848 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ April 29, 1888. 
laid down by their predecessors. In every other trade and 
profession some skilled training is deemed necessary to 
insure success in the crowded crush of modern times. Alone, 
however, among our pliers of industry the farmer generally 
sets to work without knowing more of science than the pig he 
drives to market. The days are at hand when good farming 
will depend upon an accurate acquaintance with chemistry, 
mechanics, meteorology, botany, geology, and many other 
sciences.” 
While not perhaps agreeing with every word of our quota¬ 
tion from an article on agriculture recently published in a 
daily paper, yet thoughtful earnest men will admit the truth 
and force of the general statement, and own that we must 
combine science with practice if we are to achieve any real 
improvement in farming. Is, then, farming capable of im¬ 
provement ? This is a question of so much importance that 
we may well ask our readers to give it due consideration, to 
weigh well their own practice and its results, and to see if 
faults of the past may not be avoided in present efforts for 
improvements in the future. Not lightly would we offer 
advice to men whose efforts are so heavily handicapped by a 
depression which deepens in intensity; but when they seek 
for relief in the form of a reduction of rent, while making just 
concessions, every possible effort at improvement in practice 
may fairly be required on their part. 
Sound judgment and common sense enable a man to 
seize upon every coign of vantage, to miss no opportunity of 
improvement. Lessons are frequently before our eyes, their 
teaching is plain and unmistakeable ; well will it be for us if 
we can understand and apply them to practice. For example, 
a few hours before writing this article we were at a large 
cattle market, where lambs were sold at 46s. apiece, and well- 
bred ewe hoggets at 63s. apiece. But there were very few 
lambs that reached that high price, and the high-priced 
hoggets were all from one famous flock-master. Surely the 
lesson here was not hard to understand ! If early lambs, by 
careful tending and judicious feeding, command a price 
superior to the average of an ordinary hogget, one should 
make an effort to rear some ; and if the rearing of early lambs 
was taken up so generally as to bring down prices, yet a 
falling off of 10s. apiece would still leave a fair margin of 
profit. Then, too, of well-bred ewe hoggets there should be 
more. If we keep sheep at all, why not have them as well 
bred as possible, if that represents a greater value—a higher 
profit ? To do this we must be prepared to give much time 
and patience to careful selection in the formation of a flock. 
No man achieves fame as a flock-master by the mere expen¬ 
diture of money. Of course there must be a certain outlay 
of capital at the outset, but that must be followed by selection 
and good management. In a recent discussion of the effects 
of the depression an unanimous opinion was expressed that 
if a farmer were driven by hard times to sell his ewe flock 
bankruptcy soon followed. Greatly do we regret seeing so 
many farms without sheep this spring. It may be said that 
scarcity of food compelled farmers to part with their flocks 
last autumn. Whatever was the cause, the effect must be 
disastrous both for tenant and landlord, pointing as it does 
unmistakeably to low farming. However low the price of 
mutton may be, cling to the sheep say we, and do not forget 
how much they do to sustain fertility in the land over which 
they pass. Sheep certainly must have a prominent place in 
the future of farming. 
Cattle naturally occur to one in thinking about the best 
means of imparting fertility to the soil with a view to profit¬ 
able farming. To keep cattle solely for such a purpose is 
decidedly wrong. Farmyard manure manufactured in cattle 
yards is certainly the most costly manure we can have. The 
expense of tending the cattle, carting the manure to heaps, 
which are usually turned over once, re-carting and spreading 
upon the land; all this mounts up to a serious item of 
expenditure, apart from the value of the straw used. “ To 
farm well keep plenty of live stock ” is a remark that is 
common enough in the mouths of farmers, and one still hears 
it made with an amount of assurance which, at any rate, 
betokens confidence on the part of those who thus pin their 
faith to the muck heap. In farming of the future farmyard 
manure will cease to hold this prominent position. A certain 
quantity will probably still be used in root culture, but for 
general purposes artificial manures, green crops, and sheep¬ 
folding must be adopted. The prejudice against artificial 
manures will cease when it is made plain to farmers that by 
the correct use of them a saving can be effected and profits 
increased. All this will take time, for before the matter can 
be fully understood some knowledge must be had of the 
nature of soils, of the elements of plant food required for the 
full development of each crop, of the properties of chemical 
manures, and of the mixing of them in due proportions. 
Let the leading spirits of local agricultural associations 
remember that agriculture as a science is far from perfec¬ 
tion, and that it falls within the scope of their society te 
make trial stations for the mutual benefit of its members. 
(To be continued.) 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
At length we have begun folding the ewes and lambs upon Rye. A 
new fold is prepared daily for them, into which the lambs run forward 
through lamb gates, the ewes following them one fold behind, Mangolds 
being given them there with the Rye, chad:, and some lamb food. Fresh 
lamb food is put into the troughs for the lambs in the forward fold when- 
they enter it at about 3 p m., the flock being taken out of the folds upon, 
grass early in the morning. Greedily as the lambs eat the Rye they have 
no scour, the lamb food keeping them sound and lusty. When the nitrate 
of soda was put upon the Rye a small piece was left undressed with it in 
order to test the power of the manure. Nothing could be more satis¬ 
factory, the undressed part being comparatively meagre in growth, and of 
a pale green colour that looks positively sickly beside the deep green hue 
and rampant growth arising solely from this application of a hundred¬ 
weight of nitrate of soda per acre. The lesson though simple is clear 
and unmistakeable, and it might well be shown to a beginner as the first 
sure step in the use of chemical manures. Turning from the Rye to a 
piece of Winter Oats close by, we have before us an immense stride in 
such knowledge, for here we have an illustration, living and growing more: 
forcible daily, of the immense value of the teaching of Professcr Jamieson 
as evolved in the experimental stations in Sussex during the last five 
years. The Oats were sown last autumn with a half-dressing of home- 
mixed manures, the other half-dressing being given early this spring. 
The nitrate of soda used in this mixture has been considered a doubtful 
advantage, but several years’ experience enables us to say that it is invaluable 
for the promotion of such a robust sturdy growth at once as enables the 
plants to withstand the effects of very cold weathe •, aud there can be no 
question that the small quantity used is soon absorbed by the plants. 
Just as the growth starts into full activity again in spring comes the 
second dressing. The full value of the manures can only be realised in 
July, but even now we can see remarkable results. Another nine-acre 
field of Winter Oats was in Rye Grass last spring, the ewe flock were put. 
upon it with cake and Mangolds, it was then ploughed and sown with 
White Mustard, as it was notoriously poor. The Mustard was ploughed 
in, the manure mixture sown with the Oats, and a spring dressing has 
been given. We shall watch the result closely, and we hope to gain a 
useful lesson from it, both for our own benefit and that of our readers. 
We have the harrows in use upon corn thick with seedling Charlock, 
and the hoes must now be briskly at work. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATION!-. 
CAMDEN SQUARE, LONDON. 
Lat.51 o 32'40 " N.; Long. 0° 8'0" \V.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
DATE. 
9 A.M. 
IN THE DAY. 
O 
"S 
C4 
1886. 
April. 
Barome¬ 
ter at 328 
and Sea 
Level 
Hygrome¬ 
ter. 
Direction 
of Wind. 
| Temp, of 
| Soil at 
1 1 foot. 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature. 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
MiD. 
In 
sun. 
On 
grass 
Inches. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg 
deg. 
deg. 
In. 
Sunday . 
29.887 
45.4 
439 
N.E. 
45.0 
50.9 
41.0 
62.8 
40.3 
0.03& 
Monday. 
29.812 
50.7 
46.9 
N.E. 
44.2 
60 8 
39.6 
107.7 
36.9 
— 
Tuesday. 
80 
29.832 
51.4 
48.7 
N.E. 
40.4 
61.3 
41.3 
97.8 
44.2 
— 
Wednesday . 
21 
29.980 
45.3 
40.4 
N.E. 
40.2 
51.4 
41.2 
75.2 
38.8 
_ 
Thursday ... 
. 22 
29.993 
45.8 
41.5 
W. 
45.5 
55.1 
39.4 
98.9 
37.3 
_ 
Friday. 
30.024 
52.7 
47.8 
E. 
45.7 
64.7 
39 7 
102.8 
32.7 
— 
Saturday ... 
24 
30.042 
52.8 
49.3 
E. 
47.3 
69.0 
46.9 
103.7 
40.9 
0.020- 
29 939 
49.1 
45.5 
45.8 
60.0 
41.7 
92.6 
38.7 
0.052 
RE-MARKS. 
irth.—Dull an l cold, w'.t.h occasional shower*, 
l'.itn.—Fine, bright, ami warm. 
20th.—Dull morning; tine and bright afternoon and evening. 
21st.—Cloud and s aiisliine in morning ; the rest of the day dull. 
22nd.—A due forigat day. 
23rd.—Fine, bright, and warm, but with a rather penetrating easterly wind. 
24th.—Dull early ; wet from 0 to 10 A.M.; hue ana bright after 11 A M. 
On the whole a bright, warm, and pleasant week. Temperature slightly above the* 
( average, ar.d nearly 6° above that of the preceding week.—G. J. SIMONS. 
