150 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ August 14 1890. 
■seed and the preparation of the seed bed. No grass is more suit¬ 
able for heavy land. We have a magnificent crop of it now upon 
a clay farm in Essex, and in the deep rich Suffolk loams we have 
iiad it upwards of 4 feet high—so high, in fact, as to hide the men 
mowing it with scythes from view. It is as nutritious as it is 
'vigorous, and we have no doubt that many a heavy land farmer 
•whose dependance on corn alone brought him to bankruptcy in 
the eighties,” would have met hard times well enough had he had 
a fair proportion of his farm down in this and a few other robust 
•sorts of grasses and Clovers. 
Timothy is another good heavy land grass which has been 
•exceedingly vigorous this season, reaching a height of nearly 
4 feet in a moderately fertile pasture, and contributing very much 
to the bulk of our hay crop. The aftermath is good, but is 
•decidedly inferior to that of the Cocksfoot. Under really high 
cultivation it should be as vigorous in this country as it is in the 
United States, where Mr. Martin J. Sutton tells us it has attained 
a height of G feet. It is deservedly popular with farmers in 
the States, and it is doubtless owing to the fact of its culture 
there as a special crop that our American visitors recognise it so 
•quickly. Ignorance of the best forage plants is so general in this 
country that we wish it were customary to have separate fields of 
^Cocksfoot and Timothy as well as other grasses, just as we do of 
Rye Crass, so that farmers might become as familiar with them as 
they now are with different sorts of corn. 
Italian Rye Crass is sown alone, but we have met with some 
faulty practice in its cultivation, though indeed it answers well 
•enough if allowed to stand only one year ; but it holds plant so 
•well in the second year that it ought always to be kept over. It is 
'Such a gross feeder that not only should it have a rich seed bed, 
but frequent top-dressings where sewage cannot be had for it. In 
the present season exceptionally heavy crops of it liavo been 
obtained by a free use of chemical manure as a top-dressing 
immediately after each mowing. In a dry summer very much may 
bo done by the application of liquid manure by means of a water 
cart and spreader ; the more thorough the watering the more 
bulky the crop. Top-dressings of stable sawdust saturated with 
■urine answer well, too, and serve in a great measure to exclude 
•drought from the soil. 
1 o complain that this grass and others of robust growth ex¬ 
haust the soil, is a tacit acknowledgment of bad husbandry. Of 
course they are exhaustive, but then it is our affair to keep up the 
■supply of food in the soil for crops which afford such a splendid 
return upon our outlay and labour. There are such things as pro¬ 
portion and balance in farming, and wo cannot afford to ignore them. 
What is the storage of the soil with fertility and the growth of a 
full crop but simple cause and effect ? A letter from a New 
Zealand farmer in Bell's Weekly Messenger shows that Cocksfoot is 
in high favour with farmers in that country, where it is grown 
•alone, especial care being taken to have it pure. To ensure this the 
■seedlings are often transplanted, the plants being set 18 inches 
apart, and so vigorous is the growth that when the plants are fully 
■grown this distance, we are told, is not by any means too great. 
The mass of leafy nutritious herbage from such huge plants must 
be enormous, and a field so treated must be a remarkable sight, and 
4he crop exceptionally profitable. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
The change to fair summer weather which set in at the beginning of 
the month has brought on the corn so fast that harvest is now in full 
■swing in the southern counties, and on the whole it bids fair to realise 
•our estimate of a yield of general abundance. The .improvement in 
Oat cultivation is evident in the heavy crop, which is much above the 
•average. Much of the best corn is beaten down and twisted by wind 
and rain, and much care is required in using the reaper. A clean 
upstanding field of forward Oats has been reaped by the self-binder, 
but some other fields so much laid that the straw is in very unequal 
condition, will be mown, left unbound, and be turned once or twice 
before the carting, both to ripen the straw and prevent overheating in 
tthe stack. 6 
Winter Oats are now nearly out of hand. As usual we had them 
carted direct from the field to the threshing machine, and the straw was 
cut into chaff immediately after the threshing. The chaff fills a barn- 
head at each farm, a little salt was sprinkled on each layer, it was well 
tramp’ed, and will come into use whenever it is wanted. 
Light ploughs drawn by a pair of horses, and managed by stout 
boys, will be in constant use during harvest to turn up the stubbles as 
soon as the fallen corn is cleared off by pigs and sheep. Foul stubbles 
are numerous this summer, and the ground is soft enough to admit of 
the free use of broadshares to pare the surface sufficiently and cut up 
all weeds. Light harrows should follow at once to clear off as much of 
the weed growths as possible, and to mingle fallen weed seeds with the 
soil so as to induce speedy germination. Then when the ploughs follow 
the new growth of weeds is buried, and a tolerably clean seed bed 
ensured next spring. 
Pigs out on stubbles should always have water at midday. Sows 
out on grass require very little other food now, but it is as well to keep 
a watchful eye upon them, and not allow them to become too low in 
condition. It is a good rule never to suffer a breeding animal of any 
Bort to show poverty of condition, for this is an evil for which farmers 
have to pay eventually. 
The IIES3IAN Fly. —Information is published by the Board of 
Agriculture concerning the Hessian fly now infesting Wheat and Barley 
plants in some parts of England and Scotland, and as to the measures 
calculated to prevent its spread. The puparia are of a brown colour 
not unlike the colour of a Horse Chestnut, and somewhat like linseed, 
and may be found now in the joints of Wheat and Barley p'ants in 
infested fields. Whoat and Barley stubble in infested localities should, 
as far as practicable, be ploughed at once after harvest, and skim- 
coulters used to bury the stubble completely. Upon “seeds,” the 
stubble should be rolled or beaten down, horse-raked, carried away, and 
burnt. In infested districts Wheat should be sown as late as possible, 
in order that the autumn brood of flies may not find plants to lay their 
eggs upon. Self-sown, or “ volunteer ” corn plants, should be cut off in, 
or near to, infested fields, that eggs may not be deposited upon them. 
Where Wheat and Barley crops are infested, after these are threshed out, 
whether this is done in the fields at harvest time, or in the stack yards 
or barns later on, all the screenings and short refuse from the screens, 
and particularly the fine screenings', should be burnt at once. Tail 
Wheat should be carefully examined and run down again if the 
chestnut-coloured puparia are found in it. It would be advisable not 
to sow winter Barley and Rye near infested fields. 
Austrian Agriculture. —Tn connection with the International 
Exhibition of Agriculture and Forestry which is being held at Vienna 
this summer under the patronage of the Emperor of Austria, an Inter¬ 
national Congress of Agriculturists will be held in the University Build¬ 
ings from the 2nd to the (!th of next month, under the presidency of 
Baron Arthur von Ilohenbruck, of the Austrian Ministry of Agriculture. 
Members of the Congress will have the opportunity of inspecting, under 
skilled guidance, some of the most striking agricultural establishments 
in the empire. Inspections are being organised of estates in Moravia, 
Bohemia, Lower Austria, Silesia, and Hungary, including the State Stud 
Farms of Kisber, Stuhlweissenbourg, and Mezohegyes. The offices of 
the Organising Committee are I. Herrangasse, 13, Vienna ; but copies of 
the programme may be had in this country on application to the Royal 
Agricultural Society of England, 12, Hanover Square, to bo officially 
represented at the Congress by their Secretary and Editor, Mr. Ernest 
Clarke. 
Poultry in France. —The following statistics have been collected 
for the French Department of Agriculture. The income derived by 
French people who rear fowls, according to octroi and market returns, 
is 337,100,000 francs, of which 153,500,000 francs represent the value of 
the flesh and 183,000,000 francs that of the eggs. The quantity sold in 
poultry yards is immense, as is also the number used in the homes 
of those who rear fowls. These figures do not find their way into 
statistics. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
< 1 VMDBN SQUARE, LONDON. 
Lat. 51° 32' 40" N.; Long. 0° 8' 0" W.; Altitude, 111 foot. 
DATE. 
0 AM. 
IN THE DAY. 
1890. 
1 aJ 
2222 5- 
Hy grime- 
0 , 
c-e.? 
Shade 
Tern- 
Radiation 
0 
ter. 
z d 
perature. 
Temperature. 
£ 
August. 
SSS 
In 
On 
Dry. 
Wet. 
So 
H 
Max. 
Min. 
Bun. 
Kras b 
Sunday . 
Inches. 
deg 
dog. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
dog. 
In. 
8 
80.179 
02.2 
67.0 
E.N.E. 
02.0 
73.3 
51.3 
113.9 
48.4 
— 
Monday. 
4 
30.233 
05.5 
00.4 
W. 
03.2 
75.8 
55.3 
120.0 
54.0 
— 
Tuesday .... 
5 
30.219 
05.5 
01.7 
s. 
02.9 
79.7 
54.2 
119.4 
61.9 
— 
Wednesday .. 
6 
30.116 
0 i.l 
60.3 
w. 
03.0 
79.2 
54.7 
116.8 
51.7 
— 
Thursday.... 
7 
80.18) 
00.1 
57.8 
E. 
64.9 
72.9 
57.1 
111.8 
54.9 
— 
Friday . 
8 
80.1.52 
01.8 
53.1 
N.E. 
03.8 
(17.7 
49.8 
91.0 
46.8 
— 
Saturday .... 
0 
30.038 
60.1 
57.3 
N.E. 
02.8 
09.0 
50.1 
89.9 
55.2 
0.228 
30.160 
03.0 
58.5 
03.2 
74.0 
54.1 
109.5 
61.8 
0.228 
REMARKS. 
3rd.—Fine and warm ; lovely evening. 
4th.—Dull morning with spots of rain ; but brilliant from 11 A.M. 
5th.— Bright throughout. 
6th.—Bright and warm. 
7th.—' loudy and dnll early; fair day; some sunshine in afternoon. 
8th.—Cloudy and cool day ; drizzle In evening. 
9th.—Dull and drizzly early ; cloudy day. but one or two gleams of sun in afternoon. 
Pleasant summer weather except on the last two days. Temperature about 3 a above 
the average.—G. J. SYMONS. 
