18 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ July 1, 1886. 
is held by capillary attraction. Thus the rain which falls 
upon and is absorbed by the surface ground, percolates 
towards the drainage level, flushing every crevice and canal 
in its descent, leaving behind it the nutritive ingredients 
which it carries in suspension or in solution, and on which 
the plants can feed as it passes by their roots, or which the 
soil, acting as a filter, extracts and appropriates. 
“ According to Way, the total quantity of nitrogen, in the 
form of ammonia and nitric acid, brought down by rain and 
snow upon an acre of land in the year, was found to be 
6-68 lbs. in 1855, and 8-31 lbs. in 1856. Under-drainage 
not only allows the rainfall loaded with this fertility to pass 
through the soil and be discharged from underneath, after 
depositing its fertilising material, instead of flooding the 
surface and removing from the upper soil many substances 
useful to vegetation ; but the rain water in sinking down 
through the soil oxidises and washes out of it anything that 
may be hurtful to the roots of plants, and the solvent action 
of the rain water is, at the same time, brought to bear upon 
the inert constituents of the soil and of the manures with 
which it is brought into contact. The latter is not the least 
benefit of drainage, for on wet land the best manures are 
almost thrown away. 
“ This constant descent of water through the soil causes a 
similar descent of air through its pores, from the surface to 
the depth of the drain. When the rain falls it enters the 
soil and more or less completely displaces the air which it 
contained within its pores. Thus air either descends to the 
drains or rises into the atmosphere. When the rain ceases, 
the water as it sinks again leaves the pores of the upper soil 
open, and fresh air consequently follows. Thus, where 
under-drains exist, not only does every shower deposit its 
fertilising ammonia, but it serves to force the fresh air 
through the pores, which produces conditions so healthful to 
vegetation. 
“ Under-drainage deepens the soil by lowering the line of 
excessive water beyond injury to the roots, and affords to 
plants a deeper soil for their roots to penetrate, at the rate 
of 100 tons per acre for every inch of depth gained. It 
prepares the way for deep tillage and steam cultivation. It 
improves the texture of the soil by making it more porous, 
drier, looser, and more friable, and it thus not only gives 
greater ease in tillage operations, but admits of the land 
being worked sooner after a fall of rain. The difference in 
labour between ploughing drained and undrained land is 
very considerable, and at the lowest estimate cannot be put 
at less than Is. per acre for each ploughing. 
“ Thorough drainage not only relieves soil of excess of 
water, but, strange as it at first appears, it greatly mitigates 
the effects of dry weather. When soil is drenched with water 
and dried by evaporation, it becomes hard, especially if it be 
of a clayey nature. Land that is dried by drainage is absor¬ 
bent and retentive of moisture dropped by dews and acquired 
from the atmosphere, while the soil deepened by drainage 
permits growing crops to put forth longer roots, and thus 
become secured against droughts. 
“By drainage the temperature of the soil is raised in 
summer as much as 3°, which is in effect to transport the 
land 150 miles southwards. The soil is thus enabled to grow 
a greater variety of crops than it would do in its undrained 
state. Less seed is required in sowing, because fewer seeds 
perish than when they are put into a saturated soil where 
the temperature is lower, and from which the air necessary 
to germination is excluded. It prevents in a great measure 
Grass and winter grains being killed or thrown out by frost. 
An earlier seed time and harvest are also accompaniments 
of drained land, the season being hastened in the spring by 
the land drying sooner, and enabling the cultivator to get on 
his land earlier by several days, a start which is maintained 
by the crop all through the summer. A week at seed time 
or harvest often makes all the difference between the success 
or failure of a crop. 
‘ ‘ In all cases the end desired is the nearest possible approach 
to the natural examples of the best soils resting on previous 
subsoils, where the rainfall finds a gradual passage through 
the soil and subsoil, sinking always where it falls, carrying 
generally the warmer temperature of the air into the land— 
carrying also many an element of plant food which the air 
contains directly to the roots of plants—carrying, too, the air 
itself, the great oxidiser, amidst the matters, organic and 
inorganic, which require its influence for their conversion 
into available plant food, proving, by its action as a solvent, 
and its passage over the immense inner superficies of the 
soil, an active caterer for the stationary roots. At the same 
time it is hindered from doing the mischief which on 
undrained land the rainfall cannot fail of doing. The 
manure particles of the soil, if they do to some extent escape 
through the drainage, are at any rate not washed wholesale 
from the surface into the furrows, ditches which, in the case 
of undrained land, receive them without the subsoil having 
had a chance of retaining them.” 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Haymaking is now being done, and so far the work has gone on with 
expedition, for the weather has been favourable, though somewhat dull. 
We began with a heavy crop of mixed Glasses and Clovers upon a young 
pasture ; and although the Red Clover, Cocksfoot, Timothy, and Fescues 
were very tall and stout, we were able to begin carting the hay upon 
the fifth day. The heavy bulk of hay which a thriving young pasture 
yields affords pleasing proof of the wisdom of the careful selection of seed 
and of high culture. No doubt the hay from it is often coarse in texture, 
but it is quite as nutritious as that from finer Grasses, and it is certainly 
more profitable. By way of experiment we folded sheep upon the whole 
of this meadow last autumn, and in February we gave part of it a dressing 
of our home-mixed artificial manure. The result was remarkable, the 
effect of the artificial manure being seen in the pleasing guise of a heavy 
crop of grass of more than twice the bulk of that which had only sheep 
manure. Our care in having the mowing machine thoroughly examined 
and put into good working order before the haymaking began is well 
rewarded now, for it has gone on day after day from 6 A.M. till 8 p.m. 
with only the necessary stoppages for meals, for fresh kor?es. fre«h knives, 
and oiling the bearings. We use well-bred, quick-stepping Suffolk horses 
for this work, and they are very satisfactory, moving so quickly, yet 
steadily, that we prefer them to any other kind of horses we have tried. 
A man is kept constantly at work sharpening knives, and we have three 
sets of knives for each machine, always changing them before the knives 
become at all blunt, in order that the work may he well and easily done. 
The tedding machine or hay-shaker, as it is called in Suffolk, follows the 
mower closely. In a few hours come the hand rakes drawing the grass 
into small wind rows, and then if the weather is favourable the tedding 
machine and horse rakes do the rest of the work of actual haymaking. 
Red Clover and the mixed layers of alternate husbandry have also been 
mown for stover. White Clover is in full flower, and is so full of promise 
that we shall save the whole for seed, a good crop of Clover seed being 
still a profitable crop. . 
The Flock .—The last batches of hoggets are being sent to market in 
prime condition. We have also begun selling lambs, our first lot selling 
for 31s. 61. each. They were nice compact lambs, the result of a cross 
between half-bred Suffolk ewes and pure Hampshire Down tups. The re¬ 
sult of this cross-breeding is so satisfactory that we shall continue it next 
season. The old ewes withdrawn from the breeding flock will now go 
either upon grass or he folded upon green crops on arable land, to be 
gradually fattened for market, and at the same time impart fertility to 
the land. To do this well we must have folds and not suffer the sheep to 
wander at will. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATION?. 
CAMDEN SQUARE, LONDON. 
Lat. 51° 32'40" N.; Long. 0° 8'0" W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
DATE. 
9 A.M. 
IN THE DAY. 
0 
"5 
PS 
1886. 
June. 
Barome¬ 
ter at 32« 
and Sea 
Level 
Hygrome¬ 
ter. 
Direction 
of Wind. 
| Temp, of 
Soil at 
I I foot. 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature. 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
Bun. 
On 
grass 
Inches. 
deg. 
dee. 
dee. 
deg. 
dug 
deg. 
dee 
In. 
29.96 L 
61.0 
53.9 
tf.W. 
55.7 
6 LG 
47.7 
110.4 
46.4 
— 
30.079 
50.3 
47.7 
N. 
60 3 
60 4 
45.8 
87.3 
— 
29.942 
56.9 
52.3 
N.W. 
55.8 
67.2 
49.9 
116.7 
48.8 
0.040 
Wednesday 
. 23 
29.766 
61.8 
54.8 
W. 
56.2 
69.8 
52.3 
119.6 
47.8 
— 
. 24 
30.014 
60.1 
5 LG 
N. 
56.8 
7.1-2 
46.5 
122 3 
40.9 
— 
. 25 
30.007 
65.1 
55.8 
s.w. 
58-3 
73.6 
50.6 
119.9 
46.4 
— 
Saturday ... 
. 26 
30.054 
63.2 
56.3 
N. 
59.2 
77.1 
52.8 
115.8 
46.1 
29.975 
59.8 
53.2 
56.9 
69.6 
49.4 
113.1 
45.2 
0.040 
REMARKS. 
20th.—Fine and warm. 
zist-.—Huuaua cuiu. , . . , , . . 
22 nd—Fair, with a little sun about midday ; ram in evening and night. 
23rd.- Lovely summer day, but with occasional black clouds. 
24th.—Beautiful summer day. 
25th.—Very fine. 
26th.—Fine, but with many clouds till night.. 
A flue week, with temperature near, but rather below, the aveiage.—G. J. sTMONS. 
