416 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ November 1, 1888. 
ONE-SIDED FARMING. 
Rushing to extremes has been the characteristic of very much 
of the practice of many British farmers under the heavy cloud of 
depression which has been hanging over them of late years—we 
might say for the last decade, and we doubt not that many of them 
have had bitter reason to regret such action, for however desirable 
a change of the recognised system of cropping might appear for 
the moment, the result has almost invariably gone to show that the 
growth or non-growth of this or that crop affords no real or safe 
remedy for low prices. Take, for example, the Barley crop. In 
the great corn-growing district of East Anglia Barley has been 
turned to as the last resort of the corn-grower ; and in what sort 
of position is the exclusive grower of Barley this year ? We may 
turn to our own practice for an answer, for although we have all 
along continued growing a fair proportion of Wheat, yet we have 
tried to have full and fine crops of Barley. To achieve an end so 
palpably desirable, simply because it must certainly prove profit¬ 
able if the grain could be matured and sowed in good order, we 
have spared no pains or expense in the process of cultivation and 
in obtaining good seed. But under the adverse influence of bad 
weather our best crops of Barley this year were beaten down by 
rain and wind ; the grain is thick-skinned and discoloured, and it 
is only by the superior bulk of the crop that we can obtain a profit 
upon the sale of the low-priced grain. Sure enough our efforts are 
handicapped by the uncertainty of our fickle climate. 
Well, we are wont to tell this to one another, perhaps with a 
sort of vague feeling that this uncertainty, this fickleness, is pecu¬ 
liar to our climate alone. But is it so ? It may afford many a 
crumb of comfort to know that there are such things as drought 
and famine in India ; of destructive frosts, drought, and excessive 
moisture in America. If proof is wanted, we have it at hand 
from one of these great corn-growing countries in the pages of a 
contemporary, which tells by the pen of a resident farmer in 
Canada West, of “ the complete failure of the winter Wheat crop 
in Canada and many States of the Union—-a failure aggregating 
many millions, not of bushels, but quarters. Since then the 
situation has been much intensified by the great spring Wheat 
crops of the Western States and Manitoba following suit owing 
to early frosts. In truth, early frosts at the end, late frosts 
at the beginning ; a destructive drought in one section, and a 
super-abundance of moisture in another, have so curtailed and 
nibbled away our usually enormous Wheat crop, that, for export, 
only a mere modicum of it, as compared with year 1879-80 
remains. Tl.is is no pessimistic exaggeration, but a simple matter 
of fact. 
“ Whilst the farmers of Eastern Ontario, their crops licked up by 
a burning sun and cloudless sky, were selling off their milch cows to 
Yankee speculators at from 36s. to 48s. per head, the inhabitants— 
French Canadians—of Quebec ovatched their crops rot upon the 
ground amid continued rainstorms, and the recent settler of 
Manitoba and Dacotah, in somewhat ignorance or necessity, seeding 
late—aye, and old settlers seeding early too—beheld to his chagrim 
and bitter disappointment the complete destruction m some in¬ 
stances or severe injury in others of a most promising Wheat crop 
before tie magic wand of the ice king.” Tempted by the price of 
Wheat in this country the farmers of America have very generally 
been guilty of one-sided farming in growing Wheat to the exclusion 
of all other cops. For a while this answered well enough, but the 
inevitable reaction has set in, and many of them are practically 
ruined. Nor lave they been clone in such rristaken practices. In 
this country, to take one among several examples, we find some 
Hop-growers uprooting Hops by hundreds of acres under the low 
prices of the last few years, while others have kept steadily on 
doing their utmost to obtain a full crop of Hops of superior 
quality. A Sussex farmer and skilful brewer who has done so says 
he still believes in Hops when well grown and finished for market a 
fine bright sample. Such Hops must be had to brew and hop-down 
pale ales, especially for the export trade. His crop this year 
averaged 7 cwt. per acre, and he got £8 per cwt. or £64 per acre ; 
assuredly he has reason still to believe in Hops. He is a remark¬ 
able example of what is possible in farming -when the farmer is a 
living embodiment of industry, combined with sound practical 
knowledge, good sense and energy. His holding is only 100 acres 
in extent, but in that limited area are to be found remarkable 
examples of successful practice in the dairy, and with poultry, 
Hops, fruit, corn, roots, and green crops a fair proportion of each 
is seen thoroughly well done, and ths excellence of the produce 
commands a speedy sale and profitable remuneration. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
So dry and hard is some of the land required for Wheat-sowing 
that ploughing cannot be done till we get some rain, at any rate 
not. by horses, and those heavy land farmers who have the advantage 
of steam tackle are indeed fortunate. As yet we have only been 
able to sow some 20 acres of Wheat, and with that the seed ger¬ 
mination is going on satisfactorily. Of course the dry weather has 
been a real blessing, and it must not be forgotten that there are no such 
things in this world as unmixed blessings. We are getting the Man¬ 
golds together in excellent order, and the work of carting to the clamps 
is so light upon the dry hard surface, that never was the work done 
better. We have already seen several flocks folded upon Swedes, and 
the sight has set us thinking about food prospects for next ipring. Of 
course a heavy Mangold crop will then be available, but it is as well to 
have a good breadth of Swedes for the ewes and lambs to be folded 
on, to be followed by Barley, and to use Mangolds later on upon Rye 
and pastures. The first sown Tare8 are now well up. a full strong plant, 
and the Rye is also just visible. With us, our readers well know, both 
these crops hold a high position for spring feeding, and we shall have 
one more sowing of Winter Tares now for use in early summer. A field 
of seed Tares is also very profitable, and those who have a well ripened 
sample for sale now find it answer well. We know many farmers who 
object to seed Tares as being an exhaustive crop, but that is a matter 
easily set right. It is an excellent rule to apply manure to the land 
for every crop. No doubt this plan appears extravagant, but in reality 
it is not so, for with the land once brought into a thoroughly fertile 
condition very moderate applications of manure with each crop are 
sufficient. 
Nothing can be more suicidal on the part of a farmer than to 
impoverish the land. Said the late tenant of a small farm of 90 acres, 
which has fallen upon our hands this Michaelmas, “ If only I could 
have got £10 a year out of the farm I would not have left it.” Now, 
we are bound to make it answer, and we shall do so next season, for we 
can say to his credit the land is fairly clean, but it is very poor, and 
this can be set right by a liberal use of chemical manure, and we have 
already got 300 sheep upon the fields. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
CAMDEN SQUARE, LONDON. 
Lat. 51° 32'40" N.; Long. 0° 8' 0" W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
Date. 
9 A.M. 
IN THE DAY. 
Hygrome- 
g . 
Shade Tem- 
Radiation 
P 
1888. 
E2® g 
P d . m 
ter. 
+3 d 
o:- 
perature. 
Temperature 
3 
October. 
0)>- 
Ms 
In 
On 
cS 
Dry. 
Wet. 
no 
H 
Max. 
Min. 
sun. 
grass 
Inches. 
deg 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
In. 
Sunday . 
21 
30.447 
30 8 
39.3 
NE. 
44.L 
57.1 
32 4 
76.8 
26 2 
_ 
Monday. 
22 
30.472 
45 6 
41.2 
N.E. 
43 8 
52 9 
33 9 
69.7 
297 
_ 
Tuesday ... 
23 
30.337 
40.3 
40.3 
S W. 
43 9 
49 2 
33.1 
69.1 
28.4 
_ 
Wednesday. 
‘24 
30 153 
37.1 
37.1 
S.W. 
43 6 
53.0 
3S.2 
63.3 
81.5 
— 
Thursday... 
2.5 
30.0O1 
53.6 
51.2 
s.h. 
44 0 
62 2 
37 0 
90.6 
35.3 
— 
Friday . 
28 
3'>.''73 
58.6 
57.5 
s. 
4'».4 
63 8 
53.4 
73.4 
46.7 
_ 
Saturday ... 
'27 
30.266 
60.6 
53.5 
S. 
48.8 
(8.8 
57.8 
99.3 
521 
— 
30.250 
47.9 
46.9 
44.9 
58.1 
41.1 
77.5' 
35.7 
— 
REMARKS. 
2lst.—Fine and bright throughout. 
22nd —Fair morning, bright day. 
] 2!rd.—Slight fog early, fine day. 
2at ii.—Fog, g*aduaby decreasing, in morning, tine afternoon. 
2.5th.—Warm with occasional sunshine, hut generally cloudy. 
25th.—Dull and drizzly early, cloudy day. 
27ih.—Overcast early, fine warm day. 
Another rainless week, but with sudden return of mi’.d weather, the men mum on 
Saturday reaching 68.sv. The weekly averages being nearly equally base! oa 1 1re coll 
and on the warm portion have cone out rcarthe average. Cl. J. fYMOXS. 
