350 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER 
[ October n, '8 8. 
following of the practice of their forefathers, but they aspire to 
positive improvement, for both science and practice have taught 
them that the fertility of the soil can be increased. Do our readers 
require proofs ? Well, we can give them abundant evidence of 
the truth of our postulate. Take, for example, the evidence of 
two of our tenant farmers at our last market. One of them, a 
worthy man enough, told us he had acted upon our advice to rear 
plenty of pigs, and he had now upwards of a hundred, but he had 
threshed his Wheat in a soft damp condition, and had sold it for 
21s. a quarter ; worse still, the crop would not average 4 quarters 
<m acre. The other tenant came to us with a complacent smile, 
find he had quite a different story to tell. “ I had to thresh some 
Wheat for the straw,” said he, “ and I found the yield was fully 
equal to quarters, or GO bushels an acre, and I had no difficulty 
in getting 38s. a quarter, for the sample was a good one.” We were 
not at all surprised at the wide difference in the results of these 
two men, for the successful man is a high, or shall we say a sound 
farmer, keeping plenty of sheep, and taking especial care to attend 
closely to every important point of good husbandry, while the 
other has to struggle with the difficulties which ever attend a 
farmer with insufficient capital for the perfect cultivation of his 
holding. 
In this statement we know we only repeat an oft-told tale, but 
its truth and force will cause it to be told again many a time and 
oft, and we must insist now that it has been proved beyond a doubt 
that the fertility of soils can be increased ; that consequently more 
and better crops can be grown per acre ; and that, given reasonable 
reductions of rents, security for capital, reduced railway rates, co¬ 
operation in buying and selling farm produce, and better education 
in agriculture and its practice generally, there can be no reason for 
taking anything but a hopeful view of our future as farmers. But 
to insure this there must be no clinging to old customs, no faith in 
the mere assertion that the muck cart is the backbone of farming, 
but an intelligent teachable acceptance of the light shed upon 
modern practice by scientific research and actual results. Well 
does a contemporary observe that the old farmer uses the proverb 
that “muck is the mother of riches.” What, then, is muck? 
Animal excreta mixed with straw. So far science and ancient 
tradition agree. But here ancient tradition comes to an end, while 
science goes on to inquire what these articles consist of and 
whether they can be found elsewhere. It then ascertains that 
what in them is of advantage to the crop consists chiefly, if not 
exclusively, of three ingredients—nitrogen, potash, and phos¬ 
phorus, which together form only about one-seventieth part of the 
total “ muck.” Whether this statement is true in practice is next 
tested by practice. Portions of land are taken of equal sizes and 
of similar soil ; they are sown and cultivated in identical fashion, 
but to one is applied a full dressing of “muck,” to another a 
dressing of chemical powders, clean and inodorous, containing the 
same quantities of the three ingredients as the muck has been 
found to contain. The experiment is continued for a space of 
forty successive years on one estate, it is tried on different soils in 
other districts, it is made to yield exact knowledge by most careful 
weighing of every application and of every crop. 
The result is to establish irrefutably the fact that these three 
ingredients are really the sole constituents of muck which add 
fertility to the soil, and that if we give them in the form of dry 
powders or of solutions they are as active and as beneficial as if 
bestowed in the form of artificial manure. One difference is only 
found to exist. They are in their separate form much more 
immediately active, but also less permanent in their action. The con¬ 
sequence follows that it is not necessary to apply so much at once, 
but that the application must be repeated more frequently. In all 
other respects we have come to know for a certainty, not merely 
that we can replace the farmyard manure by the “artificial” 
manure, but that by using the one in addition to the other we can 
raise additional produce, that we can thus not merely maintain the 
fertility of the soil, but very lirgely increase it, and that by such 
means we can make an almost barren soil equally productive with 
one svhich Nature made rich. 
WORK OK THE HOME FARM. 
Very much of the more vigorous Barley was beaten down by 
heavy rain, and there was consequently so much difficulty in reaping it 
that more ears of grain are left out upon the stubbles than usual. 
None of this fallen corn will be lost, for pigs are taken out on the 
stubbles daily, care being taken to let them have water at mid-day and 
when they leave the stubbles in the evening. The scarcity of old straw 
caused many Barley stacks to be exposed to rain before the thatching 
was done. If, when such “weathered” stacks are threshed, the corn 
from the top of the stack is at all damp or soft, it had much better be 
used for the pigs than sold at a very low price as grinding Barley, for if 
realised in the form of pork it will certainly prove profitable, which it 
as certainly could not if sold at 22s. or 24s. per quarter for grinding. 
Very little corn-threshing has been done as yet. We had all the Rye 
threshed, both because we required seed for sowing, and the surplus 
could only be disposed of advantageously now to buyers for the same 
purpose. The value of Rye as a green crop for early spring food is not 
fully realised by all farmers. It comes into use before any other green 
crop, gives a brisk second growth, which is available either for sheep or 
may be left to produce grain. If it is not required after the first growth 
is eaten off by sheep in folds it may be ploughed in in good time for a 
crop of Barley, or the land may be turned to account for a root crop. 
Roots, by-the-by, are so abundant that we have ordered an inferior 
crop of white Turnips to be ploughed in for Wheat. The Turniptops 
are vigorous enough, and there is a plentiful admixture of wild Oats 
among them, so that the green crop should impart enough fertility to 
the land for Wheat. 
Wheat-sowing will be retarded both by the late harvest and by the 
late growth of the second crop of Clover. The first crop of Clover was 
altogether inferior and poor ; the second, owing to the wet summer, is 
very abundant, and the difficulty has been what to do with it. We were 
able to fold some of it off with sheep, but it grew so fast and so strongly 
that the sheep were beaten and it had to be mown and harvested. 
ENSILAGE. 
The sample of ensilage sent is from a silo opened last October, 
made from a mixture of Lucerne, Rye Grass, and grass cut between 
trees and round hedges, &c., salted and well trodden. The silo is made 
from a portion of a large brick barn with stone floor, a 14-inch wall 
built across the barn with a doorway left when built, then bricked up 
so as to be taken down when the ensilage is ready for use. One-third 
was cut in chaff before filling, and two-thirds put in long, chaff at one 
end, long at the other ; but this year it is all put in long. There is a 
large loft above the silo, and the grass is carted and put in the loft and 
thrown down through trap doors into the silo, well shaken, salted, and 
trodden down firm. When filled wooden shutters were placed on the 
top and about 4 inches of bran on the boards, which were then weighted 
with several tons of stones. As used one shutter can be taken off and 
a portion taken down ; thus there is not much exposed to the air. Bran 
for covering I find better than soil, as it can be used for pigs or with the 
chaff, and there is no grit to mix with the food. This year, instead of 
weighting with stones, two pieces of wood the length of the silo arc 
put on the shutters, with three cross-pieces and small screw-jacks so as 
to give it level pressure. Small jacks to lift about 7 or 8 tons, with a 
large piece of timber fixed to the bottom of the beams in a loft to keep 
the jacks from raising them out of their place. I find it a very useful 
and not very expensive silo.—C. Osman. 
[The sample sent we have previously referred to as remarkably 
sweet and excellent in all respects.] 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS, 
CAMDEN SQUARE, LONDON. 
Lat. 51° 82' 40" N. ; Long. 0° 8'0" W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
DATE. 
9 A.M. 
IN THE DAY. 
Hygrome- 
g . 
Shade Tem- 
Radiation 
P 
1888. 
IS”? 
ter. 
V a 
2^ 8 
perature. 
Temperature 
i 
Sept, and October. 
P O '*- 1 
In 
On 
052 a 
Dry. 
Wet. 
So 
H 
Max. 
Min. 
sun. 
grass 
Inches. 
deg 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
In. 
Sunday . 
30 
20.719 
458 
43 I 
N. 
55.9 
54 3 
43.5 
90.4 
40.4 
— 
Monday. 
1 
*9.708 
45 0- 
41.7 
N.W. 
53 3 
54 3 
£5 3 
97.1 
31.0 
— 
Tuesday .... 
2 
20 334 
42 4 
41.1 
N. 
51.4 
40 1 
35.3 
67.6 
S8.2 
0.134 
Wednesday.. 
3 
2 i 390 
37.2 
37.2 
N. 
49.7 
50.3 
5 9.8 
63.0 
305 
— 
Thursday.... 
4 
29.0.50 
45 6 
42-8 
N. 
4H.2 
53.2 
35.8 
75.0 
28.x 
00 8 
Friday . 
5 
29.727 
4O.0 
37.0 
W. 
47 7 
534 
20.8 
Jr 8.3 
2‘>.2 
0."U 
Saturday .... 
6 
29.854 
3r.8 
37.L 
N.W. 
4G.4 
51.8 
312 
95.9 
32 3 
— 
29 C27 
42.0 40.0 
50.4 
51.9 
34.3 
85.2 j 30.9 
0.174 
REMARKS. 
38th.—BriUiant autumn-l day. 
1st,—Brilliant all day. 
2 nd,—Cloudy morning, wet afternoon, fair evening. 
3rd.—White iro t,foggy early, hazy most of the day. 
4th.—Fine bright morning, showers in afternoon aud evenine. 
5th. - Bright morning and tine afternoon ex:ept for a heavy shower at 4.31 P.lf. 
6th.—Generally bright and fine; sprinkle of rain about 3 P.M., bat no measurable 
quantity. 
A generally fine week, with N. and W. winds, and clear sky, the effect of which l as 
been to permit great terrestrial r tdiation, which has produced exceptionally cold nights, 
the ave’age minimum being only St S“. or 18.4“ below the previous week, an l a tout that 
due to lilt 1st of J miury.—Q. J.,SYM1NS. 
