126 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ August 5, 1886. 
At tliis season of the year the newspapers give frequent 
reports of harvest prospects as a matter of national impor¬ 
tance worthy of general attention. Such reports are curious 
and interesting, but we can hardly regard them as sufficiently 
accurate to be really trustworthy, for if we inquire about the 
source of such information we find that it is derived both 
from local reports and general observation. Fairly tested, 
the matter resolves itself into an expression of individual 
opinion, and consequently we invariably receive reports of 
such a nature with a considerable degree of reserve, not 
unmixed with some doubt. It is by no means an easy 
matter to give an accurate account of the condition of crops 
even in a single parish. Still more difficult is it to say why 
some crops are good and others bad. Changes of weather 
doubtless affect the growth and development of the crops, 
but good or bad crops are much more the result of cultiva'ion 
than of seasons, so that when we speak of harvest prospects 
we ought not to convey or receive an impression that because 
we have had so many hot or cold, dry or wet days, certain 
crops are likely to afford an abundant yield or otherwise. 
The weather is a factor to success which we have no wish to 
hold lightly, much less ignore, but we are bound to give due 
weight to the high importance of skilful cultivation as the 
primary source of success. 
Compare the light sketchy report of the ordinary news¬ 
paper with, for example, the report of prize farm crops in 
the Journal of the Eoyal Agricultural Society. The one is 
merely a bit of gossip by the way, the other a lesson of deep 
and lasting importance. Each farm is described field by 
field, the cultural process explained, its effect upon the crop 
given, and we have the cause of success or failure clearly set 
forth. It is precisely in the spirit of such teaching that 
farmers should compare notes on harvest prospects. It is 
by no means an uncommon thing when out driving to see 
crops upon different farms with only a road or hedge between 
them, totally different in appearance, and we may then safely 
venture upon the conclusion that we see examples of good 
and bad practice in farming. For example, a certain farm 
came upon our hands in the spring of last year after most of 
the crops were sown, and we found that the Wheat proved a 
very inferior crop, yet the Wheat upon an adjoining farm 
close outside one of the boundary hedges was excellent. 
Upon asking for an explanation of this difference, we were 
told that ours was heavy land and that the Wheat crop was 
always a poor one. With the facts before us we did not 
believe this statement, and we are glad to say that by careful 
culture we have this season really good Wheat crops. The 
fault was neither in the land nor in the weather, it was the 
careless slovenly management of the farm that caused the 
failure. We had only to stir the soil well, to get it clean, 
and apply an autumn and spring dressing of pure chemical 
manure to ensure a good crop of Wheat. The improvement 
of such land is both simple and sure. Assuredly we do not 
intend to rest content with merely good crops, but rather to 
go on to better and best results. Step by step, year by year, 
it can and will be done, so that there is a regular progressive 
improvement in our harvest prospects. 
With results before us it is well to try and understand 
them, to learn why this crop is good, that crop bad, and so 
acquire better knowledge for our guidance in future. It is 
surely in this way that inquiry into harvest prospects should 
be made. That we should regard them as an outcome of 
good or bad practice, affected in some degree by the weather, 
but affected only in degree according to our skill and care iu 
cultivation and cropping. That is the point. When we 
discuss the probable quantify of corn that will be grown this 
year, and calculate how much we shall have to import to 
meet our requirements, ought we not to inquire how much 
more home grown corn it would be possible to obtain, or 
rather how much more might be grown profitably under an 
improved system of cultivation ? In a matter of such 
importance we advocate nothing of a speculative nature ; no 
step should be taken that is not based upon a clear know¬ 
ledge of possible results and how to obtain them. Upon 
how many farms do we find foul land, faulty drainage, and 
a want of fertility ! In how many farmers do we find 
ignorance of the science of farming, of the nature of the soil, 
of the best way of imparting fertility to it ? While faults in 
knowledge and in practice continue to prevail so generally 
among those who cultivate the soil can we hope the land 
will yield her increase in fullest measure ? We recently 
saw a field of Mangolds remarkable for the size and vigour 
of the plants; all the more remarkable because the farm 
had long been notoriously a poor one. Upon inquiry we 
found that a new tenant had pipe-drained the land, cleaned 
it, stirred it deeply, stored it well with fertility, hence the 
result. Assuredly the harvest prospects of such a man are 
good, and it is to such prospects we must turn if we would 
form a correct view of what they should be throughout the 
entire country. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Pea harvesting has been done under difficulties and not without some 
1 )ss, Bhowery weather causing many of the peas to be shaken out of the 
pods about the fields to the benefit of the piss which were turned upon 
the land as soon as the crop was cleared off. Cabbage drilling for late 
spring feeding has been done, and advantage taken of wet weather to 
tran-plant both Cabbage and Thousand-headed Kale from seed beds. 
We have now a fine example of the advantage of early drilling of Kale 
upon rich land. The plants have grown away freely from the first, and we 
have now a crop of several tons per acre ready for use as we may want 
it. For cows and cattle generally, as well as for sheep, such an abundant 
supply of green food is invaluable at a season of the year when pastures 
are so frequently parched and bare. Swedes and Mangolds on really good 
land are now growing with remarkable rapidity, by far the best piece of 
Mangolds being that to which we applied the full dressing of home-mixed 
chemical manures, with farmyard manure. The next best had farm¬ 
yard manure, fish guano, and muriate of potash, and the next had only 
fish guano and farmyard manure. At a large ofE-farrn, where the Swedes 
are good, the Mangold crop is backward and the roots will be small. A 
close scrutiny of the soil showed that the action of the manures was 
spoilt or rather prevented by the wet condition of the land. We drained 
all we could of this farm last winter, and we hope to be able to do the 
remainder next winter. Certainly this half failure of Mangolds will act 
as an incentive to do all that is possible to relieve the land of superfluous 
wafer, for, until this is done, we only spend our strength in vain efforts 
to obtain full crops of any kind. Our best Swedes are in a field at the 
home farm, after Rye, which had an early spring dressing of a hundred¬ 
weight per acre of nitrate of soda, and was eaten off by sheep in folds. 
Many of the roots there are already as big as one’s fist, and the strong 
growth of leaves meets across the rows. White Dutch Clover for seed 
has been saved in capital condition. Red Clover, also for seed, is now 
nicely in bloom, and we hope to be equally successful with it. Again 
we remind our readers of the importance of breaking up each field 
immediately after a crop is cleared off from it, for sure we are, if this 
were done with promptitude and care, foul laud would be much less 
common than it now is. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
Camdbn Square, London. 
Lat. 81° 32' 40" N.; Long. 0° 8'0” W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
DATS. 
9 A.M. 
IN THB DAY. 
Rain 
1886. 
July. 
1 Barome- 
i terat32« 
and Sea 
Level 
Hygrome¬ 
ter. 
Direction 
of Wind. 
Temp, of 
Soil at 
1 foot. 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature. 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
MiD. 
In 
sun. 
On 
grass 
Inches. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
dng 
deg. 
dea 
In 
Sunday .... 
29.6 .'3 
60.4 
58.8 
s. 
62.0 
74 2 
53.4 
119.3 
48.2 
0.6G3 
Monday. 
29.470 
61.9 
56.2 
W. 
61.8 
69 3 
53.2 
120.2 
52.4 
0.010 
Tuesday. 
29736 
58.6 
52.0 
N.W. 
61.2 
62.4 
53.7 
108-6 
51.9 
— 
Wednesday 
. 28 
30.114 
57 4 
51.2 
W. 
59.3 
65.6 
44.4 
115.6 
40.0 
— 
Thursday ... 
. 29 
30.' 86 
fi2.2 
56.1 
s. 
59.4 
68.7 
52.3 
101.3 
47.7 
— 
Friday. 
29.769 
65.8 
61.3 
E. 
59 7 
75.3 
57.7 
125.9 
52.2 
O.Olf 
Saturday ... 
. 81 
29.705 
61.1 
5C.7 
Var. 
60.6 
71.4 
56.4 
117.8 
53.3 
— 
29.786 
60.8 
55.0 
60.6 
69.6 
53.0 
115.5 
49.4 
0.720 
REMARKS. 
2.5th.—Wet early ; dull day, with slight showers; heavy rain 3 P.M. till midnight; thunder 
28th.—Fine pleasant morning; rain in afternoon. [at 6.40 P.M. 
27th.—Fine and pleasant, but not much sun, and at times almost cold. 
28th.—Fine, hut rather hazy. 
20 th.—Generally dull and threatening. 
30th.—Dull morning, with spots of rain. 
31st.—Slight rain, and cloudy early; slight showers in afternoon. 
A rather dull week, witli temperature slightly below the average.—G. J. STMONS. 
