208 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ March 8,1388. 
Barley or Oats after the sheep folds on S svedes or White Turnips. 
We shall do so on a light land field where we can follow the folds 
closely and sow as we plough, so that not a day will be lost. 
Oats have become so cheap that our area of land under spring 
Oats will be less than it has ever been before, for while we can pur¬ 
chase sound wholesome imported Oats at the rate of 154 lbs. for 
7s. fid. it certainly will not answer to have much land under this 
crop. But we do not intend to lay down a rule in Oat growing ; 
rather would we say wherever it is done let it be done so well that 
the average yield of grain is fully 80 bushels an acre. We know 
full well that to attain this average the practice must be good, and 
not one point of cultural importance must be lacking. We know 
that the Oat crop of many farmers falls much below this average, 
yet if they only would apply manure to the land for Oats just as 
th4y do for Wheat or roots they would be well repaid for the out¬ 
lay. Many years ago we saw in the same field Oats fi inches high 
and fi feet high, the latter growing upon the site of a manure heap, 
the former at the other end of the field upon a hard headland quite 
innocent of manure, and we have never forgotten the lesson. Now, 
we do not say that a 6-foot crop of Oats is to be the common mean, 
but we have proved that a crop with straw from 4 to 5 feet high, 
crowned with heavy panicles of clustering grain, affords a yield of 
grain up to our average and a heavy bulk of straw of much value 
when chaffed for feeding horses, cattle, and sheep ; pigs, too, will 
consume a lot of straw both of Oats and Barley if it is given to 
them in small quantities daily. No doubt under certain conditions 
it may answer to cultivate Oats both for home consumption and for 
sale, but then both the sort and sample must be of the best. Take 
for example a sample of pure home-grown White Canadian Oats, 
which we had recently on offer from one of our farms ; this met a 
ready sale at 203. per quarter, and a crop of 10 quarters an acre 
would not be unprofitable even at such a price. 
Barley has, under the depression, so far proved fairly profitable, 
but even this one bright streak in the dark horizon of our troubles 
is likely to be obscured by low-priced foreign importations, which 
malsters are turning to such profitable account that Barley 
merchants declare the trade is ruined. Farmers who have been so 
imprudent as to hold over their Barley till now find they must 
incur a heavy loss if they sell, and such prices as 36s. or 40s. 
per quarter, as were made easily by full bright samples in autumn, 
are now not to be had. While making mention of this fact, it will 
never answer to suffer it to act as a hindrance to our plans for this 
season ; rather should it prove an incentive to greater exertion in 
doing all we can to insure a full crop of “ Ripe and golden Barley.” 
We intend sowing several hundreds of acres, all which will have a 
dressing of pure home-mixed chemical manures where sheep-folding 
has not been thoroughly done, for we know that we cannot have a 
full crop out of soil that is not well stored with fertility. We also 
know that while taking care to make such provision of plant food 
it must be done in the most economical manner. Both in 
ordinary practice and under careful experiments it has been proved 
repeatedly that heavy dressings of farmyard manure, however 
carefully applied to the soil, are not equal to chemical manures in 
promoting the development of a full crop of grain ; the com¬ 
parative cost is also much in favour of the pure chemicals, and yet 
there are men even now ready to declare that muck is the sheet- 
anchor of farmers. “ Why,” said a shrewd man of business to us 
recently, “ for a man to declare he is losing some hundreds of 
pounds yearly in cattle breeding, simply that he may manufacture 
a certain quantity of muck for his land, is just equivalent to pro¬ 
claiming himself a fool.” Certainly such a man has no right to 
grumble about hard times, for is not he the very embodiment of 
obstinacy ? and to go on telling him he might do better, is very 
much like that casting of pearls before swine against which we have 
a scriptural injunction. 
WORK OK THE HOWE FARM. 
A commodious snug fold, well fed ewes, and careful attention have 
enabled the lambs to pass through the recent spell of cold weather with 
impunity ; with very few exceptions they are strong and healthy, and 
the elder ones have already been docked and otherwise properly treated. 
We prefer having this done at the age of a month, foi if left much later 
there appears to be a proportionate increase of suffering. At from three 
weeks to a month from the birth lambs begin eating, and we at once 
give them what bran they can consume, and when the weather becomes 
mild again the ewes will be taken to fold upon Swedes, while the lambs 
will be let run forward upon White Turnips for the sake of the green 
tops which they consume greedily, as well as much of the root. The 
proper use of Turnips for ewes and lambs is a very simple matter. We 
let the ewes have none before lambing, but plenty afterwards, with a 
fair allowance of corn and chaff; we thus avoid all risk of loss by 
abortion, or rather, we may add, of the serious loss both of ewes and 
lambs which so frequently happens by carelessness or ignorance about a 
diet of Turnips. Often during the severe weather which was so general 
during the greater part of the month of February did we pass flocks 
folded out upon Swedes, with but scanty shelter around the lambing 
fold, and with the lambs standing about shivering under the scathing 
influence of a cold nor’-easter. Weakly lambs must suffer and often 
die from such exposure, and dear-bought experience leads to the con¬ 
clusion that there must be losses among the ewes too. We have lost 
three ewes, but neither case was caused by mismanagement. Last year 
we had a serious loss of some twenty' ewes in one flock simply because 
Turnips were used contrary to our express orders, and we had to part 
with the shepherd, who was a respectable, sober, steady man, but whose 
overweening conceit led to the disobedience and its consequences. 
Upon an off-hand farm the flock has very snug quarters in a commodious 
old barn, opening on one hand into pasture, and on the other into a 
high-wailed yard with a large shed. AVhen this farm came upon our 
hands the barn was almost bare of thatch, and altogether sadly out of 
repair; the money spent in its restoration to a sound building was cer¬ 
tainly a sound investment, the barn being filled with corn in autumn, 
then cleared for the lambing, and subsequently it is used for early-shorn 
fat hoggets. We know a gentleman who has thus turned all the old 
barns upon his estate to account for sheltering ewe flocks during lamb¬ 
ing, but then he has laid most of his land down to permanent pasture, 
and has no other use for his barns. 
Fakm Literatube. —-Messrs. James Carter & Co., 2.37, High Holborn, 
send us a copy of their Essay upon Permanent Pastures, which is now 
embodied in a more comprehensive shilling brochure entitled “ Carter’s 
Practical Farmer.” The work consists of ninety large pages, and con¬ 
tains a mass of information on various subjects in which many of our 
readers are interested, and is worthy of perusal. The illustrated 
Farm Seed Catalogue of Messrs. Sutton & Sons, Reading, is an useful 
rather than ornamental production, and includes a concise review of the 
agricultural position. Messrs. Little & Ballantyne also send a good 
catalogue of farm seeds. 
OUR LETTER BOX. 
Sowing' Oats and Grass Seed (IF.).—Drill 3 bushels per acre 
of Black Tartarian Oats as soon as the laud is dry enough, and follow 
with the seeds for permanent pasture, the Grass seed to be well mixed 
and sown first, following at once with the Clovers, and then harrowing 
suificiently to well cover the seed. Have birds kept off till growth is 
visible, or there will be a heavy per-contage of loss of the small seed. 
Here is a suitable mixture for your chalky soil Perennial Rye Grass, 
10 lbs. ; Cocksfoot, 7 lbs.; Crested Dog’s-tail, 51bs. ; Meadow Fescue 
2 lbs. ; Cat’s-tail, 3 lbs. ; Hard Fescue, 4 lbs. ; Sheep’s Fescue, 4 lbs. 
Golden Oat Grass, 1 lb. ; Yarrow, 2 lbs.; Perennial Red Clover, 1 lb. 
Alsike Clover, 1 lb. ; White Dutch Clover, 1 lb. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
CAMDEN SQUAllB, LONDON. 
Lit. 51° 82'40''N.; Long. 0° 8'0" W.; AlUtude, 111 ieet. 
DAjTB. 
9 A.M. 
IN THE DAY. 
Hygrome- 
Shade Tern- 
Radiation 
c 
ter. 
a 
yr* 
perature. 
Temperature. 
a 
Feb. & March. 
£5= 
In 
On 
PQ^ <33 
Dry. 
Wet. 
5o 
Max. 
Min. 
sun. 
grass 
Inches. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
Id. 
Sunday . 
2<> 
30.110 
30.3 
29.1 
N.E. 
85.0 
36.3 
24 3 
73 4 
20.2 
0.010 
Monday. 
9.7 
30.191) 
32 9 
82.1 
N.E. 
34.9 
S5.3 
^0.6 
46 6 
27.6 
I'uesda’y ... 
28 
30.400 
3U) 
31.4 
Is.E. 
84.6 
84.6 
29.8 
49.7 
2'<.1 
Wednesday.. 
29 
30.378 
80.3 
27.9 
34.3 
84.8 
28.8 
65.4 
27.4 
0.'X» 
Thursday... 
1 
30.323 
28.1 
25 9 
K. 
84.4 
36.1 
20 2 
C8.4 
<1 
Friday . 
2 
30.193 
32.0 
31.1 
34.3 
41.4 
24.7 
72.1 
J7.7 
_ 
Saturday ... 
8 
29.979 
85.3 
32.4 
N. 
S42 
39.6 
31.7 
75.3 
28.6 
— 
30.225 
31.5 
30.0 
31.5 
36 9 
28 0 
03.0 
24.6 
0.1.26 
REMARKS. 
2(3ih.—Fine bright morning, cloudy afternoon. 
27th.—Dull all day. 
28th.—Overcast all day except for five minutes at 1 P.M. 
23th.—Dull,-Wiih occasional flakes of snow in the morning; frequently blight in after¬ 
noon, but Willi one ‘ r two slight snow showers. 
1st.—A little snow earlv and till a.SO A.M., then bright and fine throughout. 
2nd.—A lovely day, though cold. 
3rd.—Fine, and generall.v bright. 
Not quite so cold as the previous week,but much edder than tisu: 1, even in Januir/ 
Frost every night, no rain, and very l.ttte snow_ U. J. SYMONS. 
