152 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ August 18, 18 7. 
Meanwhile it will be well to guard ourselves against hasty 
conclusions about any of them, for such conclusions 
often prove false, and eventually do more harm than 
good. 
A recent inspection of some of the Norfolk experi¬ 
mental stations have served to strengthen our conviction 
that much care, patience, and perseverance are required 
to bring the trials to a satisfactory conclusion by making 
them thoroughly exhaustive, which we submit can only 
be done by extending them over several c msecutive years. 
The chief reason for this is that our climate is so change¬ 
able that results must be affected by the peculiarities of 
each season, and it is only by a comparison of results 
of several seasons that really useful deductions can be 
had. Take, for example, the Dyson’s Wood experiments, 
of which it is positively asserted that they have already 
shown that it is wrong to apply either nitrate of soda or 
sulphate of ammonia to permanent pasture, or in other 
words that nitrogenous manures must not be used because 
they are liable to induce so robust a growth in the stronger¬ 
growing grasses that the more delicate grasses and Clovers 
would be spoilt. Now, considerable experience in the 
use of chemical manures upon pastures enables us to saj 
positively that such a conclusion is both hasty and mis¬ 
leading. We may certainly venture to say that Mr. 
Martin John Sutton’s object is not simply to ascertain 
which manures are best for his purpose, but rather in 
what proportions nitrogen, potash, and phosphorus should 
be used. It is simple nonsense to say that manures for 
pasture are required principally for Clovers and the finer 
grasses ; bulk of crop cannot be ignored, and in order to 
obtain it we must have plenty of the stronger-growing 
grasses. What after all do we require in a forage crop 
but nutritious food for our sheep and cattle ? and we 
know by that best of all tests—practical results, that we 
have plenty of nutriment in Cocksfoot and Rye Grass. 
For the outcome of agricultural experiments to be of 
practical value to the ordinary farmer they must show 
him how, by good husbandry in conjunction with the use 
of certain manures, he may so increase the produce of his 
land as to render his calling again profitable. This must 
be done in a clear and simple yet comprehensive manner. 
It is not enough to tell a man that a given quantity of 
manure must be used, but he must know how and when 
to use it. There can be no doubt that severe losses have 
happened simply through the improper use of chemical 
manures, Repeatedly have we shown our readers that 
annual surface dressings of chemical manures on pastures 
in February insure a full crop of hay, but if applied a 
month or two later successful results would be proportion¬ 
ately uncex-tain, because we must have enough rain to 
dissolve and wash in the manures. The mention of this 
fact reminds us of a want upon many, or we might say most 
farms, and that is a water cart with a spreader attached 
to it for watering pasture. In the present summer it 
would prove invaluable if kept in regular daily use, tend¬ 
ing as it must to in-ure plenty of food for grazing stock. 
Many a dairy farmer is at a loss for green food now, and 
more money is being spent upon the purchase of food than 
would suffice to keep several water carts going. This 
remark is perhaps a little wide of our subject, but we hold 
that it is well always to jot down useful thoughts as they 
occur, and if water carts were to have a place among 
ordinary farm implements they could be used in dry 
springs to dissolve chemical manures, and so render their 
action speedy and certain. 
Improved sorts of corn have had due attention in our 
own experiments this season, and we hope to have some 
useful hints to offer thereupon later on. Just now we are 
making a comparison of various sorts of Wheat, in order 
to ascertain which are the most profitable. We have new 
sorts of both Fed and White Wheat with long loose ears, 
and we question very much if they will prove to yield 
better than short stout compact ears. A twenty-acre 
field of Webb’s Giant White Wheat is very fine, but 
hitherto this Wheat has proved both small in grain and 
light in weight. We have it this year upon four farms, 
and shall be able to come to a decision as to its real value. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
The corn harvest has not proved so late this year as was at one time 
anticipated, for drought and heat brought on the corn to maturity so 
early that fully two-thirds of it was cut, and some of it carted in the 
first week of August. Wheat generally is an excellent crop, quite above 
the average, and much of it will yield full five quarters an acre. The 
quality of the Wheat will also be high, the grain being so dry and hard 
when carted to the stack as to be ready for immediate threshing. That 
advantage of this fact will be taken by many a needy farmer is pro¬ 
bable, for we much fear that many a man has difficulty in finding 
money for harvest expenses. Oats, though small in grain, are compara¬ 
tively heavier in weight than the crop of last year, but there are many 
fields of Oats below the average in bulk of crop. The finest crops we 
have seen were early sown Black Tartarian. Barley of high quality 
should prove plentiful enough, and there should be a recovery in price 
from the exceptionally low rates of last year. On many farms where 
the land is highly cultivated the crop is a heavy one, and if the price 
for superior samples of best malting Barley should reach 40s. a quarter 
it will indeed prove a boon to the growers. 
As the stubbles are cleared pigs, sheep, and turkeys are all turned 
upon them to consume fallen corn. In doing this with sheep some 
caution is necessary, as they are quite certain to eat the corn greedily, 
and may take so much of it as to sustain harm. Pigs, on the contrary, 
can hardly be over-fed, and may be suffered to remain out upon the 
stubble ail day. We like to do this with promptitude immediately 
after harvest, and then to lose no time in breaking up and clearing 
the stubbles. A neighbour of ours had a field of Peas so foul with 
weeds and wild Oats that he had the Peas all pulled by hand from 
among the weeds, which were subsequently consumed by folding sheep 
upon them. The drought has told so much upon pastures that many 
flock-masters are at their wit’s end for food for sheep. Clover layers 
that were mown for Clover have such a short second growth that it is 
only suitable for sheep-grazing. 
OUR LETTER BOX. 
Poor Pasture 'J. /. A'.).—Italian Rye Grass is a bieanitl, and the-efore 
your field of it will answer well another season if you g ve it a dressing of 
tue chemical manures we recomm nd, next February, but yo l might a'sj 
use nitrate of soda as advised in sho very weather now to promote a free 
autumnal g-owth. We are not surprised that your pasture is bare now 
after so long a drought; it is only on marsh land and deep cool alluvial 
soil that green pasture is to be seen now. Your mixture of Rye Grass—if 
the perennial sort—Cocksfoot, Timothy, Red Clover, White Clover, Alsike, 
and Cow Grass is a good one, and should give you a productive pasture, if 
you apply chemical manure in February, or better still fold it with sheep. 
As you, however, appear to require it for cows, aoply the chemical manure 
regularly in Februiry, and take special care that none of the Grass is 
suffered to run to seed, but is either mown or eaten off before seeding is 
possible. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
Camden Square, London. 
Lit. 51° 82' 40" N.; Linj, 0° 8' 0"W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
DATE. I 9 A.M. j IN THE DAY. 
1887. 
AUgU9t. 
£?« 2 — 
S £ 
in 3 
Hygrome¬ 
ter. 
Direction 
of Wind. 
Temp, of 
soil at 
1 foot. 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature 
Bain 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
snu. 
On 
grass 
Inches. 
deg 
deg- 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
In. 
Suuday . 
V 
30.0*8 
74 8 
6L.2 
S.W. 
65 2 
82.8 
56 1 
127.6 
51.4 
_ 
Monday. 
8 
30.339 
6S5 
58.2 
S.w. 
65.8 
86.2 
52.9 
127.4 
60.4 
_ 
TuesdaV .. 
9 
30.171 
69.1 
59.2 
N.W. 
66.0 
82 7 
56.6 
128.3 
536 
_ 
Wednesday.. 
10 
30.098 
6'.9 
51.5 
N.E. 
66.4 
74 6 
55.4 
117.2 
53.3 
_ 
Thursday .... 
1L 
10 101 
58.7 
52.2 
N. 
65.7 
72.3 
54.9 
119 2 
52 8 
__ 
Friday . 
VI 
29.979 
69 3 
52.8 
N.E. 
65 2 
70 7 
54 6 
114.7 
52.5 
_ 
Saturday .... 
13 
29.806 
613 
55.3 
E. 
64.9 
70.6 
54 8 
1143 
52.6 
— 
30.067 
64.7 
55.8 
65.6 
77.1 
55.0 
1212 
52.4 
- 
REMARKS. 
7th.—Rright, fine, and warm. 
8th.—Pine, bright, and hot. 
9th.—Hright and warm. 
loth.—Cloudy morning, fine afternoon; cool a 1 ! day. 
itch.—Cloudy early ; bright, cool, pletsant day. 
12th.—Cool, with easterly wind and generally cloudy. 
ldth.— Cloudy nearly all day, slight shower in late evening, but not yieldlnga measurable 
am aunt. 
The tenth successive hot week, and a second consecutive rainless one.—0. J. SYMONS 
