522 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ June 24, 1885. 
how is improvement possible ? Certainly we should try 
experiments—every farmer should do so for himself, but it 
should invariably be done on so small a scale that there can 
be no material loss. We would have on overy farm of a 
hundred acres and upwards a few perches of land set aside 
for trial plots. In our own practice we like the plots to be a 
series of parallelograms, 12 feet by 6 feet, with narrow paths 
between, and a broad path along the front. This plan 
enables us to test seed and manure under precisely similar 
conditions, and we derive much pleasure and instruction 
from it. When we first began our trials we were told that 
such little plots of corn would certainly attract the birds and 
we should lose all the grain as it ripened, but we sustained 
no such loss, and we gained much useful information from 
our trials of all the sorts of Wheat, Barley, and Oats pro¬ 
curable, and sown side by side. Boots and green crops were 
also tried in the same manner. 
Of green crops the Grasses and Clovers were the most 
important, our object being to ascertain the value of certain 
sorts either for temporary or permanent pastures. It was 
found that the best way of doing this was to sow one plot of 
each sort, and to sow two or three plots with different 
mixtures. By this means much useful information was 
obtained of the relative value of the sorts tried as forage 
plants, and this is also one of the best ways of becoming 
familiar with them. It is by no means intended to assert 
that one ( can learn all about Grasses in this way, far from 
it, but by intelligent observation and by reading all that is 
written about them, a fund of useful information may be 
gained upon which to draw in the actual process of laying 
down land, especially in permanent pasture. 
Simple as is the process of the sowing and development 
of new pastures, there is probably nothing in agriculture so 
badly done or which so frequently proves a failure. We were 
recently asked in “ The Land Agents’ Beoord,” to “Look at 
the newly laid pastures which so often fail, in which the 
strong and robust Grasses stand alone, and the finer ones 
either do not come up at all or die off as soon as up. The 
seed is blamed, the season is blamed, the birds are blamed, 
but the real cause is too often (not always) the want of tilth. 
Careful husbandry can alone secure this, and a careful sowing 
to cover every seed, and this not too deep. When walking 
lately over a young pasture, the result of surface sowing, the 
uncovered seed was apparent, the plants were living a strug¬ 
gling existence—sitting, as it were, upon the surface.” We 
happen to have seen a similar example of slovenly husbandry 
this season, a poor tilth, the soil quite hard in some places, 
and the seed scattered upon the surface by hand. Much of it 
appeared to be growing, but many of the finer Grasses will 
be lost in July. If we would have green pastures worthy of 
the comprehensive designation, we must set about it in the 
right way, and work out the entire process step by step. To 
be really master of the work there must be no omission of a 
single detail from trial plot to well-knit pasture. Bepeatedly 
have we enumerated every detail of the work :—Soil well 
drained, made clean of foul weeds so far as roots are con¬ 
cerned, so broken up by plough cultivators, harrows, rollers, 
and horse hoes as to ensure a deep very fine tilth, and suffi¬ 
ciently stored with fertility to induce a free strong growth 
from the beginning; most careful management for the first 
two seasons, preferably by lamb-folding the first year, and 
sheep-folding in the second. Can anything be more simple, 
and apparently more easy ? 
Before writing this paper we had been over some 200 
acres of grass land laid iu for hay. Out of that rather large 
area even for a home farm we found only about one-fourth 
had a really full crop, the remainder having in some places 
half a crop, and in others there was hardly enough grass to 
mow. The cause and remedy were not difficult to understand 
All the faults in the crop were clearly owing to faults of soil 
and not of season. Poverty and a want of drainage were the 
chief evils, but there were such others also as usually follow 
carelessness or mismanagement in laying down land to 
pasture. How bitter must be the feelings of the owner of 
such pasture if he has sufficient knowledge or sense to know 
that his property is spoilt, his means wasted through mis¬ 
management. Crass ignorance and its invariable con¬ 
comitant of conceit may be passed by with a smile of pity, 
a feeling of regret, when displayed by a tenant farmer, but 
a home farmer who is found wanting in practical knowledge 
of his calling must know that he will have to suffer for it. 
Bepeatedly have we had to listen to positive statements that a 
growth of “natural” Grasses makes the best pasture, and 
while refraining from the very natural desire to answer a 
fool according to his folly in the double meaning of the 
term, a leading question or two makes him tell one that such 
men eschew trial plots, and are ignorant of most of the 
details which go to the management of Grass land so as to 
render it worthy of our title of Green Pastures. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Though continued much later than usual corn-hoeing is now over, the 
last job of this kind being a second turn after Thistles among spring 
Oats, and the men were then sent with the hoes among the Mangolds 
both to get weeds under and to thin the Mangold plants which are now- 
making rapid progress. With the exception of one heavy land farm 
where the plant is thin and weak, the Mangold crop bids fair to he a good, 
one, although backward in comparison with the growth of ordinary 
seasons. We have several trials of various manure mixtures for Mangolds 
in progress, concerning which we hope to have something to say in due 
course. Swede seed germination has been satisfactory, and it was 
followed by a growth so quick as to soon place them out of danger from 
the ravages of the Turnip fly. The first sowings of White Turnips are 
making satisfactory progress, our especial object with this crop being the 
early folding of old sheep. As the sheep clear off the crop of Winter- 
Tares the land will be ploughed in readiness for drilling cattle Cabbage 
ia July, for a supply of green food for sheep or cows late next spring and 
in early summer. The haymaking which began with Sainfoin followed 
by Red Clover, Rye Grass, and mixed layers, will now soon become- 
general among meadow Grass also. The purchase of a couple of new 
rick cloths is a reminder of occasional negligence to provide such means- 
of protection for hayricks during the haymaking. Yet to undertake hay¬ 
making without rick cloths is indeed a rash proceeding. Nor is it enough 
simply to cover the rick with a cloth, for there is a right and a wrong way 
of doing this. The right way is to raise and lower the cloth by means of 
three poles—two being set upright at the ends of the rick to support the 
third pole, over which the cloth is thrown to be raised and lowered by 
ropes in pulley blocks fastened near the tops of the upright poles. 
Although arranged to keep off rain from the rick in course of construction, 
the cloth is kept far enough above it to allow the vapour arising from 
fermentation to escape freely. We allow no ricks to be in actual contact 
with the soil, but have a double layer of spray faggots at bottom. Negli¬ 
gence of this simple matter often causes much hay to be spoilt, for when 
the hay is pressed down upon the soil moisture ascends by capillary attrac¬ 
tion, and a layer of considerable thickness becomes musty and worthless. 
We'prefer making a few big ricks to having several small ones. A rickr 
which at bottom measures 12 yards long by 6 yards wide may be made so 
as to contain from twenty to twenty-five tons of hay, which if well made 
and put in the rick with due care is quite certain to prove really excellent 
food. For ricks of this size a sack stufEed with straw should always be. 
drawn upwards at the centre of the rick in the building to form a funnel 
for the escape of vapour. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATION?. 
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 
A 
1886. 
June. 
Barome¬ 
ter at 32* 
and Sea 
Level 
Hygrome¬ 
ter. 
Direction 
of Wind. 
| Temp, of 
Soil at 
1 1 loot. 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max 
Min. 
In 
Bun. 
On 
grass 
Inches. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
dee. 
d«g 
deg. 
deg. 
In. 
Sunday .... 
29.803 
58.4 
51.8 
N. 
5G.4 
66 7 
50.4 
120.4 
47.4 
0.017 
Monday. 
30.040 
G2.3 
54.7 
S.E. 
56 3 
68 6 
46.4 
114.0 
41.3 
O.Olfr 
Tuesday. 
. 15 
30.035 
59.0 
50.6 
N.W. 
56.6 
G6.7 
52.2 
113.7 
46.6 
— 
Wednesday 
. 16 
30.095 
56.2 
49.3 
N.W. 
56.4 
6L3 
46 0 
120.6 
39.9 
— 
Thursday ... 
. 17 
30.059 
53.8 
48.7 
W. 
56.2 
60.6 
46.7 
105.7 
41.4 
— 
Friday. 
30.018 
51.6 
48.1 
N.W. 
55.4 
54.7 
47.6 
78.7 
44.2 
0.071 
Saturday ... 
. 19 
29.812 
57.4 
53.8 
N.W. 
54.8 
72.6 
48 2 
119.2 
47.7 
— 
29.981 
57.0 
51.0 
56.0 
65.0 
48.2 
110.3 
44.1 
0.097 
REMARKS. 
13th.—Generally bright, with one or two slight showers. 
14th.—Fine bright morning, cloudy afternoon, with slight rain towards evening. 
15tli.—Cloud and sunshine, the latter predominating in the afternoon. 
10 th.—Generally cloudy, but some sun in early afternoon. 
17th.—Fine, but not much sun. 
18th.—Cloudy, and very cold. 
19th.—Rain very early, cloudy morning, with occasional slight rain; fine afternoon, 
cloudy evening. 
A ry week, but cold and quite unlike June. Day temperatures several degrees below 
the averages, nights not relatively so cold, as the clouds have prevented radiation.— 
G. J. ST MOSS. 
