442 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
Maj IS, 1835. 
do with it ? There are two sides to every question, two points 
of view from which, in common fairness, land difficulties must 
be regarded, and while we are asked with persistent reiteration 
to “Pity the poor farmers,” what, we ask, is to be done for 
the landlords, with rents reduced and with land thrown on 
their hands foul with weeds, exhausted of fertility—farmed 
out ? 
“I see little or no inducement to cultivate land at the 
present ruinous prices; farmers and landlords are bankrupt 
all round us,” writes the agent of an East Anglian estate, in 
a letter which also tells of a farm in hand of some 400 acres, 
only 70 acres of which is in pasture ; of a farmer giving up a 
farm of 600 acres next Michaelmas for another of only 130 acres, 
and so on. Well do we know from our own experience in the 
management of East Anglian farms how great are the diffi¬ 
culties, how severe the struggle to hold on at all. It is only 
because rents have come down by from one-half to two-thirds 
that tenants have been kept going. We suggested long ago 
a system of temporary pasture and co-operative butter factories 
instead of Wheat in order to effect a considerable reduction 
in the area of arable land, but our words were as nought to the 
com farmers. 
More hopeful, more elastic, altogether on a sounder basis is 
the agricultural situation in those districts where land is 
mainly in grass, but even there difficulties occur, and there is 
much to be done in the way of improvement Here are one 
or two examples. Of certain farms which have recently been 
acquired by purchase to enlarge the bounds of an estate in the 
Midlands, one is being kept in hand till next Lady Day in 
view of placing the farmhouse and homestead in thorough 
repair, in repairing the sadly neglected fences and gates, and, 
most important of all, effecting a thorough renovation of the 
pastures. We may mention that there are four applicants for 
this farm; it is quite probable there will be more before we 
have done with it. 
The late tenant’s claim for tenant right was heavy on the 
score of improvement of pasture, which we found consisted in 
carting, and spreading on it a considerable quantity of road 
sidings. This idea of improvement is not at all in accordance 
with ours. We have given the whole of the pasture, both 
that reserved for hay and that for grazing, a dressing of 
chemical manure consisting of 2 cwt. of phosphates, 1 cwt. 
nitrates, and half cwt. potash per acre. This will give it a good 
start; it will be stocked with store cattle this season, and in 
September all the upland pasture will be folded with sheep 
It will then come to hand next Lady Day in a sound 
fertile condition, and it will be our aim to secure a really 
good tenant for it, who will continue to cultivate the pasture 
on the same sound principles. This example of practice 
should prove a valuable object lesson for the old tenants who 
have absolutely no system of pasture cultivation, have never 
set a sheep fold, nor purchased any manure. They trust to 
the excreta of grazing cattle, to natural fert lity of soil, and 
very much indeed to the weather. In thinking over this 
matter it occurred to submit our scheme to Mr. Thomas 
Brown of King’s Lynn, whose standing as an agricultural 
chemist is of the highest, and who has so long been con¬ 
ducting experiments with manures. He replied, “ I cannot 
see in what direction I can improve on your proposition. By 
your means the most worn pasture would be restored.” 
On another estate in the same district we have a farm 
which fell in hand at Lady Day, of which about fifty acres 
are in plough. Of this two fields, which were fairly clean, 
have been laid down to grass with a crop of Oats, and a 
similar dres-ing of chemical manure to that already mentioned. 
A field of Wheat has had a dressing of 1 cwt. nitrate of soda 
per acre, and the remainder of the land is to have a summer 
fallow. Of this, one field is just a bed of Thistles, and the 
remainder is so foul with couch grass that steam cultivation 
w-ill be applied to the whole of it. We were at first inclined 
to take a crop of roots from the Thistle field, but it is such 
a bad case that we decided to seize the lucky chance to 
eradicate a pest which had evidently been trifled with for 
many years, or it never could have become so bad. 
WOBK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Corn rolling has been pushed as the weather has been so favourable, 
grass seed being sown first on the spring corn where the land is going 
down either to temporary or permanent pasture. In this work we keep 
to the old plan of sowing the corn first and having the plant well above 
the surface before sowing the Grasses and Clovers in mixture, in order that 
the grass may not become so rampant as to prove very troublesome at 
harvest time. All land in fallow, whether with or without a root crop, 
has been kept well stirred, and couch fires have been kept going. 
In our uncertain climate the only safe plan is to never miss a chance 
of pushing on such work, even at the expense of something else. The 
weed pest is one of the hindrances to successful farming that demands 
much more systematic treatment on the principle of prevention than 
it generally receives. It must surely be obvious that to wait till peren¬ 
nial weeds become strongly established on the land before grappling 
with them is as foolish as it is costly. 
Give all possible attention to root and green crops so as to have an 
ample provision for a possible droughty autumn as well as for next 
winter. Get forward with land intended for Green Maize, which is just 
one of those crops that must be sown neither too early nor too late. It 
is sensitive to frost, therefore do not sow till risk of harm to the young 
plant from cold is past, and then do not lose an hour. Generally, the 
end of May is regarded as the best time, and wherever it is found to 
answer— i.e., localities where there are four months without frost, it 
should be grown for the marvellous bulk of crop, for its nutritious pro¬ 
perties, and because cattle are so fond of it. 
See that there is no negligence about calves. Let all very young ones 
have milk at least three times daily, that others have plenty of nourishing 
food and are kept going in the best way without check of any sort. On 
bright warm days now we always have the forward calves out in the 
paddock, only taking care to get them into the yard or hovel early in 
the evening, and to keep them in altogether on the wet, cold days which 
occur at this season of the year. Careful feeding, no undue exposure, 
kindly, gentle treatment are the chief points in this work, which must 
have attention. 
OUR LETTER BOX. 
Value of Grass (IF. L. H .').—The value of your five acres of grass 
to let for hay (and presumably for the aftermath as well) depends not 
only upon the quality of the land and condition of the grass now, but 
also upon local circumstances. If the land is really rich in fertility, 
and the herbage is exceptionally good— i.e., of vigorous growth, and 
really thick on the land, it may be worth from £2 to £3 per acre. But 
its value must also depend upon its surroundings. If such a crop is 
really in demand in your neighbourhood, and good pasture is at all 
scarce, then you might obtain the higher amount. In the Midlands, 
where so much of the land is in grass, the “keeping”—practically the 
same as the heavy crop and aftermath—is very cheap this season, for 
the simple reason that stock is dear and scarce, and there is a positive 
glut of keeping in the market. A lot of it was let by auction last week 
at from 12s. to 14s. per acre, and much of it was not let at all, not a bid 
being made for it. _ 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
Oamdbn Squarb, London. 
Lat.51° 32'40" N.; Long. 0° 8' 0" W.; Altitude 111 feet. 
Date. 
9 A.M. 
In the Day. 
d 
*os 
(4 
1895. 
May. 
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. 
Incbs. 
Sunday .. 
5 
30-362 
53-6 
47-2 
N.E. 
51 7 
64-9 
38-3 
110-9 
34-2 
— 
Monday .. 
6 
30-332 
61-7 
51-3 
N. 
51-0 
73-4 
43-2 
117-1 
S9-1 
— 
Tuesday .. 
7 
30-257 
61-2 
51-8 
N.E. 
52 9 
69-4 
48-7 
114-3 
42-6 
— 
Wednesday 
8 
30-C67 
60-2 
52-3 
N.E. 
53-7 
70-3 
45-6 
112-9 
40-2 
— 
Thursday.. 
9 
30-020 
62-2 
53-4 
N. 
54-2 
75-4 
43-2 
113-8 
38-2 
— 
Friday 
10 
30-144 
57 7 
50 3 
W. 
64-7 
68-8 
45-1 
117-4 
41-4 
— 
Saturday .. 
11 
30-221 
59 9 
63-1 
N.W. 
55-0 
73-3 
43-1 
116-3 
37-2 
30-200 
59-5 
61-6 
53-3 
70-8 
43-9 
114-7 
590 
— 
REMARKS. 
5th.—Bright early, frequently cloudy after 10 A.JI.; brilliant night. 
6th.—Almost cloudless throughout. 
7th.—Almost cloudless throughout. 
8th.—Believed to be absolutely cloudlets. .... 
9th.—Bright sunshine ti 1 11 A.M., hazy after with detached cloud; threatening at 
times in afternoon, and spots of rain at 5.30 p.m. Solar halo at 6 P.M. 
10th. —Sunny almost throughout, but occasional cloud, 
nth. —Unbroken sunshine all day. 
Another fine week, and warm, but not unprecedentedly so.—G. J. Stmons. 
