124 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ February 11. 18?#. 
labour none of the farmers have had to give up farming or 
failed to meet their engagements. To obtain more land, 
larger farms, is the common aim of such men, and, laudable 
as this may appear, it is frequently the rock on which the 
hopes and efforts of years are shipwrecked. We are intimately 
acquainted with more than one instance of this. In one 
case the farmer had managed his little farm of thirty acres 
so well that he had brought up a large family, had saved 
enough money not only to enable him to purchase a cottage 
or two, but to render him dissatisfied with his profitable little 
farm, so that at last he left it for another of a hundred acres. 
From that time he ceased to be a prosperous man, and he 
entered upon an incessant struggle with difficulties, the 
primary cause of which was insufficient capital for such an 
undertaking. Ten pounds an acre has repeatedly been 
quoted as the amount which a farmer requires at the outset, 
but in many an instance he would do better, much better, 
with £15, or even £20 an acre. Let it not be thought that 
the investment of so large an amount per acre points to 
extravagant or reckless expenditure, but rather to the laying 
out of capital in such a manner as shall afford a large, 
speedy, and profitable return. This is one of the useful 
lessons so strongly enforced in the reports of the farm prize 
competition by the Royal Agricultural Society, and we 
strongly commend it to the attention of our readers. 
Depend upon it, high farming still answers better than 
any other, only there must be keen intelligence, sound sense, 
and energetic action brought to bear upon it, and, we may 
usefully add, rigid economy. Granted reforms in agreements, 
in preferential rates, in local and imperial taxation, and in 
rents, to ease the burdens of the land, we are bound to insist 
that the farmer on his part strives earnestly for increased 
knowledge, better work, careful management, closer attention 
to details, a fuller development of what have been termed 
minor profits. The time for hard-and-fast rules of practice 
has long been past; we are all the sport of circumstances, and 
our farm management to be successful must accord with 
situation, seasons, and markets. Every year brings its 
peculiar trials and lessons, and we may add its opportunities. 
When the drought of last summer forced many a farmer to 
send his starveling ewes into the market in such large 
numbers that every pen was crowded to overflowing week 
after week, and prices fell to abnormally low rates, there was 
an opportunity for the realisation of “ minor ” profits for 
those who were in a position to turn it to account. This 
was a matter peculiar to the season and markets, worthy of 
especial remark, as denoting losses on the one hand and 
profits on the other. 
Peculiarities of situation must always exercise a special 
influence upon the farmer’s work. We showed last week how 
well the Sussex farmers turn the peculiar advantages of that 
favoured county to account. The report of the farm prize 
competition of last year affords valuable information of 
some clever and profitable practice in the north. Take for 
example Mr. Ashton’s first-prize farm of 166 acres near 
Liverpool. Hired from year to year, without restrictions as 
to cropping or sale of produce at the high rent and tithe 
charge of £391, it is farmed under a system altogether 
adapted to the situation, everything which the farm produces 
being sold at Liverpool, the vehicles loading back with 
manure, principally from stables using sawdust bedding, but 
also from cattle sheds and latrines ; the only exceptions to 
the carrying out of this system to the letter being in the case 
of autumn aftermath, which is let to cattle salesmen for 
grazing purposes, and realises about £60 a year, and also 
the produce of six acres of permanent pasture used for the 
grazing of stock. Mention is made in the full report of this 
farm of a working capital of £2000, of a labour bill of £600 
a year, and of an annual manure bill of nearly £400. The 
cropping for last year was 34 acres winter Wheat (19 acres 
after lea, 15 acres after Potatoes and Turnips); 17 acres of 
Oats (5 after roots, and 12 after lea); 15 acres of Barley (5 
acres of Tares, 22 acres of Potatoes, 2 acres of Swedes, 
1 acre of Mangolds); 42 acres of first year’s seeds (22 after 
Oats, and 14 after Wheat); 22 acres of second year s seeds 
(6 acres of permanent pasture). No strict rotation is followed 
but it is usually—First year :—Fallow crop, mostly Potatoes, 
and a few Swedes and Mangolds. Second year:—Wheat 
sown down with seeds. Third and fourth year: Grass, 
usually cut five times in the two years. Fifth year : Oats, 
and sometimes Wheat. The judges stated that—“ If the 
total produce of crops were added together, and valued even 
at current market prices, low as they are, there would be no 
difficulty in proving that Mr. Ashton’s general management 
with a view to profit is on a sound basis, and fully meets the 
requirements of the Royal Agricultural Society.” Mr. Ashton s 
mixture of Grass seeds for his two-year layers is half bushel 
Pacey’s Perennial Rye Grass, half bushel Italian Rye Grass, 
3 lbs. each of Red Clover, Cow Grass, and Alsike Clover, 2 
lbs. each of Timothy, Cocksfoot, Crested Dogstail, and Rib 
Grass, lb. each of Trefoil and Giant White Clover, and 
1 lb. Sweet Yernal. 
(To be continued.) 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Arrangements now being made for the application of what are 
usually termed spring dressings of manure are important, and demand 
our close attention, for upon the correct and timely doing of this work 
depends the degree of success to he achieved this year. Two things are 
all-important here : sow the manure early, and see that it is genuine. 
Avoid dealers’ mixtures ; procure each sort of manure separately, and have 
the mixture made under careful supervision at the farm. A'l winter corn 
must be dressed during the present month, to wait till March is to court 
failure. Do not forget that artificial manure must be dissolved by rain 
before it can be absorbed into the soil as food for plants. Apply the 
dressing to spring corn at the sowing, the manure to be sown broadcast 
immediately after the drills and before the harrows are used, in order that 
it may be so mixed with the surface soil that it may be held there, and 
some of it dissolved even before rain fails. Drought not unfrequt ntly 
sets in early in March, and remember we do not always get April showers, 
and therefore in common prudence we must sow the manure so early as to 
insure its absorption before vigorous growth begins. For grass land 
early sowing is, if possible, even more important, and with timely sowing 
the effect of the manures we have eo often recommended is more speedy 
and equally beneficial to that of farmyard manure, while it is much more 
economical. The manufacture and application of farmyard manure to 
pasture is so costly that one cannot but feel surprised it has gone on so 
long. To the mind of the ordinary farmer there is virtue in bulk and 
rank odours, and his perception of the real value of artificial manures is 
still vague and undefined. One has still to offer a sort of apology for 
making mention of them to him. The best way to attract his attention 
and to induce action for his own benefit is to give him tangible proof 
of the effect of artificial manure in the guise of superior crops. There 
must be no fitful hap-hazard use of these manures, but a certain quantity 
must be applied every year, so as to keep the land stored with fertility. 
We append the formula for Grass crop :—Half cwt. nitrate of potash, 
three-quarter cwt. nitrate of soda, half cwt. superphosphate, half cwt. 
steamed bone flour. Spring dressing for com crops Quarter cwt. 
nitrate of potash, three-quarter cwt. nitrate of soda, quarter cwt. steamed 
bone flour, quarter cwt. superphosphate, quarter cwt. coprolite. For 
root crops :—Three-quarter cwt. nitrate of potash, half cwt. nitrate of 
soda, 2| cwt. steamed bone flour, 2£ cwt. ground coprolite. Each formula 
is for the quantity required per acre. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
Camden Square, London. 
Lat. 51° 32'40" N.; Long. 6° 8' 0” W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
DATE. 
9 A.M. 
IN THE DAY. 
fl 
* 
1866. 
Jan- Feb. 
Barome¬ 
ter at 32« 
and Sea 
Level 
Hygrome¬ 
ter. 
Direction 
of Wind. 
| Temp, of 
| 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. 
31 
29.261 
42.4 
41.8 
S.E. 
36.1 
45.8 
35.9 
62.1 
30.2 
0.294: 
1 
29.254 
37.3 
35.9 
s.w. 
36.4 
42 8 
34.1 
74.7 
28.3 
— 
29.588 
36.4 
34.8 
w. 
36.2 
43 7 
33.7 
73.8 
28.4 
0.198 
Wednesday .. 
fj 
29-526 
33.3 
33.1 
E. 
35 6 
39.2 
32.9 
55.8 
27.1 
0.097 
Thursday .... 
4 
30.126 
34.6 
33.9 
N. 
35.6 
40.3 
32.4 
58.2 
28.8 
— 
5 
30.232 
33.4 
32.4 
N. 
35.8 
38.8 
3L0 
532 
25.3 
— 
Saturday .... 
6 
30.142 
298 
28.3 
N. 
35.6 
39.0 
26.7 
73.0 
20.1 
29.733 
35.S 
34.3 
35.9 
41.4 
32.4 
64.4 
26.9 
0.689 
REMARKS. 
31st.—Continuously wet early and heavy rain at intervals till 1 P.M.; bright afternoon ; 
clear night. 
1st.—Fine bright day. 
2 nd.—Fine and bright. , , ... , „ 
3rd.—Snow in early morning and till 10.30 A.M.; dull, damp, and slightly foggy after. 
4th.—Fine and, as a whole, bright; but a few spots of rain about 1 P.M. 
5th.—Fine, but without bright sunshine ; fog about sunset. 
6th.— Beautifully fine and bright, but colder. . „ 
On the whole a line week. Temperature almost identical with that of the previous 
week, and rather below the average.— G. J. SYMONS. 
