442 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
May 31,18&4. 
effect of soil cultivation upon crops is the most important, 
because without sound tillage other work cannot tell upon the 
final result as it ought to do. The general conception of what 
sound tillage is appears to be vague, indefinite, and fanciful in 
the extreme. It may be that this is so because common rules 
of practice are not applicable to all soils, y.t the general 
principle, the reason why of the matter, holds good everywhere, 
and it is deplorable that discussions of it so frequently iiuzzle 
plain men instead of helping them. 
By common consent good mixed soil is regai’ded as the best 
land a farmer can have. It is a deep loam, having thorough 
natural mechanical division in the guise of small pieces of 
stone, gravel or flint, well mixed with the soil, with perfect under 
drainage, so that water filtration and air circulation can never 
sustain any serious check in it. A deep tilth, a fine seed bed, an 
even distribution of fertility to a considerable depth, eai’ly 
sowing, speedy seed germination, a full plant, robust growth, 
free root action, early development, abundant crops, are some 
of the special advantages which such soil affords under good 
management. Taken, therefore, as a standard of excellence, 
the general aim should be to bring other soil as near to its con¬ 
dition as may be possible without having to incur an unreason¬ 
able outlay. I his should determine the point as to whether 
soil is or is not worth cultivating. There is undoubtedly a limit 
to profitable tillage, bounds which cannot be passed with 
impunity. Outside those bounds lie extravagant and careless 
tillage—wild, thoughtless expenditure, slovenly practice, often a 
mere following of custom. 
Inside them assuredly much soil improvement is possible' 
That of heavy land, by drainage always in conjunction with 
liming, heavy dressings of burnt clay, slag, ashes, gravel, road, 
or river sand—anything available to impart mechanical division. 
Once have this well done, then improvement in soil condition, 
and the crops growing in it is bound to follow. The free 
passage of rain water, the steady circulation of air, always does 
this. Then comes deeper tillage, but no bringing of clayey 
subsoil to the surface; we can add to depth of soil without 
doing that. Then does the surface become so mixed or divided 
that there is an end of the cracking and deep fissures from 
drought, always present in crude heavy land. Then, also, may 
the improved soil be cleaned and ridged high in the autumn with¬ 
out fear of its being shattered and flattened by winter weather. 
Ploughing, too, may be done soon after heavy rain with all 
possible advantage. Very different this to the long waiting 
which is so frequent on unimproved heavy land, because if it is 
ploughed while saturated by heavy rain it is so apt to dry into 
hard unwoi kable clods. 
In all tillage there must be a clearly defined plan, a reason 
for each detail of the work, an end and aim clearly in view. 
Mere opinion, or any fanciful ideas in connection with it, should 
be regarded with suspicion. Valuable as deep cultivation 
undoubtedly is, we never should advise anyone to rush into it 
at considerable extra expense. No, the matter must be well 
thought out, the present condition of the soil mastered, its 
effect upon crops growing in it watched, the possibility, method, 
and cost of improvement carefully weighed, then to decide if it 
is worth while. Place the whole thing upon a business footing^ 
throw fancy to the winds, and listen to the dictates of reason 
and good sense. 
It is because we have had so much practice in this important 
work that we advise deliberation and caution. Several times 
have we tackled that worse field in a farm which has never been 
known to yield a full crop, and made it one of the best. Step 
by step has the work been done. First of all the under drainage 
and the ditches, then the breaking up, cleaning, and mechanical 
division, so that it never can settle down again into a cold, wet, 
inert mass. Then, and not till then, full dressings of manure, 
it may be after liming, with the sowing of carefully selected 
seed, and then success. Subsequently, seasonable tillage and 
sustained fertility suffice to maintain the high standard which 
was our aim, and up to which the soil is brought. 
WOEK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Aa we write the preliminary work of destroying some poor foul 
pasture in view of obtaining a really useful meadow in place of it has 
been arrested by wet weather. The condition of this pasture is lament¬ 
able, foul with Docks, Thistles, Nettles, Brambles, Broom, Rushes, and 
Carnation Grass, thin in plant everywhere, we decided that the best way 
—the only good way, was to pare and burn it, to get rid of foulness in 
plant growth and insects, then to drain, spread the ashes, plough deeply, 
give a good dressing of sixty bushels of lime fresh from the kiln per acre, 
well work it with the cultivator, then to throw it up in ridges early next 
autumn, and next spring to lay it down to grass again with a crop of 
Black Tartarian Oats. It could be sown with permanent pasture mixture 
early this autumn, but we prefer wintering the soil in ridges, and doing 
our best for the soil before laying it down to pasture again. Had this 
been done generally, and subsequent cultivation been equally well done, 
permanent pasture would have been in better condition and more pro¬ 
fitable than it is now. 
Pasture herbage is abundant, but the growth of it and all other crops 
has been arrested by the remarkable change to colder weather. This 
has been especially felt in the dales of Leicestershire and Derbyshire, 
and stock has suffered somewhat—not from scarcity of food, but from 
exposure to cold and wet. The warm weather in April and for the 
first week or two of May, led to the rash shearing of sheep ; they must 
have suffered severely from the change to colder weather. As showing 
how custom rules we may mention some sheep-washing which we saw 
being done in very cold weather on May 18th. The folly of this thing 
was so apparent, because the only reason for pressing on sheep-washing 
is sultry weather and a consequent risk of attacks from fly. 
A.s we said green food is abundant. Rye is in ear, and must be 
cut for horses ; Tares are being folded, and are a very fine crop ; 
Trifolium is in use, and will soon be done. There is also plenty of 
Italian Rye Grass, as well as mixed seeds. Rape, Kale, and Cabbage 
are well up, and the horse hoes are briskly at work among them, there 
is also much work among root crops. 
EFFECTS OF CHEMICAL MANURES. 
I FIND great difficulty in procuring muriate of potash when making 
up your prescription for grass land. Would you kindly say what I can 
substitute for it (apart from nitrate of potash), as I want to use your 
prescription of August 3rd, 1893, for orchard trees? My grass, treated 
with your prescription of January 23rd, 1890, or February 23rd, 1893, is 
again the best crop in my locality—Chaddesley Corbett. My “ prac¬ 
tical ’’ neighbours cannot understand it. 1 tell them to read and profit 
by the Journal of Horticulture. —H. E. W. 
[You give your neighbours very good advice. You will probably 
have no difficulty in obtaining kainit as a substitute for muriate of 
potash, only you must use one-third more of it, as it is much less rich 
in potash than the muriate.] 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
Oamden Squabb, London. 
Lat.51° 32'40" N.; Long. 0° 8' 0" W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
Date. 
9 A.M. 
In the Day. 
Rain. 
1894. 
May. 
1 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. 
Inchs. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
Inchs. 
Sunday 
20 
29-983 
46-4 
40-8 
N.B. 
53 3 
53*1 
38-1 
107-4 
34-4 
Monday .. 
21 
-29-952 
51-8 
44-2 
N.B. 
51-9 
54-3 
33-0 
104-9 
25-2 
Tuesday .. 
22 
30-047 
50-4 
43*0 
N,E. 
50-7 
54-8 
34-2 
98-8 
25-0 
0-018 
Wednesday 
23 
30*152 
47-7 
46-2 
N.E. 
50-1 
60-6 
41-9 
104-3 
40-4 
0-097 
Thursday.. 
24 
30-300 
60-4 
52-7 
N.B. 
5.-0 
68-7 
42-4 
114-6 
36-1 
— 
Friday .. 
25 
30-106 
57-8 
5iJ*9 
N.B. 
51-9 
70-9 
42-3 
116-9 
38-0 
— 
Saturday .. 
2. 
29-781 
49-6 
43-2 
N.W. 
54*0 
56-0 
44-6 
109-7 
39 9 
0-262 
30-046 
52-0 
45 9 
51-7 
59-8 
39-5 
108-1 
34-1 
0377 
REMARKS. 
SOth.—Overcast day, with occasional spots of rain, and hail at 6 P.M.; bright evening* 
21st.—Generally sunny early; overcast day, with occasional sunshine; spots of rain at 
noon. 
22nd.—Bright sunshine till about 11 A.M ; overcast, with frequent spots of rain from 
noon. 
23rd.—Overcast, with drizzle till 9.30 A.M., then continuous rain till 2.30 P.M.; overcast 
afternoon and fine evening. 
24th.—Brilliant sunshine throughout. 
25th.—Unbroken sunshine till 3.30 P.M., a little cloud after. 
26th.—Windy, with alternate cloud and sunshine, and showers at 0.30 P.M. and 4.30 
P.M.; steady rain from 9.30 P.M. 
Much colder, but no actual frost except on the grass. Very similar to the (nearly) 
corresponding week ending May 23rd, 1891; but then the air temperature fell 2'3® 
lower, while the temperature on grass did not fall so low as in 1894 by 4‘2°.— 
I G. J. Symons. 
