324 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ Oc'ober 10, 1889. 
LANDLORDS’ FARMING. 
Landlords are certainly the victims of circumstances, for they 
have to submit to the inevitable, while if regarded in the same 
•sense there need be nothing of the inevitable in a tenant’s 
affairs. Mr. Clare Lewell Reed said recently, “ The good land of 
this country is still worth a fair rent; the really bad, the very 
•heavy, and the very light land is not worth farming without a rent. 
Take land which is in fair condition rather than take a farm that 
has been run out.” This advice is sound and sensible, but it is 
after all mere class advice from a tenant farmer to tenant farmers, 
who if they are wise will turn it to account. We do not envy the 
feelings of a landlord with farms in hand and others falling in who 
reads it, for with him it is not a matter of choice, but of necessity. 
There is the land, what is he to do with it ? We do not agree to 
suffer it to fall out of cultivation, we know he can do better than 
that, and as a landlord’s agent we have paid dear for our know¬ 
ledge. 
It may be taken for granted that the majority of landlords are 
cot practical farmers, and before all things they require an able 
steward at the helm to steer through the troubled waters of 
adversity with a fair prospect of success, and we are very confident 
a really efficient man would be quite content to work upon his 
merits, to farm by results, whatever might be the quality or condi¬ 
tion of the land. We have shown that drainage and tillage are 
indispensable preliminaries, and are next brought face to face with 
the all-important question of cropping, for a crop we must have, 
and we shall not rest satisfied with anything short of a full one 
upon every part of the land. To grow ordinary farm crops to 
profit we must have mixed soil land of sound deep staple, and we 
need do little more than farm really well for the markets which we 
can serve to most advantage. With such soil success is a foregone 
conclusion, but it is with the extreme heavy and light and all soil 
of inferior grades that difficulties arise. To manage such land in 
an ordinary manner is to court failure. We must carefully con¬ 
sider each case, and treat it accordingly. Quite recently an agent 
who assumes charge of some heavy land farms this Michaelmas 
pronounced them unsuitable for the growth of Sainfoin. To con¬ 
vince him of his mistake he was shown many acres of this excellent 
forage plant all clothed with a full crop of the third year, and a 
large stack of Sainfoin hay of high quality. Now, this man had 
undertaken the management of difficult land without sufficient 
knowledge of the work before him, and assuredly the landlord will 
suffer in consequence. 
For the moment the question pressing most upon us is, What 
winter crops can we grow to advantage ? Beans and Peas are not 
desirable light land crops, but light land will under good manage¬ 
ment yield excellent crops of Trifolium incarnatum, winter Oats, 
Rye, Tares, and, dare we venture to add, Wheat ? Yes, we have 
grown 40 bushels an acre of Wheat on such land by using chemical 
manures both in autumn and spring, also by sheep folding in 
autumn, followed by an early dressing of chemical manure in spring. 
There is really no good reason why moderately light land should 
not grow Wheat to profit if only it is kept well stored with manure. 
This must be our guiding principle—sustained fertility, as opposed 
to incipient exhaustion. It is all very well to say a certain field 
ought to bear another crop without manure, for it was “ mucked ” 
last year. The seed is sown accordingly, but the crop is never a 
full one because the land is in a state of incipient exhaustion at the 
sowing, and at the reaping it is practically exhausted of fertility. 
Economy—so called—leads to this result, but it is a mistake that is 
fatal to farming. Economic liberality is that which insures pro¬ 
sperity ; high farming, tempered by sound judgment, which avoids 
extravagant or fanciful expenditure, yet spends freely when the 
outlay points to profit. 
If we decide to sow Wheat now, and the land is poor, manure 
must be drilled with the seed. For land that has been under 
thorough cultivation for some time the autumn dressing of manure 
should consist of bone flour and mineral superphosphate in equal 
parts, followed by another dressing in spring with the addition of 
nitrate of soda, and also muriate of potash if the land is deficient in 
potash. But for exhausted land the autumn dressing should con¬ 
sist of quarter cwt. steamed bone flour, quarter cwt. mineral super¬ 
phosphate, and half cwt. nitrate of soda to insure vigorous growth 
from the first. Practical men whose words are not lightly spoken 
have told us again and again that the use of nitrogenous manures in 
autumn is wasteful and unnecessary, and we agree that it would be 
so for land which has been under their care, but we must have some 
soda in autumn for winter corn on farmed-out land. The spring 
dressing should consist of lj cwt. nitrate of soda, lj cwt. steamed 
bone flour, half cwt. mineral superphosphate, and half cwt. muriate 
of potash. 
(To be continued.) 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Rye, winter Tares, and winter Oats are sown, so also is Wheat upon 
all fallow land, and winter Beans are being ploughed in expeditiously by 
using plough drills. When the soil crumbles freely before the plough¬ 
share the use of the plough drill is highly commendable, but if the land 
is sodden and turns over in the furrows without breaking up, the Beans 
are liable to perish beneath the inert mass of soil falling upon them as 
they are sown. Rather than incur this risk we would not sow at all, 
but wait and sow spring Beans. Much depends upon the exact condition of 
the soil, and it requires some experience to enable one to decide for the 
best when its condition is at all doubtful. Last autumn the bailiff of 
one of our off-hand farms, some twenty miles distant from the home 
farm, ventured to sow a thirty-acre field of Beans with the plough drills 
without consulting us. This is a clay farm, and so few plants grow 
owing to the compact state of the soil, that it had to be re-sown with 
Oats in spring. On another farm spring Beans were plough-drilled in 
this spring ; the soil, though wet, was not quite so heavy, and when it 
became dry enough the surface was broken sufficiently with harrow to 
enable the plant to push freely through it, the result being a full crop of 
excellent Beans. Due care is taken to make enough water furrows to 
carry off surface water quickly from all ploughed or cropped land, and 
to finish the connection of every furrow with the ditches at once, as the 
work is in hand. Putting off such work to be done at leisure often leads 
to flooded corn and perished plants. 
The nights grow cold and wet, and all cattle should be housed in 
clean, dry, comfortable yards with deep lodges affording perfect shelter. 
Calves are confined to sheds with small yards, and are well fed, a little 
extra care being taken to prevent any falling off in condition. Dairy 
cows must be kept from eating any falling leaves of an unpleasant 
flavour, or butter will be spoiled. Much harm is often done to horses 
by leaving them out too late in the year upon pasture. Not only should 
attention be given to the provision of shelter, but also to food, for horses 
now work hard, and they must have corn. An attack of swine fever at 
an upland farm has been checked by placing the affected animals apart 
in temporary shelters quite away from the yards, which remain un¬ 
occupied, all walls and fences having been dressed with a disinfectant, 
all litter and manure removed, the surface of the yard broken up and 
carted away, and fresh gravel laid down. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
CAMDEN SQUARE, LONDON. 
Lat. 51° 88'40" N.; Long. u° 8' 0" W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
date. 
9 A.M. 1 IN THE DAT. 
p 
03 
« 
1689. 
Sept. & Oct. 
» O' 3j 
2 “.a " 
C3 ii c ^ 
cq2§ 
Hygrome¬ 
ter. 
d . 
O'd 
il 
5o 
§•=§ 
las 
H 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
sun. 
On 
grass 
S unday.£0 
Monday.£0 
Tuesday .... 1 
Wednesday.. 2 
Thursday.... 3 
Friday . 4 
Siturday .... 5 
Inches. 
£9.817 
29.678 
29 911 
29.92 4 
29 844 
29.5^7 
29.685 
deg. 
50.2 
47 8 
63.0 
51.9 
49.8 
46.7 
5..2 
deg. 
45 0 
47.0 
49.9 
49 7 
48.4 
46.4 
48.7 
> T . 
s. 
N. 
K.K. 
S.E. 
S.W. 
S. 
deg. 
52 9 
52 2 
519 
51.9 
51.9 
50 9 
50 2 
deg. 
53 l 
67.0 
58 0 
58.8 
55 9 
51.9 
58.5 
deg. 
44.0 
457 
4-1.7 
47 4 
44.4 
41.3 
4.1,9 
deg. 
71.9 
91.6 
94.8 
94 3 
79 3 
75.8 
96 8 
deg. 
39.3 
4 i.O 
40.4 
42.9 
39.5 
35.6 
35 9 
Id. 
0.0(0 
0.< 59 
0.115 
<■.'21 
0 260 
0.23 L 
0.' 98 
29.739 
49.9 47.9 
517 
56.2 
44.2 
86.4 
39.5 
0.799 
REMARKS. 
29,h.-C’oudy and cool. 
30th.-—Drizzle early, and frequent showers in afternoon and evening. 
1st.—Frequent showers, but one or two spe.ls of sunshiue. 
2nd.—Fine and generally bright. 
3rd. -Showery early ; wet from il A.M. to 1 P.M.; then fine with some sunshine. 
4th.—Wet all day. 
5th.—Ilright morning, with o.ie or two slight showers ; wet afternoon and eve ling. 
A wet and iaw week, but with more snnshtiie than the numerical values suggest. 
Temperature about 3° below the average.—G J. bYM INS. 
