826 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER ,. 
t April 22, 1886. 
weekly process, but enough is done to fill a chaff house or one 
end of a barn, the chaff being packed so closely together that 
it heats sufficiently to develope an aroma almost as fragrant 
as that in good hay. Straw so managed becomes as palatable 
as it is nutritious, and it is given to horses, cows, store cattle, 
and sheep. 
After the first outlay upon laying down land to permanent 
pasture there is a permanent reduction both in the labour 
of men and horses of the farm, and such reduction may also 
be regarded as permanent when layers are sown for three or 
four years; only we must never forget that pastures, 
whether temporary or permanent, must have an annual 
dressing of manure of some sort or other. That obtained by 
sheep-folding is the most economical, that by the application 
of farmyard manure the most expensive. As there is prac¬ 
tically a limit to sheep-folding upon most farms, we adopt 
the happy mean placed at our disposal in the guise of pure 
artificial manure. An annual dressing in February of such 
manures keeps the soil stored with fertility sufficiently for 
the requirements of the plants growing in it, and, what is still 
more important, the sustained vigour of the pasture leads 
eventually to a remarkable increase in the bulk of the crop. 
It does not answer to suffer the pasture, or rather the soil in 
which it grows, to become almost exhausted of fertility before 
giving more manure. We must not suppose half a dressing 
yearly, or a full one on alternate years, will suffice, and if we 
can contrive to apply liquid manure to any or all of the 
pastures immediately after the grass is mown we insure a 
quick strong growth at once. This is a matter worthy the 
especial attention of the home farmer for the pasture of park 
land under his [care, for which the sewage of the mansion 
ought to be available. The sewage tank should be, if 
possible, in the park, and far enough away from the buildings 
to avoid all risk of nuisance from foul odours. A pump is 
fixed in the side of the tank most convenient for approach 
with a water-cart, and the sewage is distributed upon the 
pasture in the same manner that town streets are watered. 
We need no close calculation as to the exact proportion of 
nutriment in a given quantity of sewage. It is sufficient for 
our purpose to know that it imparts fertility to the soil, that 
its action is more prompt than that of solid manure ever can 
be, and that it costs nothing. This use of sewage is one of 
the little matters so frequently neglected on the home farm, 
yet it is of such importance as to merit especial attention, 
and we certainly should insist upon having a manure tank, 
pump, and distributor for every large establishment. 
To regard permanent pasture as a panacea for the agri¬ 
cultural depression is wrong. Extreme measures are seldom 
safe ones, and we fail to see how any farmer, but especially 
he who has rent to pay for his land, can afford to lay down 
much land at once. Far better would it be to sow a few 
acres year by year till a fair proportion of the farm is in 
pasture, and to do this work really well. Mr. Martin J. 
Sutton’s new book on permanent and temporary pastures is 
a pleasant sign of the favour with which this branch of 
agriculture is now regarded, and farmers will find the invest¬ 
ment of a guinea in its purchase a profitable outlay, if only 
they will try and shake off the too common feeling of prejudice 
against “ book learning,” for this work is thoroughly 
practical, and its teaching sound. To those who have 
hitherto been content to sow annually Eed Clover for a supply 
of green food and stover, it offers some valuable hints on 
mixtures for leys or layers of one to four years’ duration. In 
the first we are recommended to sow Italian Rye Grass, 
Perennial Rye Grass, Cocksfoot, Broad Clover, Cow Grass, 
White Clover, Alsike, and Trefoil, preference being given to 
some of these for hay, and others for grazing, and the reason 
for such preference is fully explained. In the second we have 
a large proportion of Cocksfoot—of which, by the way, we 
regret to find mention in another part of the book as “ the 
Fashionable Grass,” and we submit that it is much too 
valuable a forage plant to be spoken of thus slightingly— 
Timothy is added, and more Perennial Rye Grass, White 
Clover, and Alsike used, while the entire quantity of seed is 
increased. For three and four years the character of 
permanent pastures is approached more closely, but the finer 
Grasses are excluded, the Fescues and Foxtail being added. 
“ The first year’s crop,” we are told, “ will mainly consist of 
Rye Grasses and Clovers, but the bottom of a three or four 
years’ ley may be expected to improve for at least two years, 
and the Foxtail, Timothy, Cocksfoot, and other plants will 
increase in bulk in the third and fourth seasons.” 
Other forage plants worthy of especial attention are 
Lucerne and Sainfoin, which latter is very useful where it is. 
found to answer. We have just sown seventeen acres of it 
in a deep rich loam on a calcareous subsoil. We prefer 
sowing Lucerne in drills wide enough apart to admit the 
horse hoe for clearing purposes, and then with an annual 
dressing of manure we are able to retain it for several years. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Mangold sowing is now almost finished once more, and our payments 
for artificial manures are at an end till autumn. This is the only 
matter in which we have been at all extravagant, but we hope it was 
done wisely and well. At any rate we carefully considered ways and 
means before giving a single order, and we kept our balance at the bank 
carefully in mind, for we have resolved that nothing shall induce us to 
borrow money for farming. On the other hand it is unwise to allow 
much money to remain idle in the banker’s hands ; far better is it to have 
money at work, and to turn it over as quickly as possible. Little profits 
accumulate, only to secure them we must be up and doing, and be prompt 
to seize every opportunity as it occurs. The strong prejudice which, 
exists in the eastern counties in favour of Orange Globe Mangolds has 
induced us to procure seed of the best sort of it for each of our bailiffs ; 
but we have had six acres specially prepared and sown with Long Red 
Mangold under our own eye upon the home farm, our aim being to show 
that this sort of Mangold can be made to answer under ordinary care, 
and afford results superior to those yielded by any other Mangold. 
Swedes and White Turnips will follow in due course in land now under 
Rye. This Rye has had a hundredweight of nitrate of soda per acre, and 
after it has been folded with ewes and lambs we consider it will he suffi¬ 
ciently stored with fertility to yield a good crop of roots. The Swede 
and White Turnip land upon which the flock was folded recently has been 
ploughed and sown with Black Tartarian Oats. It was originally our 
intention to have sown Spring Tares there, but we decided to have the 
Tares after some Rye Grass on an off farm, where we shall have the 
option of folding the Tares or ploughing them iD. That off farm is in 
such poor plight that there was a heavy loss upon it last year. Some 
three or four years ago it was thrown upon the landlord^ hands by a 
tenant who had “ farmed it out,” and it has proved no light matter to 
bring it back to good condition. Land undrained, foul with twitch, 
poverty-stricken, is not easily set right. Let landlords bear this in mind, 
and if by reasonable concessions it is possible to induce tenants to farm 
well and to retain their holdings, let there be no hesitation about the 
concessions, or in other words about a fair reduction of rent. We are 
now, at any rate, fully face to face with the depression and its results, and 
it may be taken for granted that the letting value of land can never re¬ 
turn to the high rates of ten years ago ; colonial influences will prevent 
that. If farmers have had a reduction of rent proportionate to the falling 
off of prices in farm produce they certainly have no just cause of 
complaint. 
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. 
0 
a 
tt 
1886. 
April. 
Barome¬ 
ter at 32« 
and Sea 
Level 
Hygrome¬ 
ter. 
Direction 
of Wind. 
| Temp, of 
I Boil at 
1 lfoot. 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature. 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
sun. 
On 
grass. 
Inches. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg 
deg. 
deg. 
In. 
Sunday .... 
29.531 
87.6 
36.7 
N. 
42.2 
53.5 
82.2 
95.3 
27.0 
0.014 
30.067 
44.7 
39.1 
N. 
42.2 
56 3 
32.2 
99.2 
26.8 
— 
. 13 
30.291 
46.7 
43.9 
W. 
42 8 
55.4 
31.3 
9J.7 
25.8 
0.022 
Wednesday 
. 14 
30.280 
48.4 
41.7 
N.W. 
43.8 
538 
44.2 
69.2 
4L.8 
0.018 
Thursday ... 
. 15 
30.268 
45.7 
44.4 
N.E. 
44.4 
55.5 
39.3 
103.2 
32.4 
0.014 
Friday. 
30.199 
43.4 
40.1 
N.E. 
44.6 
522 
89.5 
99.2 
34.8 
— 
Saturday ... 
. 17 
30.070 
42.4 
40.9 
N.E. 
44.2 
48.4 
37.7 
63.7 
35.4 
0.029 
30.101 
44.3 
41.4 
43.5 
53.6 
37.1 
88.6 
— 
0.097 
32.0 
REMARKS. 
11th.—Showers in morning, otherwise fine ; faint lunar halo at 9 P.M. 
12th—Glorious day. 
13th.—Fine and plea ant, but cloudy after the first part of the morning. 
14th.—Showery early, fiae and pleasant afterwards. 
loth.—Fine bright morning, spots of rain at times in afternoon. # 
16 th.—Generally fine and pleasant, hut occasional spots of rain. 
17th.—Dull and drizzly. 
Temperature much the same as in the previous week, except that the nights were 
rather colder, there being frost on three nights.—G. J. SYMONS. 
