891 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ Ma- 8. 1889, 
"the 80 «vn Grasses selected and mixed with so much care. It is at 
'the beginning of the second season that remedial measures are 
tpossible, and if now the plant is seen to be less vigorous and 
'thinner than it was last year careful sheep folding may do much 
"to arrest and prevent further failure. 
Small folds never left beyond the second day, an I a liberal 
allowance of nourishing trough food, are the two most important 
ipoints to observe. It is the turning in sheep to wander at will in 
mew pasture that leads to such wholesale destruction of the young 
plant, for sheep have a decided preference for certain sorts of 
•grass which they will feed off so closely and persistently as to 
‘kill it. Other grasses left untouched go to seed and die. All 
grasses do not fail after seeding, but some do, and the wisdom of 
prevention is obvious enough. No doubt many a puzzled farmer 
has asked himself why he has failed in laying down land to 
pasture, and we fear that in nine cases out of ten it is owing to 
■mismanagement arising from ignorance of the few cultural points 
indispensable to success. It is not from mere prejudice 
■that a tenant farmer almost invariably takes a corn crop with 
the pasture seeds, but rather because he considers he cannot 
afford to devote so many acres of land to pasture alone in 
the first year, and yet with good management a considerable 
amount of feed may be had from seeds the first season. To 
insure an end so desirable as this the land must have thorough 
autumn tillage, all perennial weeds then being got rid of, in doing 
which the soil is quite certain to be well broken up. After all 
we question if there is anything does this like a steam cultivator; 
only if we stir the soil too deeply and throw it up in huge clods 
the cleaning process is liable to be arrested if we depend 
upon autumn cultivation only, and therefore if the land is not 
available till after harvest, ploughing, followed by the duck-foot 
harrows, the roller, light harrows, and cross ploughing may be 
best. Every field must be treated according to its special require¬ 
ments, and when the land is clean up with it at once into high 
ridges by means of the double-breasted plough, and so leave it till 
the following March. There it is, exposed as it can be by no other 
process of cultivation, to wind and weather—frost, snow, rain, and 
sunshine—in all the alternations of our changeable climate, so that 
when the sowing time comes it is so well pulverise! as to insure us 
a fine deep tilth wherein shallow seeding and deep rooting are both 
admirably provided for. 
Only get the land clean and ridged in autumn, and success is 
practically ensured ; for is it not in our power to apply enough 
■chemical manure to the soil to ensure fertility before sowing the 
seed ? And even if we do take a thin corn crop with the seeds, can 
we not check the incipient exhaustion of the soil by the corn by 
another application of manure ? Preferably we will avoid the 
corn crop, and do all that is possible to get in the seeds early, to 
prevent the annual weeds springing up among the Grasses and 
Clovers from producing any ripe seed. We will never turn in 
sheep or cattle upon young seeds to ramble and graze at will the 
first season, and if sheep go on at all it must be in folds ; but the 
Rothampstead experiments have proved to demonstration how 
entirely possible it is to mow a new pasture from the first if only 
there is a regular and judicious use of manure. 
WOEK ON THE HOME EAEM. 
In our curtailment of the area of the Barley crop this season, not 
■only was that devoted to Tartarian Oats largely increased, but also 
instead of drilling corn at all after the whole of the Turnip folds, 
much of it has been drilled with spring Tares and Oats both for 
silage and grazing, and that part of it reserved for Kape has just been 
sown. When the roots are so thin on the land that the sheep pass on 
quickly a little mineral superphosphate is used for the green crop, but 
this season the roots were a full crop ; both sheep and lambs had too a 
liberal allowance of crushed corn and lamb food, so that the soil was 
thoroughly enriched, and no manure was required for the Rape. 
With deep, rich soil it answers best to drill Rape sufficiently wide to 
allow the horse hoe to be used, and to thin out the plant in the rows 
9 or 10 inches apart. A crop of wonderful abundance is usually the 
result, and it comes into use in July just when feed is apt to run 
short on pastures. 
Sheep continue so profitable that with the enlargement of the flock 
more land is taken for growing food of all kinds, and it was quite 
within the fitness of things that land on which sheep had been folded 
should be turned to account for a crop of early Turnips, which will 
come in for use when the sheep first go upon the stubbles after harvest. 
Sheep always thrive best when they have a frequent change of diet, 
and it is as unwise to keep them too long upon Rapo or early Turnips as 
it is to suffer them to take fallen Barley ears too freely. Stubbles, 
pasture. Rape, Tares, Turnips all afford a wholesome change, and tend to 
promote health and condition. As the late summer folds are cleared of 
such crops the land is in admirable condition for ploughing for Wheat, 
for it is rich in fertility, and the sheep well repay us for the food they 
consume in this way. No autumn dressing of chemical manure is 
required, and it is most probable that the appearance of the corn in 
spring will be so satisfactory that we shall be content to let well alone, 
and to avoid any expenditure for manure then also. We have already 
seen lambs in considerable numbers offered for sale at market, and no 
wonder, for prices are very tempting to needy farmers. 
CARTERS’ NEW CROSS-BRED WHEATS. 
Messrs. James Carter & Co., the Queen’s seedsmen, of 237 and 
238, High Holborn, London, bring under public attention their new 
cross-bred Wheats—a feature of the Edinburgh Exhibition—which, 
from its practical importance to agriculturists, must arrest attention. 
These new Wheats, which have passed through one period of their 
existence on Messrs. Carter’s seed farms at St. Osyth, first came under 
the eyes of the general public at the Paris Exhibition last year. Win¬ 
ning in 1882 the silver medal of the Royal Agricultural Society of 
England for the best variety of red seed Wheat, Messrs. Carter in the 
following autumn commenced experiments in the cross-breeding of 
Wheats, and for over six years have devoted unremitting care and atten¬ 
tion to breeding, selection, and yearly re-selection, with the view of 
securing a thoroughly fixed character of the very best forms. The main 
objects sought for have been early maturity, quality of straw and grain, 
and vigour of constitution with increased productiveness. All these 
they claim to have obtained in a greater or less degree, and they urge 
that a trial of their new Wheats will prove greatly serviceable to all 
Wheat growers, as the blood of many of the most popular standard 
varieties runs in their veins. By observation during growth those 
selections can be determined for adoption and future cultivation that 
respond most liberally to the soil and surroundings, and by this 
means the most desirable varieties will be developed and repro¬ 
duced. Mr. H. Evershed, in a late number of the Journal of 
the E.A.S.E., summarises the experiments carried out by Messrs. 
Carter under his personal observation, and instances the varieties 
of the parents and the peculiarities of the offspring. It may 
be mentioned that length of straw is generally influenced by the male 
parent, and form and size of ear by the female. Mr. E. appends 
statistics showing the period at which twelve selections of cross-bred 
Wheats made their growth, together with comparative tables, giving the 
dates when “in ear” and when “ripe” in 1887 and 1888. These data 
sufficiently establish the systematic manner in which Messrs. Carter 
have conducted their experiments, and it cannot be doubted that the 
trials will have an historical bearing on the future life of the seed 
Wheat employed in British agriculture. Messrs. Careers’ aim, as one of 
our great seed houses, has been that in view of keen foreign competition 
our indigenous grain may hold its own in the estimation of millers, and 
firove even more valuable for mixing with the hardest grains of India 
and America. 
The French Government, desirous of recognising the service rendered 
to agriculture by the introduction of the cross-bred Wheats, have 
conferred upon the managing partner at Messrs. Carters’ firm the high 
distinction of the Order du Merite Agricole, this bestowal marking its 
first distribution in England. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
Camden square, London. 
Lat. 51° 32' 40" N.; Long. 0° 8' 0" 'W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
DATE. 
9 AM. 
IN THE DAY. 
d 
*5 
1690. 
April and May. 
Barome- 
1 ter at 32° 
j and Sea 
I Level. 
Hygrome¬ 
ter. 
Direction 
of Wind. 
Temp, of 
sou 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. 
27 
29.940 
4^.7 
43.8 
N.W. 
41.8 
54.6 
36.0 
101.7 
28.8 
0.199 
Monday. 
28 
29.974 
49.4 
46.1 
N W. 
45.3 
18.4 
40.9 
102.1 
37.0 
TuePday .... 
29 
29.936 
50.6 
4.'>.9 
s. 
46.8 
60.4 
41.2 
102.9 
85.4 
_ 
AVednesday 
30 
29.992 
57.8 
49.9 
S.B. 
46.9 
64.3 
85.6 
108.1 
32.1 
_ 
'J'liursday.... 
1 
29.910 
57.3 
5‘».7 
47.9 
65.8 
42.2 
108.6 
86.6 
_ 
l-r day . 
2 
19.931 
51.6 
46.8 
E. 
49.2 
62.9 
40.4 
102.1 
86.5 
_ 
Saturday .... 
3 
29.877 
66.1 
45.4 
E. 
49.9 
68.1 
49.1 
110.4 
34.0 
— 
29.937 
53.0 
47.4 
47.2 
62,1 
39.9 
105.1 
34.3 
0.0.>9 
REMARKS. 
27ih.—Fine on the whole, and frequently bright; but oecasiou.al spots of rain. 
28th.—Heavy ra'n at 2 A.M.; flue Jay, with frequent Bun.but spots of rain at midday. 
29th.—B’ine and bright. 
39th.—Rrtght and mllJ. 
1st.—Mild and almost couldless; lunar halo In evening. 
2nd.—Fine but hazy at times, and cloudy about sunset; clear moonlight night. 
Srd,—A liitle hazy, otherwise fine and bright. 
A fine week ; temperature jnat about the average.—G. J. SYMOXS. 
