100 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ .fannary 30, 1890. 
MANURE FOR CEREALS AND ROOTS. 
The best crop of roots we had last year was in a twenty-acre 
■field, half of Mangolds and half of Swedes, at the home farm. 
The Swedes were after Rye, after Barley ; the Rye was folded by 
■ewes and lambs, the trough food consisting of crushed Oats and 
Mackinder’s Lamb Food. The Mangolds were after the same crop 
•of Barley, but as no Rye had been sown on that part of the field, 
deep furrows made with the double-breasted plough were filled 
•with farmyard manure, carted direct from the yards to the fur¬ 
rows, and covered at once by passing the plough along between the 
rows, and the ridges were pressed slightly with light Barley rollers 
both before and after the drilling. This, we may explain to be¬ 
ginners, is termed sowing on the ridge. The Swedes were sown on 
the flat. No chemical manure was used, but a full dressing of it 
had been used for the Barley, and the residue, in combination with 
farmyard manure for the Mangolds and sheep manure for the 
Swedes, was sufficient to produce one of the best crops of roots we 
■ever grew. No doubt a favourable season and early sowing con¬ 
tributed materially to the final result, but that could not have been 
(nearly so favourable without an ample store of fertility in the soil, 
••and the point we wish to mark especially here is the value and 
(kindly influence of such residue. 
It is a golden maxim in farming never to exhaust the soil of 
fertility, but to replace that taken from it by the cropping of the 
year by at least an annual dressing of some manure. It was once 
thought that chemical or artificial manure was only useful for the 
crop to which it was specially applied, but it has been proved 
repeatedly beyond question that there is always a residue in the 
soil after the crop is matured, if a due proportion of mineral 
oianure was used in combination with the indispensable nitrogenous 
manure. As to the loss of nitrogen in winter, no good can be done 
by laying undue stress upon that fact, and we are positive that an 
autumn dressing sown with Wheat, Rye, and winter Oats proves 
highly beneficial. The Wheat and Oat plant is always much more 
-sturdy and vigorous when the manure is drilled with it, and the Rye 
is so vigorous that we can always depend upon an early growth for 
folding, no matter how backward the spring may be. It is im- 
qiossible to realise the wide difference which manure or no manure 
makes to Rye unless it is fairly tried out, and we are quite within 
bounds in saying that with manure the first growth is ready for 
’folding a fortnight earlier than it is without it. Only a hundred¬ 
weight per acre is required for drilling with the seed, and it con- 
-sists of half a hundredweight of nitrate of soda, quarter of a hun¬ 
dredweight of steamed bone flour, and a quarter of a hundredweight 
•of mineral superphosphate. Anyone having a backward crop of 
Rye now on poor land would do well to give it a surface dress¬ 
ing of a hundredweight of nitrate of soda per acre early next 
cnonth. 
A safe mixture for drilling with spring corn consists of 1 cwt. 
nitrate of soda, i cwt. muriate of potash, ^ cwt. superphcsphate, 
} cwt. steamed bone flour. This may also be used as a surface 
dressing for winter corn. Oats have been low in value for some 
■time now, but really good British Oats always command a special 
(price, and if Oats are grown at all it certainly answers to use the 
best samples of seed, and to manure just as highly as for Barley. 
There can be no doubt that the average yield of Oats is much 
■below what it ought to be. It is possible to grow twenty sacks of 
•Oats per acre, and if the grain is thick, plump, and heavy, weighing 
from 40 to 45 lbs. per bushel, it should find a ready market at lOs. 
per sack, which price gives a total superior to that of Wheat 
at .30s. per quarter, and is fully equal to that of the best malting 
Barley. 
The ploughing-in of farmyard manure in autumn for roots has 
much in its favour if the manure can be had—if not, it is usually 
applied in the spring, as we have shown. The best results are 
usually obtained by using a moderate quantity of farmyard manure 
in the rows, and by drilling chemical manure with the seed. The 
mixture for Swedes is J cwt. muriate of potash, 4 cwt. nitrate of 
soda, 3| cwt. steamed bone flour, 14 cwt. mineral superphosphate. 
For Mangolds J cwt. muriate of potash, Ij cwt. nitrate of soda, 
2 cwt. steamed bone flour, 1 cwt. common salt, and 1 cwt. mineral 
superphosphate. We can highly recommend these mixtures, but 
at the same time we say. Do all you can to avoid the heavy expendi¬ 
ture involved in the purchase of them under the most advantageous 
conditions by folding sheep upon the land so far as is safe and 
possible. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Store hoggets are being folded on Turnips, the folding being so 
arranged that the plough can follow closely, and so leave the land 
ready for spring corn. The higher the sheep are fed the better the 
manure, but we are satisfied if only we can get sheep enough, even if 
they only have a little crushed corn and some chaff with the roots. A 
stickler for high cake feeding expressed his surprise last season ar a fine 
crop of Barley we had after sheep folded on Swedes, the only trough food 
used being a very moderate quantity of malt culms. No doubt rich manure 
is a result of high feeding, but undue stress is often placed upon a mere 
matter of degrees which are practically unimportant. 
Ewes are lambing in excellent condition, which we shall do all we 
can to maintain by a liberal dietary and careful attention. It is im¬ 
possible to have fine or forward lambs from a weakly or underfed ewe. 
We like ewes with large substantial frames, well nourished always, and 
then we may depend upon having good lambs. Mangolds are given 
freely twice daily, but we are careful to give only as many as can be 
quite cleared up at each feeding. Every ewe is taken to a separate pen 
when it lambs and is kept there till the shepherd is satisfied that it 
requires no particular attention and that its progeny is perfectly 
healthy. It is then turned out with the other sound ewes that have 
lambeffi but all doubtful cases requiring special and frequent attention 
are kept in a division of the fold immediately under the shepherd’s eye. 
Carbolised oil is as usual of great use in all cases of severe straining and 
protracted labour. It is indeed a splendid disinfectant, and its timely 
and judicious use has saved the lives of thousands of ewes that must 
have been sacrificed without it. As the lambing proceeds every ewe 
that proves unfit for breeding in any way is marked for withdrawal 
from the flock with the crones later on. We never retain a faulty animal 
of any kind for breeding, but invariably prepare it for early disposal in 
what appears to be the most profitable way. For discarded sheep there 
is no better plan than to fatten and dispose of them as they become 
ready for the butcher, which they will be by autumn or early in winter. 
MKTBOROLOaiCAL OBSERVATIONS. 
CAMDBX SQUARE, LONDON. 
Lat. 61° 3S'40"N.; Long. 0° 8'0" W.; Altitude, 111 teet. 
DATE. 
9 A.M. 
IN THE DAY. 
Rain. 
1690. 
January. 
Barome¬ 
ter at 82® 
and Sea 
Level. 
Hygrome¬ 
ter. 
Direction 
of Wind. 
Temp, of 
soil at 
1 foot. 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
sun. 
On 
grass 
Inches. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
In. 
Sunday. 
19 
29.483 
42.7 
42 6 
S.W. 
43.8 
49.1 
42.4 
70 8 
37 8 
OOlO 
Monday. 
20 
29.609 
SG.2 
351 
w. 
42.8 
43.4 
34.6 
714 
24.9 
Tuesday ... 
21 
29.667 
35.4 
S4.8 
w. 
40.8 
45.0 
32.9 
51.9 
£7 7 
0.107 
Wednesday. 
22 
29.(-74 
39.4 
37.3 
AV. 
40.6 
48.1 
351 
71.4 
31 4 
0.1.52 
Thursday... 
23 
28.712 
47.8 
45.8 
S.W. 
40.1 
516 
37.3 
83.1 
3Ll 
0.010 
Friday . 
24 
29 758 
37.8 
86.7 
S.W, 
40.1 
5i.O 
33.8 
58 7 
27 8 
0.(180 
Saturday ... 
2o 
29.580 
53 7 
50.9 
S.AV. 
41.1 
55.6 
37.3 
61.5 
32.2 
0.038 
£938 
41.9 
40.5 
41.3 
49.5 
36.1 
67.0 
31.1 
0.407 
REMARKS. 
lath.—Sharp shower at 9 A.M.; bright sunshine and high wind throughout, but one or 
two slight showers. 
20 th.—Fresh and bright. 
2tst.—Bright moroing, cloudy at mid-day, wet from 2 P.M. 
22 nd.—Bright sunshine and wind all day, rain at night. 
23rd.—Wet from midnight till 10 A.M., sun from 10.30 to noon, gale with showers in 
afternoon, dull evening. 
2Ith.-Fin**, with occasional sun in morning, solar halo at noon, cloudy afternoon, wet 
evening. 
25th.—Squally S.W. gales, overca.st all day, rain in afternoon. 
Weather still mild, though leas warm than in the previou two weeks. After a long 
period without much wind, we have this week had a suc.’,e8bion of gales w ith oc tasionally 
low barometric pressure.-G. J. SYMONS. 
