142 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ February 16, 1888. 
and while the members present were unanimous in saying that 
there ought to be a larger proportion of pasture upon farms in the 
great corn-growing districts, they were evidently not at all clear as 
to how this was to be effected. The chief hindrance to laying 
down land to pasture is the very common but erroneous hypothesis 
that it requires a lifetime to form really sound productive 
pasture, and as usual, we find that in this, ignorance and obstinacy 
go together. 
Now we know plenty of old, very old pasture that is in sorry 
plight, and from which the annual bulk of produce is so low that it 
cannot be profitable. But our knowledge of this lamentable fact 
cannot be regarded as singular. Let anyone with ordinary powers 
■of observation look at such meadows as are to be seen in a journey 
•of a hundred miles by railway in this season of the year, and what 
will they see ? Why, precisely what comes under our notice re¬ 
peatedly, and that is fully two-thirds of them are brown, bare of 
food even for sheep, and so foul with weeds as to present a ragged 
•untidy aspect of poverty and negligence. Neither cattle nor sheep 
will consume many of the perennial weeds with which such foul 
pastures are infested, and they consequently remain in winter a 
visible sign of bad practice. We use the term advisedly, for surely 
it cannot be owing to ignorance that such robbers of the soil are 
■suffered to become established and to spread in it ? 
We have taken some pains to explain how land intended for 
permanent pasture must be prepared for the seed by drainage, if 
necessary, by a thorough clearance from it of couch grass and other 
perennial weeds, and by sufficient ploughing and stirring to insure 
a -deep tilth and fine seed bed. We have gone farther, and shown 
Blow, with careful folding by well-fed lambs in the first season, and 
by ewes and lambs in the second season, a really well-knit pasture 
may be had at a minimum cost in two years, and we have been met 
in discussion by the shallow argument, “ Yes ; you may be able to 
establish good pasture in two years, but the question is. How are 
you to keep it good ? ” The answer to this is obvious—i.c., By an 
equally careful process of cultivation year by year. This is the 
point we wish to enforce, that pasture requires careful cultivation 
equally with all other farm crops, and we may add that experience 
shows such cultivation to be profitable. It is high time that all 
easy-going practice in agriculture were ended. We hold that no 
full crop can be taken from the land without a certain per-centage 
of exhaustion of its fertility ; and in order to obtain an equally 
full crop next season such loss must first of all be made good. 
Now, we have heard excellent practical farmers declare that they 
Slave little faith in chemists or nicety of analysis, but surely 
•common sense must tell them that in order to obtain a full crop 
from the soil it must contain a full store of plant food. We must 
not rest content with half crops, but we must ascertain how much 
per acre by weight or measure it is possible to obtain of each sort 
of grain, foliage, or roots, and that maximum quantity must be our 
common standard subsequently, and we ought not to rest content 
with anything short of it. How obvious is the absurdity of the 
application of manure for one farm crop, and then following with 
another crop without manure simply because the first crop has not 
exhausted all the manurial constituents imparted to the soil by 
such manure ! The second crop may be, and frequently is, one of 
medium excellence, but we certainly ought not to be satisfied with 
a medium crop when it is possible to obtain a maximum one. But 
we may be told that to apply manure annually is so expensive. We 
reply that results invariably justify the expense in a given number 
of years, for to take the result of an extremely good or bad season 
would be misleading, and we must compare the common result of 
four or five seasons. 
Our remarks now on the treatment of permanent pasture may 
be regarded as especially to the purpose now, for this is the best 
time of all the year for the application of manure, and we strongly 
recommend our readers to do what is possible at once to eradicate 
Ononis, Gorse, Nettles, Rushes, Thistles, Brambles, and Broom 
from pasture, to mow down any long Sedges or other rough 
herbage, and by the end of the month to apply per acre a quarter 
of a cwt. nitrate of potash, 1 cwt. nitrate of soda, li cwt. mineral 
superphosphate, and a quarter of a cwt. steamed bone flour. Take 
care to procure each sort of manure separately from a reliable 
source, and have the mixture made at the farm three or four days 
before using it. By keeping down weeds by an annual dressing of 
this manure or sheep-folding, and by draining when necessary, 
pasture may be brought into a high state of fertility, which may be 
fully sustained under such treatment. The outlay of £1 per acre 
or a shilling or two more for manure will not only insure a full 
crop of hay, but an abundant aftermath with favourable weather, 
and the pasture will also present a green flourishing appearance 
during winter in pleasant contrast to the brown stunted guise of 
neglected pasture. 
WORK OK THE HOME FARM. 
All our calculations and arrangements for our spying supply of 
chemicals are complete, and the order for a supply to be sent to each of 
our farms has been given. The total quantity by weight is about 
52 tons, and the cost, inclusive of carriage by rail, is about £400. In 
comparison with special mixtures on the market this quantity represents 
a much greater weight, because the whole of the manures are genuine 
and the fertilising power of all of them is high. In addition to this 
supply of chemical manures, we have folded sheep upon a large area of 
land, and we have also used a considerable quantity of farmyard 
manure taken in valuation upon the two additional farms which came 
upon our hands last Michaelmas—about a thousand c.artloads in all, so 
that we have done all we could to store the land with fertility. In our 
manure book is shown the calculations of quantities for every crop at 
each farm, with totals and cost, so that we can always rebn to it, and 
also have the necessary details taken from it for the guidance of our 
bailiffs. The manure has been ordered early in order to have it at hand 
both for pasture, winter and spring corn, and it will be applied so far 
as is possible by means of drills rather than by hand, for however careful 
men may be, hand-sowing can never equal or even approach the accuracy 
of machinery. 
Spring corn sowing will be pushed on with as soon as the soil is 
ready, the land, seed, and manure being all in readiness. We hope to 
obtain as high a yield of Wheat by careful cultivation on our best farms 
as we did last season. If we are again able to get 50 bushels per acre 
we know that even under present low priees we shall obtain a handsome 
margin of profit, but we could not do so if we were content to attempt 
Wheat growing without thoroughly sound all-round practice. Take for 
example the Wheat averages of last year, and we find that in Russia 
the average yield per acre was as low as 12 bushels, in France 17 bushels, 
and in Great Britain 32 bushels, or 5 bushels more than the average of 
1886. Well, now, have we not reason—apart from egotism—for saying 
that the only way to meet and overcome the foreign importation of 
Wheat is so to cultivate the land as to produce more of it ? Certainly 
we know that we have, for by high cultivation we are able to bring 
farmed out land into such a state of fertility as to render its produce 
really profitable even at present low prices. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
CAMDEN SQUAUE, LONDON. 
Lat. 51° 88'40''N.; Long. 0° 8'0" W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
DATE. 
9 A.M. 
IN THE DAY. 
1S88. 
Hygrome¬ 
ter. 
Direction 
of Wind, 
Temp, of 
soil at 
1 foot. 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature. 
Rain 
February. 
n w 0} 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
BUU. 
On 
grass 
Sunday.. 
5 
Inches. 
30.254 
depr. 
43.8 
deg. 
42.8 
w. 
deg. 
36.2 
deg. 
50.6 
deg. 
40 8 
deg. 
68.6 
deg. 
In. 
Monday. 
6 
30.259 
465 
44.6 
N. 
37.9 
52.0 
89.7 
60.2 
Tuesday .... 
7 
30.221 
44.3 
41.2 
W. 
39.2 
50.3 
42.6 
76.7 
0.043 
0.033: 
Wednesday.. 
8 
29.986 
44.2 
42.2 
N.W. 
89.2 
49.9 
89.9 
67.9 
3.T.1 
Thursday.... 
9 
29.984 
47.1 
44.6 
N.W. 
39.8 
49.7 
440 
74,a 
38 8 
Friday . 
10 
29.871 
41.3 
40.2 
S.W. 
40.2 
47.2 
39.1 
58 7 
0.052 
0,04J 
Saturday .... 
11 
29.653 
36.3 
34.9 
s.w. 
39 8 
43.4 
33.2 
52.8 
27.6 
30.037 
43.4 
4L.5 
38.9 
49.0 
39.9 
65.6 
34,5 
0.170 
REMARKS. 
5'.h.—Calm and generally dull, but with a little sunshine at mid-day. 
6th_Cloudy all day. 
7ih.—Generally bright, but clouded over once or twice, with spots of rain. 
8 th.—Bain early; a cloudy day, with one or two intervals of sunshine. 
9th.—Bain in the small hours ; a fine and generally bright day. 
10‘h.—Cloudy morning; spots of rain in the afternoon. 
11th.—Dull morning, with .spots of rain ; frequent rain in afternoon and evening. 
A warm and pleasant week, for although rain fell on four days the amounts were 
small, and the greater part fell at night. Tempera'ure 6“ above the average, and mere 
than 10' above that of the preceding week.- G. J. stmons. 
