.W. 
57.4 
67.7 
49.7 , 
,1 9.4 
48 7 
0.012 
Satur. 23 
30.034 
59.4 
53.5 
S.W. 
57.9 
72.8 
52.6 
^115.2 
48.6 
— 
29.951 
57.7 
52.2 
58.1 
66 7 
48.7 
109.5 
46.3 
0.400 
REMARKS. 
17th.—Cold and showery. 
18th.—Fine throughout. 
19th.—Fine morning ; overcast afternoon ; heavy shower 4.30 P M. 
20th.—Cold and showery ; sunshine at intervals. 
2 fst.—Dull and overcast; a very sharp peal of thunder at 3h. lm. F.M., when a 
flash of lightning damaged two house, in Kentish Town. 
22nd.—Fair; occasionally dull, with slight rams. 
23rd.—Fine ; overcast at times. 
A variable and rather cooler week, with several slight showers.—G. J. STMONS. 
