250 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
t March aj, 1888. 
such seasons of drought as we have lately had tend materially to 
•curtail the yield of several of our most important farm crops. 
Attempts, therefore, at improved methods of culture have in 
several instances only met with partial success. Eesults have, 
however, been sufficiently remarkable to encourage those of us 
who have been engaged in such important work to persevere, and 
in so turn the lessons of adversity to account as to insure a full 
measure of success in the future. 
Only a few years ago did Lord Salisbury recommend farmers to 
manure their land with brains,” or, in other words, to use their 
wits, and see if they could not so alter and improve their practice 
in the selection and application of manures as to combine economy 
with efficiency in a better manner than had hitherto obtained 
among them. Quite recently another noble lord, who had read 
some of our notes on the use of chemical manures, owned to us, 
that while not having such entire faith in them as we had, he was 
free to admit their high value, and to own how wasteful and ex¬ 
travagant the manufacture of farmyard manure was, and how much 
■of the goodness of every muck heap was known “ to steam away, 
and stream away,” in the form of liquid manure running down the 
roadside, and of volatile gases lost in the air. 
It is not sufficient, however, to point this out to the ordinary 
farmer and to tell him we have a cheap and efficient substitute for 
his costly manure heap. He requires tangible proof in the form of 
a heavy crop and profitable balance-sheet, and it was to afEord such 
proof that various associations have been formed in so many parts 
of the country. Of work so done, none which has come under our 
notice is more thorough and exhaustive than that of Messrs. F. J. 
Cooke, Gr. Taylor, and B. B. Sapwell on their farms under the 
auspices of the Norfolk Chamber of Agriculture. In a summary 
of results in the report of the experiments of last year they say. 
We may pretty safely claim to have shown that the best and 
most economical artificial manure for Barley upon a good deal of 
light soil in Norfolk, from which Turnips have been drawn, is 
2 cwts. superphosphate, half to 1 cwt. muriate of potash, and 
1 to 2 cwts. of nitrate of soda per acre ; or three-quarters to 
Ij cwt. sulphate of ammonia in place of the nitrate of soda 
when its market value is lower per unit of nitrogen. The same 
dressing is applicable to Barley after a previous white straw crop 
when such is taken. Where a part only of the Turnips have been 
■so lightly folded with sheep as to suggest further assistance for the 
Barley, or a heavier folding is made very early in the year, nitrate 
of soda only, up to 1 cwt. per acre, will probably be the most 
suitable application. A complete manure for Swedes, and an 
economical one upon the kind of land mentioned, is 2 to 4 cwt. 
superphosphate, 1 cwt. sulphate of ammonia, and half cwt. muriate 
of potash per acre, or with five to six loads of good rotten muck 
the superphosphate alone would be sufficient. A mixture of bone 
flour with the superphosphate—half cwt. of the former to 4 cwts. 
of the latter—will insure better distribution (a matter of very 
great importance) if nothing else. 
For Mangolds we have, so far, found the most economical 
dressing to be 2 cwts. nitrate of soda, half to be applied at time 
of drilling seed, and half as a top-dressing after singling the plants 
with .3 cwts. common salt—or instead of the salt 1 cwt. muriate 
of potash—the mixture to be used with, or without, five to ten 
loads of rotten muck per acre. Without the dung in a good 
season, 4 cwt. nitrate of soda per acre, sown as before, might be 
justified in the return, the Mangold being a very gross feeder. As 
hundreds of pounds are annually spent upon superphosphate for 
this root, and we have not found it to be wanted upon well-farmed 
light land, the information on this one point alone should be worth 
much more than our outlay. 
A dressing of 1 cwt. muriate of potash, where it pays at all, 
will pay well upon Clover or Sainfoin, e.speciaUy when applied at 
time of sowing the seed ; but there are probably few well farmed 
soils upon which it is of much service for these crops, and therefore 
great caution should be exercised in using it. 
To an expression of some hesitation in thus offering formula 
based upon the results of two years’ experimental investigation, 
they very wisely add, “ We are sure they will be more accurate 
guides than the chance mixtures of the manufacturer as labelled 
for special crops, which are for the most part compounded on no 
principle at all, unless it be one of profit to the vendor.” This is 
entirely in accord with our repeated advice, that all manures should 
be procured separately and mixed at the farm. Common sense 
shows such advice to be sound, yet it has been termed “an un¬ 
warrantable aspersion on the honesty of manure traders,” who, by 
the way, are generally most positive in their assurances of the 
virtues of their mixtures. Surely we have a right to be equally 
positive in only spending money upon manures of our own 
selection for farms. 
(To be continued.) 
WORK ON THE HOWE FARM. 
Work on the land has been much hindered by broken weather, and 
very little corn sowing has been done at the time of writing this note. 
This has proved a serious matter where a large staff of labourers is main¬ 
tained, as the outlay involved in finding work for them is by no means 
desirable now that every item of expenditure has to be watched so nar¬ 
rowly. But where the chemical manures have been applied to winter 
corn and pasture good work has been done, for the manure has been 
dissolved and washed in, and we may now feel certain of a full crop of 
hay and brisk robust growth in the corn. If when the spring corn can 
be sown not a day is lost in doing it, germination and growth are cer¬ 
tain to follow so quickly that the late sowing may prove advantageous 
rather than otherwise. Well will it be, therefore, not to press forward 
the sowing before the land is dry enough to admit of a fine deep tilth 
being had to thoroughly cover the seed. On light land some sowing has 
been done, and light land farmers certainly are favoured in being able 
to work upon the land so soon after the rain is over. The exercise of a 
little patience will, we hope, enable heavy land farmers to get in the 
seed in time to ensure a good plant, and with a favourable spring we 
feel hopeful all will come right. F'armers, however, more than other 
men have need to be hopeful, patient, and persevering, for however 
carefully and well their plans may be made they are still very much at 
the mercy of the weather. 
Never was there a year when a forward spring would have been a 
greater boon to flockmasters than the present one, for many of them are 
at their wit’s end what to do to procure food for the sheep. No Turnips, 
no Mangold, no grass, a short supply of straw and hay, what are we to 
do ? This is the cry of many a farmer, especially on light land ; cer¬ 
tainly to purchase food now for the flock is a ruinous proceeding, and 
yet how many are doing so ! Glad are we to be able to report a suc¬ 
cessful lambing season, and that the lambs are making satisfactory pro¬ 
gress. They are now folded upon Turnips with a frequent change for a 
few hours upon pasture, and although the Swede tops have suffered from 
frost, white Turnip tops have not done so, and the lambs are able to run 
forward upon them. Chaff and crushed Oats are given in troughs to 
the ewes, and the lambs have what lamb food they can consume in a 
given time, as we altogether object to having any stale or sour food in 
the troughs. Wo have only lost one lamb from a stoppage by wool balls, 
and cautioned the shepherd to remove all loose wool from the ewes’ udders 
to prevent the lambs getting it in their mouths by mistake as they are 
so apt to do. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS, 
OAMUEX SQUAUE, 1.0KD0V. 
Lat. 51° 32' 40" N.; Long. 0° 8' 0" VV.; Altitude, 111 faet. 
DATE. 
y A.M. 
IS THE DAY. 
1888. 
Hygr 
onie- 
P . 
Shade 
Tern- 
Radiation 
P 
ter. 
52 P 
peraiuie. 
Temperature 
<a 
March. 
c c-*- 
In 
On 
A 
Dry. 
Wet. 
5o 
Ma-x. 
Min. 
euu. 
grass 
t®unday. 
11 
Inches. 
deg 
deg. 
deg. 
deir. 
detr. 
deg. 
deg. 
In. 
28.986 
474 
44.1 
s.w. 
41.U 
43.3 
4.S-9 
63 4 
39 2 
0 120 
Slonday. 
'’iueertay ... 
j2 
29.2.58 
37 9 
3.5.7 
ii.AV. 
4il4 
42.3 
.37.9 
13 
29 (562 
82.7 
81.8 
N.E. 
30 8 
44 7 
314 
58.4 
28.6 
0.888 
Wednesday. 
. 14 
5‘.) 279 
414 
42.8 
S. 
38.4 
.512 
31.2 
84.8 
81.6 
36.3 
0.822 
Thutsday... 
1.5 
29.217 
416 
39 9 
s.w. 
39 2 
40 8 
37.6 
91.6 
0.082 
Friday . 
16 
2!'391 
3 -5 2 
38.8 
N. 
39 .3 
36.4 
.34 1 
47.7 
89.2 
0.012 
Saturday ... 
. 17 
29.759 
31.4 
3l'.l 
X. 
:84 - 
87 2 
23 7 
75.8 
23.3 
0.010 
19 3‘.6 
335 
33.9 
39.5 
44 3 
3.5.0 
68 9 
82.9 
0.934 
• EE MASKS. 
11th —A violent westerly (role all day. with frequent rain. 
12th.-Doll and damp early ; cloudy day. 
13th.—Cloudy and cold, wiih one or two slight falls of snow and sleet; heavy fall of snow 
after 7 P.M. 
14th.—Morning generally dull and rhowety, hut with one or two breaks of sunshine: 
afternoon geueraily bright till a thunderstorm from 5.5 P.M. to 6.35P.M.; showery 
evening. 
15th.—Kain eaily, and dnll and damp till 10 A M.. then bright and beantlfnl. 
16th.—Kain in small hr urs; a little soow at 7.50 A.M.; dull, damp day, with sligh 
showers of fine .mow and rain. 
17th -Fine at times, but with frequent sprinkles of snow. 
With the exception of one day, a week of unpleasant winter weather, with frequent 
rain and snow, and very little sunshine, liange of temperature cousiderable, but the 
mean nearly up to the average.-G. J. STMONS. 
