224 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 
[ Mi.roh 17, 1887. 
can have no reasonable hope of getting them. Nor dare 
we hope for full relief from Government, no matter what 
party may be in power. It is possible that the heavy 
burden of taxation now laid upon the land may be light¬ 
ened, and rents must be brought down so as to bear a 
just and fair proportion to the price of farm produce. 
But we may as well ci’y for the moon as to agitate for 
State intervention in the form of protection or bounties. 
Landlords have met their tenants’ cry for help by re¬ 
duction after reduction of rent, yet, notwithstanding this, 
farm after farm has been thrown upon the landlords’ 
hands in wretched plight; wet, foul, and poverty stricken, 
it requires a heavy expenditure before the land can be 
brought into that clean, dry, fertile condition necessary 
for the successful cultivation oi any crops. It is not only to 
arable land that this applies, but also to grass land, which 
is so frequently found devoid of any cultivation whatever. 
The falling in of farms in this way compels the landlord 
to take them in hand, it may be indirectly through his 
agent, but he undoubtedly has to find capital for the 
undertaking. Well will it be if under the circum¬ 
stances the agent is a man of capacity and discretion. To 
enable him to rise to the emergency and to turn it to full 
account he must be energetic and have had a wide experi¬ 
ence of farming in different parts of the country. Good 
sense, combined with the sound experience of middle age, 
should enable him to come to the front now and assume 
the post of a leader in agricultural reform. That is the 
point. We have only to show farmers how by better culti¬ 
vation better crops may be obtained, and we shall find 
them ready enough to follow leaders who not only talk 
but act. 
In carrying out such a reform there must be no livish 
expenditure, not one penny must be spent wastefully. 
Our course of action must be well considered, every plan 
being matured before it is put in operation, cause and 
effect taken fully into account, and due allowance made 
for the influence of weather upon our work. Before all 
things we must see that the soil is brought into thorough 
cu tivation. Drainage, mechanical division, cleanliness, 
fertility, timely cropping, pure seed, the saving of each 
crop and turning it to the best account, economy of 
cropping as well as of labour, are each and all matters to 
be regarded as indispensable to success. There is the 
soil before us, What do we know about its nature, condi¬ 
tion, or requirements ? How can we manage it so as to 
obtain at least a full annual crop from it ? Regarding it 
as we do as a medium for conveying food to plants, we are 
bound to ascertain how best to store it with such food. 
We must go farther than this, and learn what is the best 
kind of jdant f >ocl to use, how and when to use it to most 
advantage. Surely the off-nsive odours given off by a 
heap of farmyard manure ought to convince the most 
stoli 1 intellect that there is much waste in the use of plant 
food in such a form. But this simple fact cannot be 
realised till a farmer knows in what form plants absorb 
food. Assuredly he ought to possess such knowledge, for 
without it how can he work with economy and sureness of 
purpose ? 
Economy of labour must have more attention in our 
scheme of cropping. By having mixed layers of Clovers and 
strong-growing Grasses for three or four years instead of 
annual Clover layers we effect a material ami permanent 
saving of labour, and we get heavier crops of better forage. 
By using chemical manures for such layers we keep them in 
full vigour, and yet avoid the costly process of the manu¬ 
facture and carting of farmyard manure upon them. 
Once established upon a farm, and brought into the 
regular course of cropping, such layers enable us to work 
with a reduced staff both of men and horses. It is the 
heavy labour account and the food for horses which tell so 
heavily upon farmers. 
Improved cultivation of permanent pastures is another 
matter pressing for immediate attention. One can tell at 
a glance, even in midwinter, if pasture is neglected or 
not. Many a neglected meadow has it been our lot to 
reclaim, and we know no part of farm work more interest¬ 
ing, and none that repays the farmer better. Relieve the 
grass land of superfluous water, store it with fertility, 
either by the application of chemical manure, or, better 
still, by judicious sheep-folding, take care that manure is 
applied at least once a year, and the reward is not only 
speedy and sure, but it becomes greater year by year, and 
we have found that really fertile pasture is much less 
affected by unfavourable weather than that which is 
neglected and poor. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
The long spell of fine weather has led to a change in some of our 
plans for cropping. Care was taken, first of all, to get in the spring 
corn ; this done, attention was given to foul land left to be cleaned if 
the weather proved favourable, and then to be sown with roots. This 
would have been an addition to the regular root crop with which we 
could very well dispense. We shall now be able to do so, for the land is 
clean, the twitch is burnt, and Barley takes the place of roots. The 
main crop of Barley is sown, but we have many acres yet to sow on land 
where sheep are now folded on roots. The ploughs and drills follow the 
folds closely, and we shall doubtless see the beneficial effects of the 
folding in the Barley. The White Turnips are almost finished ; there is 
a capital piece of Swedes to follow, then comes the Rye, which is so 
forward and strong that we can begin folding upon it even before the 
Swedes are finished, should we wish to do so. After the Rye comes the 
Winter Tares, of which there is an excellent plant, and by the time the 
flock has got through the Tares the lambs should be ready for sale. 
Very late Swedes will be followed by Oats, which may be sown later 
than any other corn crop. The Rye will be followed by White Turnips 
and Swedes to be left out on the land for folding next spring, and the 
Winter Tares will be followed by Rye. Winter Tares, we may add, are 
usually sown after Mangolds, tt will thus be seen that our cropping 
for the flock is both sure, simple, and efficient. By it we are practically 
independent of grass land till after the haying, and even then two or 
three crops of Spring Tares would carry on the flock till late in August. 
Land ploughed into ridges last autumn is now being got ready for 
Mangolds, which we hope to sow early in April. If farmyard manure 
is used it is put in the furrows and covered as quickly as possible by 
drawing the double-breasted plough through the middle of the ridges. 
Never have we known the soil of all kinds to be in better order at this 
season of the year ; even upon our heavy land the surface is like a bed of 
ashes, and much good was done before sowing the corn by giving it an 
extra turn or two with the harrows, so as to bring perennial weeds well" 
upon the surface. By doing this we both clean the land and avoid 
much hoeing subsequently among the corn. Some faulty pieces of 
Winter Beans have had a bushel or two of Peas per acre sown among 
the Beans in order to insure a full crop upon the whole of the land. 
METEOROLOGICAL O USER VAT IONS. 
CAMDEN SqUAKB, London. 
Lat. 51° 32' 40" M.; Lin?. 0° 8-0" W.: Altitude. Ill feet. 
l> vTB. 
9 A.M. 
IN Tfl 
k i>ay. 
OJ ^ 35 _ 
Hygrome- 
a . 
o - . 
Shade Tem- 
Radiation 
a 
1887. 
§•2* ► 
ter. 
aeg 
peratare. 
Temperature 
33 
32 
March. 
£ S a J 
In 
o« 
Dry. 
Wet. 
as 
Max 
Min. 
stia 
gras* 
Inches 
d-»* 
de<. 
deg. 
dee. 
4** 
deg 
<te« 
In. 
Sunday . 
80.200 
38.0 
37.3 
N.TC. 
37.4 
49.9 
33.9 
71.2 
34 4 
— 
Monday . 
30 202 
38.2 
35.4 
N E. 
37.8 
43.3 
33.2 
52 2 
28.2 
— 
Taes lay . 
K 
3».l9 * 
39.9 
3s.0 
E. 
38.2 
42.3 
38.2 
49.8 
37.2 
— 
Wednesday . 
9 
30.'>46 
37.8 
35 3 
W. 
38.3 
43.2 
35 9 
52.1 
38 7 
— 
Thursday ... 
10 
30.1114 
38 8 
38.1 
N.*fl. 
38 4 
47 0 
35 6 
7o 2 
32 7 
— 
Friday . 
31 
30.036 
32.8 
32.1 
N.E. 
38.2 
44 4 
27 8 
54.8 
21.7 
0.266 
Saturday ... 
.12 
29.797 
316 
33.6 
N. 
87.5 
41 8 
32.3 
84.0 
23.2 
0.011 
30.095 
37.0 
35.7 
38 0 
41.6 
33 8 
62.0 
30.4 
0.277 
REMARKS. 
6tli.-Clondv early, bright at mid-day, solar halo in afternoon, clear night. 
7th.—Cloudy all day. 
8th.—Overcast throughout. 
Dth.—Cloudy morning, fair afternoon but without sunshine, 
loth.—Fine all day, .-unshine in afternoon. 
11th.—Foggy till eleven, then dura with high fog, clearing again towards noon, sunshine 
in afternoon. 
12th. —Wet from 2 A.M. to fi A.M., wet snow from 8 A.M. to 9.30 A.M.; gradually cleared 
and sun begun to shine abuut noon, bright afternoon and evening, 
with the exception of about eight hours in the early morning of Saturday a ramies* 
week, but with less sunshine than might he expected, l'res-ure -till high and tem¬ 
perature low, though about 3° above that ot tile preceding week.-O.'J. SYMONS. 
