268 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ March 28,1889. 
GREEN CROPS. 
Sweeping condemnations have recently been published of 
green Maize and Sorghum for cultivation in this country, simply 
because they are uncertain crops. Yet the same might be said of 
other farm crops, almost all of them being affected more or less by 
nngenial weather, and when we do get a fine hot summer to ripen 
the corn well, Maize and Sorghum become so fully developed that 
we once harvested some ripe Maize that was equal in condition to 
imported Maize. 
That, however, is not the point, for Maize is never sown in this 
■country for the production of ripe corn, and it is as a green crop 
that we regard it as a most useful adjunct to other green cattle 
food. Advisedly do we apply the term “most useful” to it. Let 
cur readers turn in memory to that critical time in a season of 
•exceptional heat and drought just when summer and autumn meet. 
The pastures, bare and brown, afford no food for sheep or cattle, 
which perchance are watching eagerly for the Maize cart which 
comes laden with the juicy stalks and succulent green leaves. How 
they appear to absolutely revel among it as it is strewn over the 
pasture for them ! Turn to the field in which it is grown, and 
there you may see the robust growth, some 5 or 6 feet in 
(height; a crop of sweet, wholesome, nourishing food of from 
'20 to 30 tons an acre. Yet because it cannot attain to such 
bulk in a cold wet season, and because it is so sensitive to frost 
that one early frost turns the leaves brown, are we to condemn 
it ? Let us bring a little common sense to bear upon this matter. 
Without reference to any particular degree of latitude, it may be 
laid down that where, as a rule, the season of brisk growth con¬ 
tinues for four months after May, there it will answer to culti¬ 
vate Maize for green food. We are vqry apt to rail against our 
fickle climate, but we think none would say that we do not 
generally have enough summer weather for this purpose. Of 
course a high temperature promotes the development of sac¬ 
charine, hut the degree of such development is immaterial for 
the purpose of stock feeding. 
Not often indeed is it that we have a summer which may be 
termed unfavourable to the culture of Maize or Sorghum. Even 
last year the crop of Maize was a fair, and certainly a very useful 
•one, yet the summer was generally considered to be wet and 
sunless. In their new catalogue Messrs. Carter have an interesting 
•diagram showing the weekly growth of some Sorghum saccharatum 
which was sown in their experimental grounds on May 10th of 
last year. The plants continued growing till September 29th, and 
reached a height of 5 feet 9 inches. They give useful quotations 
from Professor Long’s paper published in the Journal of the 
Royal Agricultural Society of England in 1887. In this he tells 
how he was induced to try a crop by the representations of Messrs. 
•Carter, and, as a matter of fact, the plants did a great deal 
more than they said of it. The first crop was drilled 6 inches 
.apart, upon a piece of medium loam, which had previously been 
•occupied by an Oat crop. The land was fairly well manured, 
and a good tilth obtained, the seeds being put in at the rate 
of 10 lbs. per acre on the 6th of June. The plants appeared 
above the surface in a fortnight. At the end of six weeks 
they commenced to run up, until by the middle of September 
they reach a height of from 6 to 7 feet. He also shows how 
Sorghum follows Trifolium incarnatum, and may be followed by 
Rape or Cabbage, thus affording three crops in one year from 
the same land. 
Owing to its liability to suffer from frost, Maize is not generally 
sown till June, and a constant watch during daylight, especially 
in the morning, must be kept for rooks, or they will clear off 
the whole of it row by row. Some Maize sown by Messrs. Carter 
on the same day as the Sorghum stopped growing on September 
20th, the height being 5 feet 7 inches. In 1887 the Maize suffered 
severely from early autumnal frost ; it is well, therefore, to begin 
using it as soon as possible in the season. As a rule it may 
generally be kept out till October, -with a slight per-centage of 
risk. Yery slight indeed is such j;isk in comparison to that of 
farmers in Canada, where so many have been induced to go 
by tempting accounts of cheap land and the fertility of a virgin 
soil. Two young men, the sons of an East Anglian farmer 
who went out there a few years ago, practically lost the whole 
of their corn crops last year. Sharp frosts continued till the 
middle of May and began again in August; they were unable 
to harvest the corn, and it was eventually set fire to as worth¬ 
less, to clear the land for another year. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
The drilling of spring corn has continued with very little interrup¬ 
tion, and we never had a better seed bed for Barley. “ Too good,” said 
an old farmer to us recently, and he proceeded to explain, with the soil 
so very soft and fine as it is now, there is some risk that it may be beaten 
down till the surface becomes hard if heavy rain follows the sowing 
closely. In some districts rain falling upon heavy land brought the 
corn drill to a standstill for two or three days. At this season of the 
year the sun is so powerful that a few hours’ bright weather is often 
sufficient to dry up the surface for the drills to be set working. In 
Barley sowing especial efforts should be made to finish each field as 
quickly as possible, as it is important that the crop should all ripen at 
the same time. This cannot happen when there is an interval of a 
week or two between the sowing of the first and last part of the same 
field, which may be the case when ram intervenes. Small seeds for 
mixed layers, Clovers and Sainfoin, may be sown at once upon winter 
corn, but when sown with spring corn it is better to wait' till the corn 
plant is well up, or the growth of the layer is apt to become so strong 
as to prove troublesome in harvest. This was so last harvest, and much 
corn was threshed as it was carted from the fields to avoid the risk of 
having it spoilt by excessive beating. When this-can be managed the 
larger herbage among the Barley or Oat straw is a decided advantage, 
as the mixture makes excellent chaff and is much more nutritious 
than when straw is cut into chaff alone. We recently heard a warm 
discussion as to the merits and demerits of laying down land to per¬ 
manent pasture with or without a corn crop, between two gentlemen, 
both owners of extensive estates. One of them had laid down the 
whole of several of his farms to grass, and he was positive that 
having regard to the formation of really good pasture quickly it 
sheuld never be sown with a corn crop. The fact remains, however, 
that a full plant of mixed grass seed may be had with a corn crop, and 
there are not many farmers who can afford to dispense with it now. 
Oar friend was a rich man able to indulge his fancy, which perhaps 
accounts for his being so positive. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS, 
CAMDEN SQUARE, LONDON. 
Lat. 51° 82' 40" N. j Long. 0° 8'0” W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
DATE. 
9 A.M. 
IN THE DAY. 
i 
1889. 
March. 
0“(D 
5 <3 pH 
PQ 2 o3 
Hygrome¬ 
ter. 
fl . 
o-d 
V a 
sS 
So 
a— § 
H O'w 
S ® rH 
H 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature. 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
sun. 
On 
grass 
Sunday.17 
1 Monday.18 
I Tuesday .... 19 
1 Wednesday.. 20 
Thursday_ 21 
Friday .22 
Saturday .... 23 
Inches. 
30.270 
29 957 
29.413 
29.^07 
29.284 
30.131 
30.3L6 
deg. 
43.5 
43.3 
44.0 
45.6 
41.2 
37 3 
39.2 
deg. 
42.8 
40.4 
42 3 
42 2 
40 2 
32 4 
367 
w. 
s.w. 
S.E. 
s.w. 
N.W. 
u.w. 
s. 
deg. 
38.7 
S9.9 
40.0 
40 5 
409 
39 2 
39.0 
deg. 
54.6 
48.7 
13.8 
50.6 
38.8 
45.7 
52.0 
deg. 
36.2 
412 
36 6 
39 8 
37.9 
82.2( 
31,1 
deg. 
79.2 
60 0 
77.9 
82.4 
66.9 
92.1 
98.0 
deg. 
30.2 
38.3 
31.2 
34.2 
34 9 
27.9 
25.6 
Id. 
0.148 
0.226 
0.110 
[0.028 
| e if'. ST. 
29.768 
42.0 
39.6 | 39.7 
49.2 
36.4 
78.1 
31.8 
0.512 
REMAKES. 
! 17th.—Spots ol rain about 9 A.M., otherwise line, but with little sunshine. 
18th.- Cloudy all day. 
,19th.—Slight shower about 9 A.M , then fine with a little sun, and wet after 4 P.M. . 
doth.- Showery, with occasional sunshine. , . 
21st.—Gale, with almost continuous rain or wet snow in morning, and sleet in aiternoon; 
fair evening. 
22 nd.—Fine bright day. 
23 rd.—Brilliant morning, bright afternoon and evening, a little rain fn the early morning 
of the 2 lth. 
A variable week, with a good deal of rain. Barometric pressure low on fhe 20th and 
21st. Temperature about the average.—G.;j. SVMONS. 
