80 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
July 23, 1885. 
What to do with the glebe land is frequently so great a puzzle 
that the difficulty is often got over by letting the land to a 
farmer. Yet with a taste for rural pursuits there should be 
no great difficulty in the acquiiement of a sufficient know¬ 
ledge of farming to enable one to derive both profit and plea¬ 
sure from it—profit in the primary sense of obtaining as 
much home produce as possible for home consumption, and 
pleasure in the cultivation of really useful crops in the best 
way. We know at least one country rector whose boast it is 
that he has an ample supply of home-grown corn, roots, 
fodder, fruit, vegetables, as well as poultry of all kinds, eggs, 
home-cured bacon and hams, and dairy produce from his 
farm. The clergyman’s farm is, therefore, a home farm in 
the full sense of the term. 
Of com crops there should be a due proportion of Wheat 
for grinding for flour for the household, the bran always being 
useful for animals, cows being especially fond of it. With 
Wheat at the present low rate it is not desirable to have any 
considerable surplus of it, but it must not be forgotten that 
ground and mixed as whole meal with other corn it is admir¬ 
able food for animals, a mixed corn diet being wholesome, 
and, if given in sufficient quantity, fattening, so that bills for 
oil-cake may be avoided. This is an important point to keep 
in view. Let the farm be self-supporting, and avoid the 
purchase of any cattle food, and of manure too, so far as is 
possible. Square-head Eed Wheat is the best sort for 
general culture ; the straw is sturdy, stout, and strong, well 
calculated to bear erect the somewhat heavy head of corn 
till it is ripe. The grain is large, the yield good—an average 
of from 5 to 6 quarters per acre being quite possible under 
high cultivation—and the quality of the flour excellent. In 
southern counties preference may well be given to Velvet 
Chaff or Champion White Wheat, both for the actual supe¬ 
riority of the flour and for the comparatively high price 
which the grain invariably commands, and with a surplus 
the home farmer is as eager as anybody “ to pick up a little 
money.” Do not sow Champion White Wheat in a bleak 
wind-swept situation, for the straw is slender, and it grows 
so tall as to be easily beaten down in a heavy storm. We 
may again here mention our trial plots of Wheat, now fast 
approaching maturity. Of these Golden Drop is still inferior 
in length of straw and size both of ear and grain. Champion 
White is upwards of G feet high, with very long but some¬ 
what slender ears; yet the crop on the whole is so full of 
promise that this sort will probably have a trial on a much 
larger scale next season. Velvet Chaff, though not so tall, 
is very satisfactory, its compact ears borne on stout straw 
giving promise of a yield of heavy grain. Square head for 
straw, for ears, and for size of grain continues to hold first 
place, and it may always be mentioned as a safe sort to grow 
either upon a large or small scale. 
A sack of wheat yields slightly over 3 bushels of flour, so 
that if we reckon our land to yield 5 quarters or 10 sacks per 
acre, our computation for the requirements of a year becomes 
an easy matter. It must not be forgotten that for a crop of 
Wheat to afford this high average the land must be well 
drained, free from foul weeds, and thoroughly fertile. Good 
seed must be sown either in September or October, an autumn 
and spring dressing of genuine home-mixed artificial manures 
must be applied, the crop must be harvested in as nearly a 
perfect condition as possible, and the threshing not be done 
till the grain is firm and hard. We state thus much gene¬ 
rally now, and when seed time once more comes round full 
cultural details will be given again. We may now add 
that applying our teaching to practice we have bought no 
beasts this year, and all calves not kept for the dairy herd 
were fattened and disposed of to butchers, our intention 
being to trust solely to artificial manures for the Wheat, 
to avoid a heavy outlay for litter, the expense of a 
stockman, the making of mixens, and the carting and 
spreading of farmyard manure upon the land—all 
heavy items of expenditure that help to exhaust the 
farmer’s means, and to defeat his efforts to overcome the 
difficulties of low prices for his produce and hard times. 
Wheat, as the staff of life, has been given the first place here. 
Its culture, though quite indispensable upon the home farm, 
must be kept within reasonable limits, an undue preponder¬ 
ance of it or any other crop being calculated to defeat our 
aim of having a full supply of home-grown farm produce, so 
that its culture and that of all other crops must be well con¬ 
sidered beforehand, and as we are fast approaching the end 
of the farming year—Michaelmas—there is ample time to 
do this and to arrange our plans for another season’s work. 
In doing this we must allow a safe margin for failures arising 
from unkind seasons, by which results are influenced in some 
degree, however careful we may be ; and to have a surplus 
quantity over household requirements by no means leads to 
waste, poultry, pigs, sheep, and cows all coming in with 
advantage for some of it. 
(To be continued.) 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
On land specially reserved for haymaking that important operation 
has been done well and cheaply, for though the hay crop was heavy yet sun 
and wind both helped us on, and there was no rain to hinder the work. 
There has, however, been so much late work upon pastures where stock 
bad been kept late in spring that hay and corn harvests will, in many 
instances, form a continuous operation. It is certainly a moot point if it 
answers to so retard the haymaking; for ourselves, we certainly consider 
that it does not answer. We never turn beasts upon grass laid in for hay 
till the aftermath is ready for them, and then they continue there till the 
end of September. Sheep follow during winter till we apply the artificial 
manure in February, and thenceforward the growth is left unchecked in 
view of obtaining a full crop of hay. No doubt, many a farmer is driven 
by dire necessity to keep stock upon the hay meadows late in spring, but 
it would in the end prove more profitable only to keep enough animals to 
consume the store of winter fo lder by the time a full supply of green 
food is forthcoming in spring from crops devoted specially to that purpose. 
Let our calculations in this matter be based upon the assumption that 
every spring may prove as late as it was this year, and then we shad be 
safe. A bountiful afiermath is far more profitable than a scanty spring 
growth, and its effect upon the dairy cows is highly beneficial. It is now 
that we get our best butter, high in colour and of delicious flavour, and 
an ample store is potted for winter use. Winter Oats are changing so 
fast that harvest wdl have begun before this note is in print. We hear 
many complaints of shortness of straw in Spring Oats, but there is no 
cause of complaint upon that score in the Winter Oats, which, as usual, 
are excellent both in straw and grain. Root crops are, upon the whole, 
satisfactory, White Turnips are sown, singling is finished among Swedes, 
and the horse-hoes have been in full use till the spreading foliage stopped 
them. It is with regret that we have seen much land left unploughed 
after a green crop was cleared in June or early in July. Rather than 
leave it in that condition we always sow another green crop either of 
Tares or Mustard, or a late crop of White Turnips. Green crops, be it 
remembered, may always be ploughed in advantageously ; so, too, may 
Turnips if not wanted for stock. A surplus supply of Winter Tares has 
been used daily for the dairy cows, our plan being to throw as much as 
they can eat at once upon any pasture becoming somewhat bare, as is 
often the case just before the aftermath is ready for them. They also 
had some in the cribs during the milking. YouDg pigs held in reserve 
for the corn stubbles have also had a daily supply of Tares. 
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. 
Rain 
1885. 
July. 
Barome¬ 
ter at 32« j 
and Sea i 
Level 
Hygrome¬ 
ter. 
Direction 
i of Wind. 
1 
| Temp, of 
1 Soil at 
1 1 foot. 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature. 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min 
In 
sun. 
On 
grass 
Inches. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg 
deg. 
deg 
In. 
Sunday .... 
. 12 
30.0G9 
60.8 
59.3 
N.E. 
64.8 
71.3 
58 0 
108.8 
55.4 
— 
Monday. 
30.061 
57 8 
54.6 
S.E. 
63.4 
73.3 
56.0 
120.6 
51.9 
0.074 
Tuesday. 
30.214 
61.6 
55.3 
N. 
63 4 
73.8 
50.7 
117.8 
44 8 
— 
Wednesday 
. 15 
30.233 
65.6 
55.5 
W. 
62.6 
75.7 
50.1 
J 12.8 
43.7 
— 
Thursday ... 
. 16 
30.051 
61.4 
57.7 
w. 
63.2 
7L.8 
54.2 
1192 
48.3 
0.012 
Friday. 
30.029 
617 
5 «.8 
w. 
63.2 
71.2 
54.4 
1174 
48. L 
— 
Saturday ... 
. 18 
29.985 
61.3 
67.1 
S.E. 
63 2 
71.9 
53.2 
99.8 
47.9 
— 
30.C92 
61.5 
56.3 
63.4 
72.7 
53.8 
113 8 
48.6 
0.086 
REMARKS. 
12th.—Heavy rain early, then fine throughout. 
13th.—Dull and sultry early, bright and fresh later; thunder and lightning and rain 
about 0 P M. Heavy raiu in the City, very little here. 
14th.—Fine and bright. 
15th.—Fine. 
16th.—Wet in morning ; fine afternoon. 
17th.—Cloudy morning; line and bright afterwards. 
18th.—Cloudy, with a little sun about noon. 
Rather a dull week, cooler than the previous one, hut very near the average tempera¬ 
ture, and extremely equable, the maxima all agreeing within 4J degrees, and the minima 
within 7 9°.—0. J. SYMONS. 
