250 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ March 31, 1892. 
GREEN CROPS. 
An admission of ignorance from a farmer is so rare that a 
recent instance of it may be mentioned as affording proof of the 
existence of the wide field for technical education which will be 
opened when once the tough crust of prejudice is broken through. 
We were discussing ways and means with a dairy farmer who had 
complained—and justly so—of the poverty of means of shelter on 
his holding. This gave rise to the question of auxiliary green 
crops. He at once said he had often thought how much better he 
might manage if, instead of having all his land down to grass, he 
could have about twenty acres of it under the plough. We agreed 
with him, and were led on into talking of the especial value of 
such crops as Rape, cattle Cabbage, Kale, Rye, Italian Rye Grass, 
Tares, Winter Oats, and Green Maize. He had never even heard of 
Green Maize as a prime fodder plant for late summer and early 
autumn use, and was apparently ignorant of the value of Rye and 
Winter Oats for early folding. 
To all who have arable land we say now, Do not lock up the 
whole of it in the production of one or two crops, but keep mixed 
farming always well in view, so as to be ready for any emergency 
which may arise ; and before finishing the spring sowings consider 
if you have enough land in reserve, or from which crops will be 
cleared in time for the Maize, which is sown early in June. This 
is a crop which is very susceptible of injury from late spring or 
early autumn frosts. The land should be well tilled for it, and 
abundantly manured, to secure speedy germination and vigorous 
growth. Once get the plant above the surface, and growing freely 
in such soil, and it is practically safe, but till then it has to be 
watched constantly during daylight, or the rooks are quite certain 
to steal much of the seed. What a boon is such a crop in a 
drought ! Its big succulent stems and tender green leaves are 
greedily eaten by cows and store cattle. In reply to a question 
about the possibility of preserving it for winter, we described the 
process of passing it through the chaff-cutter and ensilage, but had 
to admit we had never been able to save any of it for such a 
useful purpose. Wherever sewage is available its growth is 
wonderfully vigorous, affording pleasing evidence of the value of 
fertile moisture as plant food. 
Graziers who have a few acres of arable land complain that it 
absorbs too much of the manure, and “ robs the pasture.” When 
they, or rather generations to come, realise the full value of 
chemical manure, and the application of at least a full annual 
dressing of it to the whole of the land becomes customary, there 
will be an end of such nonsense. Quite useless will it be for even 
a very small proportion of a dairy farm to be broken up if its 
cultivation is not to be thorough. Before advising such a useful 
concession, we should ascertain the condition of the pasture ; it it 
was poor, then depend upon it the arable land would be poor also, 
and the tenant would derive very little good from the corn, roots, 
or green crops grown upon it. Why is it that the manure bill of 
an exceptionally prosperous farmer is invariably so high ? Simply 
because nothing but full crops satisfy him, and experience has 
shown him that he must give as well as take, that he must replenish 
Nature’s storehouse—the soil—with fertility if he would have 
them. Richly is he rewarded ; he prospers where other men fail, 
for his cropping is as sensible as his use of manure. He is worthy 
of every reasonable concession from his landlord ; he has them, 
because it is understood that he will use them right. 
While according full recognition to the value to a dairy farmer 
of the green crops enumerated, we cannot ignore the fact of the 
general poverty of pasture. Go where one will in winter there is 
the same brown hue upon it which indicates poverty of soil so 
clearly. Taking as it does the chief place among green crops, it is 
surely worthy of our best care, and yet anything like pasture 
cultivation is a rarity. At best it receives but a moderate dressing 
of farmyard manure every second or third year, and is generally in 
a state of semi-exhaustion. We have no hesitation in expressing 
our conviction that the produce of permanent pasture throughout 
the country might be doubled under a system of intelligent culti¬ 
vation, the basis of which is well-drained porous soil, nutritious 
sorts of grass and Clover, annual dressings of chemical manure, 
judicious sheep folding. Regular systematic practice is what is 
wanted ; our meadows would then indeed be “ with verdure clad 
throughout the year, for growth would be free and abundant, even 
early in spring and late in autumn. At midwinter, too, there would 
be none of that brown barren aspect which now so disfigures them, 
telling only too plainly of negligence, carelessness, or lack of 
knowledge. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Since the change to mild open weather the seed drills have been kept 
steadily at work. Never was there a better seed bed, and though Lent 
corn is being sown late, speedy germination and brisk growth is now a 
certainty. There are still heavy arrears of ploughing, but much of 
the land has been frozen repeatedly to a depth of several inches, so that 
the ploughing is lighter than usual, and on mixed soil sowing follows at 
once. Any top-dressing of Wheat should be done forthwith to induce 
robust growth, most of the Wheat plant being very backward. _ A 
hundredweight per acre of nitrate of soda will set the plant going 
briskly, and should prove a profitable investment. For poor land from 
1 to 2 cwt. may be used, but it is wise not to overdose land. High 
farming in the true sense is not extravagant farming, but is the happy 
mean between poverty and waste. It is really common sense farming, 
affording crop and stock a full dietary so as to induce full and early 
development in both. 
See that calves are fed frequently and are kept warm and dry. io 
feed them only twice in twenty-four hours is wrong ; they consume food 
so greedily then that the stomach is overladen, and the animals have to 
endure the trying alternations of hunger and repletion. Can we wonder 
that under such a monstrous regimen they suffer severely from scour, 
do not thrive, often die outright 1 Rather feed them moderately three 
or four times daily, pay close attention to shelter and comfort, let them 
run out a little on warm fine days, but never expose them to wet and 
cold at any time. We know of several yearlings being lost recently 
of disease resultant from exposure day after day, in fact day and night, 
to the cold wet weather of last summer and autumn. Hoose has been 
rampant among them, so has blackleg, yet we much fear a repetition 
of the same faulty practice this season. It should never be forgotten 
how liable such young stock is to suffer from negligence or ill treatment 
of any kind; well do they repay us for our best care. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
C.'TMDEX Square, Londox. 
Lat. 51° 32' 40" N.; Long. 0° 8' 0" W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
Date. 
9 A.M. 
IX THE DAY. 
Rain. 
1892. 
March. 
Barometer 
at 32°, and 
Sea Level. 
Hygrometer. 
Direc¬ 
tion of 
Wind. 
Temp, 
of soil 
at 
1 foot. 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
Sun. 
On 
Grass. 
Inchs. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
Inchs. 
Sunday .. 
20 
30-174 
41-1 
37-6 
N.E. 
39.3 
49-7 
32-4 
85.4 
28-2 
— 
Monday .. 
21 
30-376 
36-9 
34-1 
N.E. 
38-7 
55-0 
28-4 
81-3 
24 6 
0-159 
Tuesday .. 
22 
30-416 
40-1 
38-7 
N. 
39-2 
42-3 
36-4 
61-1 
34-0 
0-120 
Wednesday 
23 
30-518 
40-9 
38-9 
N. 
39-0 
48-7 
33-2 
74-2 
29-4 
— 
Thursday.. 
24 
30-332 
41-4 
39-9 
N. 
39-9 
46-6 
37-0 
59‘1 
30-4 
— 
Friday 
25 
30-084 
37-6 
36-9 
S.E. 
39-9 
48-2 
35-9 
62-5 
29*3 
0-010 
Saturday .. 
26 
29-703 
44-4 
42-4 
W. 
40-0 
58-4 
36-4 
83-0 
34-0 
0-187 
30-229 
40-3 
38-4 
39-4 
49-8 
34-2 
j 72-4 
30-0 
0-476 
REMARKS. 
20th.—Sunny throughout, but cooler. 
21st.— White frost early ; sunny day ; clouded over at sunset, and rain in evening and 
night. 
22nd.—Overcast morning, with a little rain early ; wet from 0.30 P.M. to 6.30 P.M. ; 
overcast evening. 
23rd.—Generally overcast, but occasional gleams of sun in afternoon. 
24tli.—Fair, but sunless. . . 
25th.—Overcast and dull morning ; sun shining through haze and thin cloud m 
afternoon; fog in evening. 
26th.—Hazy early, snowy morning; clouded over about 3 P.M., and occasional slight 
drizzle and rain in afternoon; heavy rain in evening. 
Northerly winds prevalent, with high barometer ; temperature nearly the average.— 
G. J. SYMOXS. 
