58 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ July 18, 18?9. 
FRUIT. 
s. d. b. d. 
A; plea, h sieve. 2 0 to 4 0 
„ Nora Scotia and 
Canada, per barrel 7 0 16 0 
'Cherries, $ sieve .. .. 4 0 10 0 
Grapes, per lb. 10 30 
Lemons, case.10 0 15 0 
Oranges, per 100 .. .. 
s. 
4 
d. 
0 
8. 
te 9 
a. 
0 
Peaches, dozen. 
3 
0 
12 
0 
Red Currents, per J-sieve 
8 
6 
4 
0 
B’ack „ 
6 
0 
5 
6 
8t. Michael Pine , each 
a 
0 
fi 
0 
Strawberries, per lb. 
0 
8 
0 
9 
FERTILITY. 
Now is the time to give especial study to the effect of manure 
upon the land by close and repeated inspections of crops as they 
approach maturity. Results are before us; each field of the farm is 
like the page of an open book, a manual in plain and simple 
language, telling us as nothing else can do of the condition of the 
land and of the soundness or the faults of our practice. We may 
well remind our readers that for land to do this in a reliable 
manner it is essential that both drainage and mechanical division 
are efficient. Manure cannot act in a satisfactory manner upon 
soil that is badly drained or deficient in porosity. Then, too, the 
manner and time of its application may also affect results. Ex¬ 
perimental stations have taught us much about what to avoid and 
what to use, but they have not given precise information for 
•general guidance, nor can they ever do so. 
Sustained fertility of well drained, well cultivated soil, is the 
■essential basis of good farming, and it ought to be the aim of every 
farmer to apply manure in the most economical and certain 
manner, so as to insure a full development of each consecutive 
erop, and never to exhaust the soil. As crops approach maturity 
we are able to see if we have been successful in this important 
work, for no matter how unfavourable the season is really good 
farming always tells. One of the most satisfactory crops we have 
]ust now b a fifty-acre field of Barley at a farm which came in 
hand at Michaelmas, 1887. This is heavy land, and it was then 
about as full of couch grass as it could well be. Ploughs, culti¬ 
vators, harrows, and men with rakes and steel forks, were all 
brought into action upon the grass in spring and early summer last 
year. The season was too wet for couch fires, and the whole of it 
was carted off the land into huge heaps, and when the soil was as 
•clean as we could make it, it was manured heavily with farmyard 
manure in the furrows, and roots sown—Mangolds first, followed 
by Swedes and white Turnips. The only profit, or rather re¬ 
muneration, we got for all this work last year was from the sheep 
with which the whole of it was subsequently folded. But the 
■aheep gave finish to our work by storing the soil with manure. It 
was ploughed immediately after the sheep were withdrawn. 
Barley sowing followed in due course, and now an excellent crop 
•of it affords most satisfactory evidence of the soundness of the 
practice. 
On the same farm a field of Defiance Wheat shows we were 
right in thinking the residue of manure from the dressing given it 
last year was sufficient to produce a full crop this year. The straw 
is almost G feet in height, and is crowned with such fine ears that 
the corn yield bids fair to be one of extraordinary abundance. 
Close by it there are a couple ol acres of the new white Salvator 
Wheat, some of which is 7feet in height, and about which we hope 
to have something to say later on. This land will, of course, require 
a full dressing of manure next season. In other fields, where 
Barley was sown after Barley, a half dressing of mixed chemical 
manures was sufficient to prevent exhaustion and ensure a full crop. 
Perhaps one of the most remarkable signs of progress is the 
importance now given to the use of mixed food for animals and 
and mixed manures for the land. A recent inspection of the 
experimental farm at Woburn showed that mixed nitrogenous and 
mineral manures ensure full corn crops, while plots dressed only 
with minerals or nitrates were decidedly inferior. The trials this 
year are all the more important, from the fact of the weather 
having been so favourable for chemical manure to take full effect 
upon the soil. In using chemical manure especial care is necessary 
to prevent waste, and to ensure speedy action so far as is possible. 
To apply such manure to the surface without a prospect of rain 
involves a serious risk of failure ; to apply it too soon or too late 
also points to loss. No matter how wet the season, we were never 
too early in using it upon pasture of any kind, for the soil is so 
crowded with roots that the nitrates are taken up as they are 
dissolved, and the slower action of the minerals is equally certain. 
Nor do we ever hesitate to use it with spring or winter corn at the 
time of sowing, if only we know the soil to be of sound staple. 
Much caution is requisite in using it on very heavy land, for if left 
exposed upon the surface much of it may be washed away by heavy 
rain. We repeat, that in the trials of manures greater prominence 
is not given to sheep folding, for we hold that of all manures used 
in agriculture the first place must be assigned to that imparted to 
the soil by sheep folding, both for economy and efficiency. 
WORK OX THE HOME FARM. 
Ploughs, harrows, and lioes have been kept briskly at work upon all 
fallow land to destroy weeds and get the summer culture as forward as 
possible before harvest. Docks and thistles have also been destroyed 
with other weeds around the margins of corn fields. This work is of 
special importance now, as such weeds are plentiful enough this year to 
spread seed far and wide if they are at all neglected. Haystacks have 
been thatched, and so the best crop in quality and quantity that we 
have had since 1885 is safe, and much of it will probably be held over 
till next year, for it is unlikely that we shall have so fine a crop two 
years in succession. Wc have upwards of two -hundred tons upon the 
home farm, and have made a special insurance of it apart from the other 
stock and crop insurance. In doing this we had to remember the 
possibility of much of it being kept till it became more valuable than it 
is likely to be next winter, and an approximate value was put upon it. 
The delicious aroma in the air near all the stacks affords the best indica¬ 
tion of that development of flavour by heating which is so essential in 
good fodder, and the colour is of that bright green hue which is a sure 
indication of well made hay. 
At all our farms we have now a full stock of store pigs coming 
on for the corn stubbles. For the first few weeks when old enough 
they had enough corn offal to keep them in a healthy condition, and 
now they are kept solely upon green peas and beans brought from the 
fields as required. We do this on the principle that a farm should be 
self-supporting. A remarkable instance of how well and profitably this 
may be done came recently under our notice upon a small farm which 
we surveyed for purchase. It has been in the hands of two brothers as 
tenants for thirteen years, and during the whole of that time no corn 
has been sold, but all has been consumed upon the farm chiefly by pigs. 
The land has thus been well manured, and the pigs sold when ready for 
the butcher. So well has this answered that the tenants were able to 
attend the sale in view of becoming owners of the farm. It was with 
regret that we as representing a large and wealthy landowner had to 
outbid them, and glad indeed were we subsequently to secure them as 
tenants. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
Camdex Square, London. 
Lat. 51° 82' 40" N.; Long. 0° 8' 0" W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
DATE. | 9 A.M. | IN THE DAT. 
1889. 
8”tr- ® 
o t* ^ 
Hydrome¬ 
ter. 
P . 
*3 P 
Temp, of 
soil at 
1 foot. 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature 
P 
*2 
« 
J uly. 
Bar 
ten 
and 
Li 
Dry. 
Wet. 
u. 
So 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
sun. 
On 
grass 
Sunday . 
7 
Inche9. 
*9 754 
ded 
6 -.8 
dej?. 
61.0 
s. 
ded- 
66.4 
ded* 
73.8 
ded. 
58.8 
ded. 
115.1 
ded. 
54.9 
Ir . 
Monday. 
8 
2-1.7 87 
57.9 
50.9 
E. 
65 8 
64.1 
54 5 
83.9 
51.8 
0.1 89 
Tuesday .... 
9 
29 8f» > 
65 1 
59.3 
E. 
63 9 
749 
57.9 
116 8 
56.1 
0.184 
Wednesday.. 
10 
29.7 8 
63 3 
60.4 
HE. 
63.9 
72.5 
58 3 
104.8 
54.2 
Thursday.... 
11 
29 986 
64 9 
55 4 
tJ. 
62.7 
718 
52.6 
113.2 
48-8 
0.010 
Friday . 
12 
29.987 
63.9 
61.7 
N.K. 
62.9 
73 2 
58 8 
94 4 
53.3 
Saturday .... 
13 
29.914 
63.8 
61 2 
E. 
63 0 
718 
59.3 
116.0 
69.6 
0.032 
• 
29.857 
64.0 
58 6 
64.1 
71.7 
57 2 
106.3 
54.1 
0.733 
REMARKS. 
fth.—Generally bright morning; cloudy afternoon; fair night. 
sth —Cloudy morning, and spot» of rain early ; wet from noon to 2 r.M.; showery after 
noon and wet evening. 
9tli.—Cloudy morning; fine afternoon, with some sunshine; wet evening, 
lllth.—Wet morning; tuush.ne and showers in afternoon and evemug. 
lith.—Kr ght and fresh. 
12th.—Cloudy morniog; slight thunderstorm at 4 r M„ and wet nigh‘. 
13th.—Hue, with some sun. 
Temperature very similar to the previous week, but Its daily range Ics , owing to 
cloud and rain. On July 12th, when only 0"C6 in. of rain fell here, there was excessive 
rain in the South Midland totnties, upwards of 3 inches falling at ;o:nc station.,— 
L. J. SYM NS. 
