210 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ Marcli 9, 1893. 
tions of what constitutes sound practice. To these in a variety 
of ways expression is given in farm management, aye ! and of 
farm mismanagement too, a mere custom and prejudice very 
frequently proving an irresistible inducement to the persistent 
cultivation of crops upon which profit is impossible, to the 
neglect of, or rather the improper feeding and general care, of 
live stock. Surely it is high time that there was an end of such 
folly. What is wanted is more common sense in every detail 
of farming—better practice on the farm, more business aptitude 
in the farmer. Entirely did we agree with a recent writer iu 
the Agricultural Gazette, who said plainly to farmers, “ Do away 
with the middleman, who is no good to us, and takes what little 
profit there is. 
“ Do away with your cake merchant, and use the produce 
of the farm instead. It seems folly to use cake with all the 
goodness squeezed out, to give £8 or £9 a ton for the husk, 
and sell our produce at an average of £5 or £6 per ton. 
“ Avoid auction marts and butchers’ and dealers’ ‘ rings.’ 
They are bound to ‘ best ’ us, and why should we give an 
auctioneer Ss. for selling an animal we are capable of selling 
ourselves ? ” 
This is clearly the right view of things, but it is on’y the 
inception of a change that must be thorough in every way if it 
is to be successful. Cake, hay, and roots, nutritious as they are 
when used in judicious mixture, are three of the most costly 
components of sheep or cattle dietary, not one of them being 
indispensable. Substitutes ? Undoubtedly, and excellent ones, 
too, have we in silage, Oats, and Oat straw. If it comes to a 
question of “ farming,” compare the process of ensilage with 
that of haymaking. In the one we have simply to mow, cart, 
stack, and compress; in the other at best there is the mowing, 
tedding, collecting, carting, and stacking. This can only be 
done expeditiously in exceptionally favourable weather ; with 
weather at all unsettled the process becomes tedious and costly 
—frequently exceedingly so ; the hay then in the process of 
“ making” loses much of its nutritive property, becoming in a 
very wet summer so poor in quality as to be very little better 
than litter. None of this loss in feeding value ever occurs in 
well managed silage. It is true enough that there is some waste 
cn the outside of a silage stack, but the bulk of it is sound, 
wholesome, and highly nutritious food. 
Another point is bulk of crop. “Farming” means a full 
crop, and nothing short of it. Do farmers generally obtain a 
full crop from permanent pasture ? Do they get a fall early 
bite, or an abundant aftermath ? Is their pasture of the verdant 
hue in winter which alone betokens land well drained, fertility 
fully sustained ? Assuredly not. Every winter there are tens 
of thousands of acres of it throughout the length and breadth of 
the land of that brown hue which proclaims the poverty of the 
soil, the ignorance and folly of those who own or hire it. It is 
but the repetition of an oft told tale, to point to sheep folding 
and chemical manures as a certain remedy for so lamentable a 
state of things. If we would have full forage crops of every sort 
we must have sustained fertility, not soil exhaustion. The 
cause of exhaustion is so certain, the remedy so simple and so 
sure, that really poor pasture ought to be as much the exception 
as it assuredly is now the rule. It was positively refreshing to 
hear from a correspondent of the success which had followed 
his use of chemical manures, because we still hear frequent 
expressions of doubt about them, or assertions that they are 
worthless. “ Stimulants are they, and nothing more,” said the 
agent of a large estate to us recently. No clear response did he 
make to our challenge for proofs ; he just had recourse to mere 
assertion. Plenty of facts had we of the high value of pure 
nitr genous and mineral manures in judicious combination, 
facts which we hope carried conviction with them, as they have 
so frequently done. 
The thorough, intelligent, cultivation of permanent pasture 
is a point cf husbandry, a branch of “ farming,” which points to 
profit in no uncertain manner. Now is the time to begin by a 
wise outlay of capital upon the purchase of manures, which store 
the soil about the grass roots with those essential elements of 
plant foods—nitrogen, potash, and phosphoric ac'd. To apply 
them now in the form of nitrate of soda, superphosphate, 
steamed bone flour, and muriate of potash, so far as means 
admit, would be a good beginning, and the good work could then 
be carried on next winter by means of sheep folds on every 
upland farm where sheep winter well. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Early lambs have been folded with the ewes on Swedes which had 
from the first enough leaves for the lambs to run forward and eat. They 
now do much more than nibble tops, quite half of many of the roots 
being eaten before the ewes get to them. This is right, for with sound 
nutritious trough food health and condition are alike satisfactory. The 
wrong part of folding is in turning pregnant ewes upon Turnips and 
giving very little corn or chaff. As a general rule we allow no Turnips 
of any sort to be used for the ewes till after the lambing. In skilful 
hands a few Turnips do no harm before the lambing, but owing to the 
general tendency to use them in excess of what is prudent we allow 
none to be used. The reason for this may as well be given once more— 
i.e., that the consumption of large quantities of such cold watery food hy 
pregnant ewes makes so severe a tax upon the system that it weakens 
instead of nourishing them, causing abortion as well as losses among 
them so frequently that it has long been thought “ good luck ” if only an 
occasional ewe dies. In many a flock lambing does not begin till the 
middle of March ; keep such ewes from Turnips, keep them out of muddy 
folds. Pasture, silage, and crushed corn will keep them strong and 
healthy. Beware of cold cutting winds ; they are often fatal to young 
lambs. Give full attention to providing shelter that is thorough and 
food that is wholesome. Trust nothing to luck or chance, let it be the 
shepherd’s aim to rear every lamb; he may not succeed, but then he 
may, and whatever be the result the effort to excel makes a man more 
skilful, enables him to grasp something more of cause and effect, to do 
better now and in future than he has done in the past. 
Most disheartening is it to see the wretched plight of so many store 
beasts. It is wrong, we say it emphatically, in the grazier’s interest, and 
nothing he can say will make it right. To compel cattle in a state of 
semi-starvation to clear a pasture of “ fog,” which in plain English is 
innutritions grass, mostly brown, is certainly not “ farming.” Whole¬ 
some food and shelter they must have to winter well and come out in 
fresh condition in spring. Silage, Oat straw, and kibbled Oats, with 
some Cabbage or Thousand-headed Kale, is the best dietary for store 
cattle in winter. All of it is grown upon the home farm ; there are no 
cake bills. We cannot afford them, and the hay is reserved for dairy 
cows and light horses. Pasture herbage is growing so freely that we 
hope to be able to turn out early this spring. 
OUR LETTER BOX. 
Chemical Manure for Pasture (IF. R. IF.).—By all means 
repeat the dressing which answered so well in 1890. In the later 
prescription to which you refer nitrate of potash is simply given as 
having answered well. We ceased using it because it was so expensive, 
and also because we had found an efficient substitute in muriate of 
potash at about one-third the cost of the nitrate. We are glad to know 
that you derive help from our farm notes. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
Oamdex Square, London. 
Lat. 51° 32' 40" N.; Long. 0° 8/ 0" W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
Date. 
9 A.M. 
In tue Day. 
Rain. 
1893. 
Februai-y and 
March. 
Barometer 
1 at 32°, and 
1 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. 
luchs. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
Inchs. 
Sunday .. 26 
29-024 
41-1 
40-0 
S. 
37-8 
47-4 
31-8 
74-9 
27-8 
0-178 
Monday .. 27 
29-386 
38-2 
35-8 
S.W. 
38-0 
41-1 
34-1 
52-2 
28-4 
0-444 
Tuesday .. 28 
29->86 
35-7 
34-5 
N. 
37-9 
47-0 
32-2 
75-9 
28-0 
0-096 
Wednesday 1 
29-646 
44-2 
44-1 
S. 
37-8 
56-9 
35-9 
85-9 
27-4 
0-130 
Thursday.. 2 
29-932 
49-3 
46-1 
w. 
39-9 
58-0 
44-5 
87-9 
38-6 
0-048 
Friday .. 3 
30-319 
43-7 
40-3 
E. 
41-4 
49-4 
42-1 
53-9 
40-9 
0-049 
Saturday .. 4 
30-172 
49-1 
47-9 
S.W. 
42-0 
57-2 
43-4 
84-4 
43-1 
— 
29-752 
43-0 
41'3 
39-3 
51-0 
37-7 
73-6 
33-5 
0-945 
REMARKS. 
26tli.—Gale, and steady heavy rain from 7 A.M. to 1 P.M.; generally sunny in the after¬ 
noon; rain and hail about 5 p.M, bright again after. 
27th.—Bright early ; overcast after 9 A.M., and almost incessant rain from 11 A.M. to 
11 P.M., heavy from 11.30 A.M. to 3 P.M. 
28th.—Rain in the small hours ; bright sunshine from sunrise to 3'30 P.M., then slight 
fog till evening. 
1st.—Heavy rain from 8.30 A.M. to 10 A.M.; generally sunny after 11.45 A.M., but 
showery between 2 and 3 P.M. 2nd.—Fine, and frequently sunny throughout. 
3rd.—Rain about 3 A.M. ; overcast day, with a little drizzle in evening. 
4th. -Rain from midnight to 3 A.M.; overcast, with frequent drizzle in the morning; 
bright sunshine in afternoon, fine night. 
Another miid and wet week. —G. J. Symons. , 
