April 21, 1892. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
291 
must have a mellow tilth. Oats are hardier and more vigorous 
than Barley, and take to a rougher seed-bed and moister soil. 
Barley is a surface-rooting plant, relies almost wholly on the 
residues of the fallow crop, and derives its nourishment—nitro¬ 
genous and mineral—from the stores near the surface. Possibly 
no crops take more nitrogen from the soil than Barley and Wheat. 
The nitrogenous supplies remaining from the fallow crop are 
sufficient for the Barley crop, and frequently enough for a Wheat 
crop, which is sometimes taken in the second year, sown, of course, 
in autumn, in a heavier soil, consequently closer, and gets hold of 
a much wider and deeper range of soil, having at least four months 
more time to possess itself of the soil than Barley. This admits 
of Barley following Wheat directly on heavier soil, because there 
is time to produce the needful tilth for the Barley, and the Wheat 
stubble lightens the heavy soil so that the Barley crop is provided 
for on the otherwise too heavy soil, and the yield is satisfactory. 
This second corn crop in direct succession can only be taken by 
those well acquainted with the capabilities of the soil, for the 
fallow crop may not leave enough “ condition,” nor be clean enough 
to warrant its practice. Both Wheat and Barley are exhausting 
crops ; besides nitrogenous manures they require phosphatic, 
particularly the Barley, which is more benefited thereby than is 
Wheat under similar conditions of soil. Indeed, Barley is the most 
particular of all grain crops. If the land is too high in condition 
the plant becomes too gross, and produces a coarse sample of grain ; 
and, though generally taken after roots, it is sometimes considered 
better to take a Wheat crop first, especially when the root crop has 
been heavily manured, and the heavy crop eaten by sheep on the 
ground. Thus the Wheat crop after the fallow crop brings the 
land into proper condition for producing an even and better 
sampled Barley crop. 
Now we must look ahead. The fallow crop is restorative, 
cleansing, recuperative. Our present one is exhaustive, and that 
must stop, or the land will become unprofitable and foul. The 
requirements of stock also must be provided for, green food that 
is for summer use, hay for winter use. This crop becomes profit¬ 
able only, unless employed as a source of manuring, in the second 
year, therefore it is sown about the same time as the Barley or 
Oats, and establishes itself whilst the second-course crop is matur¬ 
ing. This crop can only succeed where the land is clean, con¬ 
sequently the importance of the fallow crop to the third-course 
crop. 
Third Year. —Clover or Leguminous Crop. —This, as regards 
Clover, requires a sound and firm seed bed, which is provided 
when sown about the same time as the second-course crop, and 
growing along with it a year is gained. The third-course crop may 
not be taken on foul land ; hence, when the ground has not been 
sufficiently cleaned by the fallow crop as to be followed by Clover, 
a Pea crop if the land be light, or a Bean crop if the land is heavy, 
may be taken after the Barley. This gives an opportunity of 
cleaning the land before seeding, and of still further cleaning it by 
a short (bastard) fallow in autumn directly the crop is cut, which 
also serves to prepare it for Wheat. Thus the rotation is broken 
and the land cleaned, which is in favour of the Wheat, because the 
Pea or Bean crop is deep rooting and nitrogen gathering. Clover 
also may not always be a suitable crop after fallow through the 
land having become Clover sick (a disease due to minute organisms 
—eelworms), and ground in that state requires several years to 
recover so as to allow of its profitable growth again. The Pea or 
Bean crop permits the land to recover its health after Clover 
sickness, yet in light silicious soil the Clover may not come oftener 
than once in eight or ten years. Eelworm (Tylenchus devastatrix) 
is better avoided than cured, and its attacks mainly arise through 
a deficiency of lime and potash, whereby the Clover is unable to 
assimilate nitrogen, and the remedy is sulphates of potash and 
ammonia, with phosphate of lime, yet the most certain method is 
to cease growing Clover. 
Fourth Year. — Wheat Crop .—September closes the third- 
course crop, and the land is then stored with nitrogenic and potassic 
foods for the Wheat crop that follows the Clover. Leguminous 
crops gather nitrogen and their deep roots bring up potash, there¬ 
fore the roots and stubble supply nitrogen and potash, and other 
food ingredients, which sustain the fourth-course crop. The 
Clover ley is ploughed in September, and the Wheat sown in due 
course, but sometimes the Clover ley is utilised for sheep in 
autumn or early winter, then Oats are substituted for the Wheat, 
the Oats being sown in spring. The Wheat crop takes about all 
there is left of manure put in the land with the fallow crop, and 
needs a thorough renovation in manorial elements, stirring and 
mixing its ingredients, and cleansing it of its foulness. 
Such is a Norfolk (so called) four-course rotation. There are 
many modifications, some better because suited to particular 
circumstances, and there are others much worse through everything 
being taken off the land and no adequate return made to tie soil in 
the shape of manure, and when that happens it is put down to 
grass, in the worst possible condition and order, and the least that 
may be said is it has gone out of cultivation. Not so the land 
under an easy, well-founded rotation, which, though not applicable 
to all soils, is such that any competent practitioner may vary it to 
suit his needs and markets. 
Some of the modifications may be usefully glanced at. One 
of the most common is Wheat after Potatoe?, and as the land is 
clean all that is necessary is a shallow ploughing, and in some not 
that, merely drag-harrowing. The succeeding crop is roots— 
Turnips, Swedes, Mangold Wurtzel, Cabbage, and then comes the 
Wheat again. Potatoes and Wheat in alternating years often 
proving a profitable and cleanly rotation. Another crop is Peas 
or Beans, as the land is friable or heavy. Barley or Oats following 
the Peas, and Wheat the Beans ; then comes a root crop, after 
that cereals. In that way, and with “ stolen ” crops, the rotation 
can be modified to almost any extent without prejudice to the 
soil’s fertility, and it is on these lines—namely, the modifications 
of a four-course system, that small holdings, if they are to pay 
and their occupiers benefit, must be cultivated, not on farming 
lines, but on dairying, poultry rearing, fruit and vegetable growing 
—horticultural rather than agricultural principles.—G. Abbey. 
(To be continued.! 
ROCK GARDENS. 
(^Continued frovi page 236.') 
The Alpine section of the family of Dianthus, one so widely 
extended and so generally admired, contains some beautiful things. 
I do not know amongst the truly alpine plants a more delightful 
gem after Gentiana verna, which I would crown queen of them all, 
than a well-grown clump of Dianthus alpinus. Some of these are 
indeed natives of our own islands, and might, therefore, perhaps be 
hardly entitled to the claim of being alpines ; yet as we admit 
Gentiana verna to be a true alpine, although a native, so we 
must class those of this family as such which are to be found 
in our native flora. I am afraid that there is a good deal of 
confusion amongst the purveyors of alpine plants as to the 
various species. I have received for D. alpinus plants that bore 
no resemblance to it either in foliage or flower, and have been 
supplied with D. deltoides when I ordered D. neglectus. Mistakes 
will occur I know, but I fancy that they are very frequent in 
this family. 
Dianthus alpinus is, as I have already said, one of the most 
charming of alpines, but I have not found it an easy one to keep. 
I have started it in peaty soil, and in leaf mould and light loam ; 
in both of these soils it has done well for a time, but then it has 
disappeared. We know how fond wireworms are of the whole tribe, 
and what a plague they are to the Carnation and Picotee grower, 
and I imagine that this has had something to do with their dis¬ 
appearance. In a dry summer, too, they are apt to suffer if the water¬ 
ing is overlooked, which it is likely to be when so many things cry 
out for the watering pot. However, I fancy it is one of those alpines 
which are not very long lived, and that their disappearance may be 
in the natural course of things. When it is in health and vigour, 
such as I have had it at times, it is a veritable gem. Each flower 
stem bears but one flower and does not rise more than an inch 
above the foliage ; the flowers are about the size of a florin, 
pink spotted with rose, and although only produced singly they 
cover the whole of the foliage, forming a beautiful close pink 
cushion. I remember seeing some large patches of it at Messrs. 
Backhouse’s of York which live in one’s memory as a dream of 
beauty, and I hope again to have the plant in the same vigour 
that I once had. 
Dianthus emsius, the Cheddar Pink, may have been seen in its 
native habitat, although like a great many other plants it has been 
sadly diminished by those baleful persons the guides, who offer 
every visitor to Cheddar a plant, of course for a consideration, 
in some cases plants have been quite exterminated thus. I know 
localities in this county (Kent) where Osmunda regalis used to be 
found, but alas ! not a trace of it now remains, although people 
might have left it alone and bought it for a shilling at a nursery. 
And the Edelweiss has been so treated in Switzerland, where in 
some cantons a penalty has been affixed to the attempt to take 
a plant of it from its native locality. If travellers would only 
patiently wait until they get back to Geneva they can always obtain 
it at the Jardin d’Acclimatation for a trifle, with the probability 
that they will be able to bring it safely home, which they would 
hardly be able to do with the plant uprooted from its native 
locality. But to return, D. caesius is one of those plants which 
thrive admirably on walls, a situation In w'hich several of the 
family rejoice. The flower stems are about 6 inches in height, 
