October 6, 1887. ] 
307 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
On many a farm, especially where the soil is thin, spring 
corn, roots, and pasture were all seriously affected by it, 
pasture especially becoming so parched that the hay crop 
was much below the average, and. there was little, if any, 
growth upon it subsequently till after harvest. Now this 
was just one of those untoward things which upset all 
calculations, and in many an instance compel a farmer to 
sell his cattle and sheep prematurely at unremunerative 
prices. 
Let us see now if it is possible by any improvement 
in practice so to combat, or rather forestall, such periods 
of drought by improved methods of culture as to avoid 
having to incur losses that must cripple our efforts, and 
which may lead to positive ruin. It must certainly be 
owned that hitherto in the principal corn-growing dis¬ 
tricts there has been little, if any, attempt at the cultiva¬ 
tion of permanent pasture. Upon every farm there are 
a few meadows, but the herbage is generally of an inferior 
character, and there is frequently a large per-centage of 
worthless perennial weeds. Because noxious weeds are 
so common to pasture, it by no means follows that they 
should remain in it. It is customary upon some farms 
that the shepherd shall devote spare time to spudding 
Thistles and Docks and mowing Nettles. Far better 
would it be if he were set to gradually uproot such jbests 
and so eradicate them. To get rid of Thistles we have 
only to pull them up when the soil is sufficiently softened 
by lain, and there is an end of them. The destruction of 
Nettles and Docks is more laborious, because they must 
be dug or grubbed up ; but then the work is done with, 
and there will be no subsequent occasion for the periodical 
mowing and spudding of growth which is now so common. 
The application of manure to pasture is another matter 
to which we have frequently called attention. We have 
repeatedly had proof in our own practice that pasture 
maintained in a high state of fertility invariably affords a 
full crop of hay, and suffers much less from a hot dry 
summer than poor pasture, or that which has no sys¬ 
tematic cultivation. It is altogether a mistake to suppose 
that the grazing of a certain number of sheep or cattle 
upon pasture will enrich it sufficiently. If sheep are 
passed over it in folds and are well fed they will do so, 
but folding is a very different matter from turning them 
loose upon it to ramble at will. In even a brief refer¬ 
ence to this matter, one is tempted by a sense of its 
importance to enter upon details of cultivation which ex¬ 
perience has shown cannot be neglected with impunity. 
It will, however, suffice now if we mention that good 
work may be done at once by draining wet pasture, and 
sheep-folding during autumn or winter will ensure an early 
and strong growth in spring. If sheep cannot be had 
then give a dressing of home-mixed chemical manure 
next bebruary, and it will be found that the money so 
spent is a very profitable investment. 
Gieen crops on arable land proved very useful. We 
fiist had the sheep in folds on Bye, which was eaten off 
so closely that the land was quite bare when they left it; 
so abundant was our supply of other green food that we 
did not require the strong second growth of Rye which 
the folding induced, and it was left for seed and straw. 
This was harvested in excellent condition, threshed early, 
and the seed not required for sowing was sold not quite 
to our satisfaction, for it was excellent seed for which we 
should have had to pay 2 Is. per quarter, but we could 
only obtain 2 Is. from a corn merchant, who thus got a 
profit of 3s. per quarter. When corn is so purchased and 
sold at once, without being taken into the merchant’s 
warehouse, he certainly gets what upon the face of it 
appears to be an undue amount of profit, but in buying 
he has always to take into account the possible contin¬ 
gency of storage and a slow sale. 
Sainfoin gave us plenty of sheep food after the Rye* 
and the lambs did remarkably well upon it. We have 
harvested a good stock of seed from much of the second 
growth, which seed will not be milled, but sown in the 
husk at the rate of four bushels to the acre with a corn 
crop next spring. Our young layers of Sainfoin are a 
good strong plant now, and we intend sowing much more 
of it and less of Red Clover upon our heavy land farms- 
next spring. Red Clover gave an excellent first crop, 
much of which was made into stover, but some was eaten 
off by sheep, and the second growth saved for seed. It 
was only where the sheep went that we had a fairly strong 
second growth, for drought checked growth so much after 
the mowing that it was stunted and unfit either for seed 
or stover. 
(To be continued.) 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
M h at-sowing has so far baen clone easily and wall, and wj have- 
decided to have no more corn threshed on the heavy land farms until 
the whole of the wint-r corn is sown. We have sent seed of Oakshott's 
D -fiance Il-d Wheat to all of our farms for trial next season. We had a 
small field of it this season at the home farm, and another at an off 
farm, and the yield and weight are sufficiently good to induce us to give 
it a further and more extensive trial. We have only threshed a little 
Wheat as yet for food ; the surplus quantity of that was sold, and we 
got 2s. Gd. a quarter more for Webbs’ Giant White than for White Chaff 
Red. The difference in price is not a large one, but is still enough to be 
worth having ; £12 10s. in every hundred quarters of Wheat will make 
a material difference in our balance sheet at the end of the year. Wint r 
B ans have been sown by fastening a spout drill to a plough, other 
ploughs following without drills, sons to keep the rows far enough aoart.. 
'this is a very satisfactory way of sowing Beans much followed by 
Suffolk farmers, the ploughing and drilling being dene at one and the 
same time, and th-re is almost always a good strong plant from Beans so- 
sown, while th 3 rough surface of the land affords some protection to it 
during winter. We called attention last winter to the high value of 
Beans for fattening cattl -, better r-suits b j ing obtained by a judicious- 
di-tary of Beans, chaff, and roots than from one into which oilcake 
enters largely. We strive to make farms self-supporting in this matter 
so far as we can do, for we hold that a heavy expmditure for cake 
should b; avoided. 
dhe prevalence of sw.ne f-ver has led to the issue of printed forms, 
with spaces left for every farmer to make a declaration that his farm is, 
and has been, free from infection for a given period of time. This is a 
step in the right direction, which may have some effect in checking the- 
spread of the fever, but it will do little more if farmers do not help- 
themselves by seeing that pigs are kept in such a cleanly condition as to- 
ensure good health. The spread of swine fever is simplv an outcome of 
the careless, eas >--going practice of keeping them in a filthy condition 
and feeding them with equally filthy food. 
FARMERS AND THEIR CATTLE. 
At a time when our pastures are yielding very little food, and our 
hay and Turnip crops are from one-third to one-half below an average, 
with the eventual prospect before us of a great scarcity before next May 
of feeding stuffs for our cattle, perhaps I shall do my fellow farmers a 
service by calling their attention to a cheap food adjunct, which is at 
present available for us, and which at one time was highly valued—I 
allude to that of green malt. Since the malt ^ut.y was removed, every 
farmer can make malt for himself free from all restrictions, and the 
cost to him of making it is a nominal one. Formerly very much was 
thought of malt as a feeder for all stock, and it is especially good for 
cows, as they will upon it, with bran and other food, produce plenty of 
rich sweet milk all the winter through ; sheep, beasts, and horses all 
thrive and fatten upon a mixture of it and other foods, but of late years- 
it has not been much used, as its cost has been higher than other feeders. 
Malt is termed green when the roots and stem of the Barley from which 
it is made are sufficiently grown for it to be put upon the kiln to be- 
dried. It is also at this stage of its growth that it is of the most value 
as a feeder—it being lound that green malt gives better feeding results 
than dried malt—and, as I will show later on, every farmer can easily 
make this sort of malt himself, almost without any manufacturing 
cost. 
As I have already said, the general use of green malt has been cur¬ 
tailed by its comparative expensiveness, but this objection does not exist 
at the present. There is no better Barley for making this malt from- 
than that imported from Russia, being less liable to mould, and singular 
to say, this sort oE Barley has never before been so plentiful nor so cheap 
