192 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
| August 29, 1889, 
POINTS OF HUSBANDRY. 
To sow Rye Grass, Clover, Lucerne, Sainfoin, and mixed seeds 
with a corn crop has become a very general custom, but in a wet 
season the growth of such green crops among the corn becomes so 
vampant as to prove troublesome at harvest time, and it is worthy 
of consideration whether a more frequent departure from the rule 
is not advisable. Clover may perhaps form the exception, for 
where Clover is sown so extensively as in the eastern counties it is 
always done with the intention of devoting one growth for seed, 
■and with a favourable weather a full crop of Clover seed is always 
profitable. The apparent advantage of sowing seeds with corn i3 
that when the corn is harvested there are the seeds established in 
the soil in readiness for an early start next season. But if seeds 
are sown alone early in spring they come into use in June and 
afford an excellent change for ewes and lambs. In Lincolnshire 
seeds are sown alone after roots, the quantity used per acre being 
4 lbs. Red Clover, 4 lbs. Cow Grass, 4 lbs. Trefoil, 1 peck Italian 
Rye Grass. "We may explain that Cow Grass is a perennial form 
of Red Clover, an excellent forage plant bearing both drought and 
frost better than the common Red or Broad Clover. "With the 
above mixture is sown 4 lbs. of Rape seed, which at first affords 
some shelter for the young Clover plant, and is subsequently 
■cleared off by the sheep, the seed.s standing over for the second 
year. When the layers are thus left for two years a five-course 
shift is followed, and instead of proving exhaustive the plan is 
highly beneficial, the sheep folding and fibrous roots of the grass 
affording sustenance to the next crop. In the adjoining county of 
Nottingham the mixture for two years’ layers consists of 14 peck 
of Perennial and Italian Rye Grass, 10 lbs. of white Clover and 
Cow Grass, and a small quantity of Sheep’s Parsley (Petroselinum 
sativum), of which sheep are very fond, and it is considered to 
check liver-fluke and red water. 
After a two-years ley a little extra attention is necessary to 
■eradicate couch grass when the ley is broken up, some of this pest 
being almost certain to be found, and if got rid of then much 
subsequent trouble would be avoided. Farmers suffer a terrible 
annual loss from the exhaustion of soil by twitch, and they should 
be on the alert to do their utmost to eradicate it upon every 
occasion. Headlands are often a prolifice source of twitch and 
other weeds, and when the condition of the land is at all doubtful 
it is far better to make a dead fallow of the headlands rather than 
to crop them. Under the agricultural depression it is notorious 
how sadly many farms have fallen out of condition, foulness and 
poverty being the more prominent evils. The cause of this is said 
to be a want of means on the part of farmers, but it is very 
questionable if the evil is not owing in a large measure to mis¬ 
management, to a want of timely culture. Now as to foulness, it 
is certain that the condition of a farm in this particular depends 
very much upon autumn cultivation, and as was recently suggested, 
stout boys or lads trained to the work can get through a lot of 
work with the broadshare, light plough, and harrows upon the 
stubbles, so that by the time the last field of corn is saved very much 
of the land might be cleared, of superficial weeds at any rate. An 
able master will not allow prejudice on the part of workmen to 
■exercise an adverse influence upon his plans, and where the horse¬ 
men join the other labourers ia taking a full share of harvest work 
the horses should not remain idle, but should be used in the manner 
we indicate whenever they are not required for carting corn. 
This question of cultivation has several aspects, one of which 
is the apportionment of a farm to different crops. There is no 
doubt that in Essex and other counties of East Anglia most of the 
farms have been entirely out of proportion, and in this respect a 
good lesson may be had in "Warwickshire and Northamptonshire, 
where there is plenty of heavy land. In Warwickshire there are 
farms with the soil entirely of the blue lias clay, wherein excellent 
corn can be and is grown, yet fully one-half, and in some instances 
two-thirds of the land is laid down to permanent pasture. See what 
this means in keeping down labour ! About half of such pasture 
would be laid in for hay, and the remainder grazed. Now we do 
not advise an effort at sweeping reform by a wholesale attempt at 
laying down land to permanent pasture, even with the landlord’s 
help ; but we are bound to insist upon the expediency of the prompt 
adoption of a system of alternate husbandry with a large proportion 
of the land in four-year layers. We have applied this system to a 
heavy land farm on the borders of Essex, a large quantity of 
excellent hay has been made, and there are now some GOO “ keeping ” 
sheep there, the weekly return for which pretty well pays the 
labour bill, in addition to which the sheep-folding is steadily tending 
to enrich the land. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Adverse weather still prevails, and harvest work lags under the 
depressing influence of cloudy skies and wet days. The whole of our 
Wheat is cut, and a few stacks are finished, but there is very much, of 
it out in shocks yet, and without a change to settled weather we antici¬ 
pate a certain proportion of sprouting corn in the sheaves again. Much 
of the Barley is ripe, and we only want fine weather to save it. The 
outlook is most serious, for prices at best are low enough, and any 
depreciation in quality is quite certain to bring them still lower. 
A few stubbles have been cleared, and after fallen corn has been 
eaten by pigs or sheep they should be at once broken up, after any 
beds of couch grass have been got up with steel forks. One of the best 
root farmers in the country always has enough of his stubbles prepared 
for Mangolds in autumn by first getting out any twitch, then a Cole¬ 
man’s cultivator is used along and across it with the grubber tines, four 
horses being used to it. It is left in a rough open condition for several 
weeks fully exposed to atmospheric influences; farmyard manure is 
then put on it at the rate of thirty loads per acre, and ploughed in, the 
work being finished before Christmas. In spring it is harrowed twice 
with a heavy drag harrow, after which about 4 cwt. per acre of chemical 
manure is sown broadcast, light harrows being then passed over, followed 
by rollers, and then the seed is drilled at the rate of 7 lbs. to the acre. 
Much depends upon weather, but the plan is to sow by the first or 
second week in April. We regard 7 lbs. of Mangold seed as the correct 
quantity. One of our bailiffs was positive about 5 lbs. being sufficient, 
and generally he is successful in obtaining a full crop, but this year a 
thin plant on the farm under his care appears likely to convert him to 
our view of the matter. We hold that it is well that a bailiff should 
have opinions of his own—aye, even positive opinions about his work, 
and we avoid all unnecessary interference with an able earnest man 
who throws himself entirely into his work, and who is certainly worthy 
of support and sympathy. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
CAMDEN SQUARE, LONDON. 
Lat. 51° 82' 40" N.; Long. 0° 8'0" W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
DATE. 
9 A.M. 
IN THE DAY. 
if. 3- 
Hygrome- 
a . 
Shade Tern- 
Radiation 
a 
1189. 
§5“ £ 
ter. 
v a 
perature. 
Temperature 
August. 
3 
i 
In 
On 
Dry. 
Wet. 
HO 
H 
Max. 
Min. 
sun. 
grass 
Inches. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
Ir. 
S inday. 
18 
30.018 
61.6 
55.9 
R. 
60 9 
70 4 
49.4 
109.8 
46.1 
— 
Monday. 
19 
29 682 
63.6 
58.7 
E. 
GO 8 
73 4 
52.1 
100.9 
46 2 
0.313 
Tuesday ... 
2 » 
29 274 
.58 2 
56 2 
W. 
60.9 
67.0 
57.1 
88.8 
55.0 
— 
Wednesday . 
21 
29.537 
67 9 
55.6 
S.E. 
59.9 
6-9 
53.6 
98.6 
51.1 
0 lb6 
Thursday ... 
22 
29.506 
57 5 
54 0 
N.W. 
59 2 
67 2 
54 5 
1139 
50.1 
0 062 
Friday . 
23 
29.969 
551) 
5'-.8 
w. 
58.9 
64.2 
48.0 
105 9 
44.4 
0.039 
S iturday ... 
24 
29.S52 
53.3 
51.9 
S.E. 
58.2 
64 4 
51.5 
106.4 
484 
0 268 
29.G9I 
58.3 
54.7 
59 8 
67.5 
52.3 
103.5 
48.8 
0.868 
BE MASKS. 
18lh.—Fine and generally bright. 
19th.—Bright early, cloudy with once or twice spots of rain in the morning; overcast, 
hazy and oppressive in the aficrnoon; wet night. 
20th.—Wet till 10 A.M., then generally overcast, but one or two gleams of sun. Gale 
all day. 
21st.-Cool and generally cloudy morning ; heavy shower at 2 P.M.,then bright till 5PM, 
and wet evening. 
22nd.—Cloudy early; fine and frequently bright from 11 A.It. to 3.20 P.M., then frequent 
heavy showers. 
23rd —Fine and bright. 
21th—Wet till 11AM., then bright till 3PM.; heavy rain with thunder and lightning 
3.30 to 4 P.M., and fine evening. 
A showery and unsnmmerlike week. Range of temperature small, the maxima 
being low, though the n can was but little below Ihc average.-U. J. Si'MONS. 
