396 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
October 25, 1894. 
Fescue, Tall Fescue, Timothy, and Meadow Foxtail are all 
coarse Grasses of the highest excellence. They were recom¬ 
mended by Mr. Faunce de Laune to form the bulk of all 
pastures on good soil. All of them under good cultivation yield 
great balk of herbage, and in well balanced combination they 
combine to render pasture not only valuable for this, but also for 
early, continuous and late growth. With plenty of Foxtail and 
Cocksfoot, stock may be out of the yards ten days or a fortnight 
sooner than where there is little or none of these early Grasses 
Or if they are abundant in meadows laid in for hay, haymaking 
s over before July, and the succulent aftermath springs up with 
marvellous rapidity. Timothy is valuable in the autumn for 
its late growth, as well as for its heavy crop earlier in the 
season, but earliness is even more desirable. All calcula¬ 
tions as to the comparative nutritious value of early and late 
Grasses are in favour of the former, the earlier herbage being 
proved to contain two-thirds more nutritive matter than late 
growth. 
It is such important facts that influence our decision to 
break up very rough pasture, and to lay it down again with the 
best mixture of Grasses and Clovers, and then to give it 
systematic cultivation. As we have already shown, the breaking 
up of pasture is always regarded as an extreme measure, and 
though the best Grasses are desirable, the mere fact of their 
absence or presence only in a very limited degree would not 
alone justify it. For example, in the famous King Meadow, 
near Carlisle, held in high repute for its great feeding qualities, 
there is 69 per cent- of Perennial Rye Grass, only 4 per cent, of 
Timothy, and none of the Fescues, no Foxtail or Cocksfoot. In 
the best meadows of the Eaton Hall Home Farm, exclusively 
grazed by one of the Duke of Westminster’s herds of dairy 
cows—the Grange Herd—there is 75 per cent, of Perennial Rye 
Grass, 2 per cent, of Timothy, and neither of the other Grasses 
we have mentioned. In 1892 the average milk yield of forty of 
the cows grazed on this land was 673 gallons per cow. They 
bad the additional advantage of a liberal dietary in the winter, 
but they had nothing extra while they were out on grass, no 
feeding at milking time. 
To show the exceptionally nutritious value of Rye Grass in 
combination with Clover, we give one more example at Lord 
Wantage’s home farm in the Vale of White Horse. Of the 
Grasses in a meadow of 46 acres 72 per cent, was Perennial Rye 
Grass; of the entire herbage 34 per cent, was White Clover. In 
his report of a season’s grazing of this meadow the farm 
manager said, '• The last week in April (1889) I stocked it with 
forty-four Hereford steers and four shire fillies ; the Herefords 
were all fat, and sold to a London dealer by the middle of July. 
I then drafted thirty-six other Herefords into it from inferior 
pasture; they were all fat and gone by the end of August. I 
then stocked it with forty shorthorn heifers; twenty of these 
were sold fat at the end of October, the remaining twenty, being 
half-fat, were put in the stalls about the first week in November. 
I then put in twenty four Welsh runts (stores) to clean it up, 
and they have (February 14th) until quite recently been doing 
well, when I moved them into strawyards. I have never known 
artiflcial food of any sort given to beasts in this field.” This 
remarkable statement should act as an incentive to thorough 
pasture cultivation. There is no imperative reason for laying 
all land down to permanent pasture; under good management 
temporary pasture may be even more profitable than the best of 
permanent pasture. The Scotch farmers in Essex have proved 
this by the admirable manner in which temporary pasture under 
a six or eight-years course system has been made to answer. 
Thorough tillage, sustained fertility by means of a free, regular 
use of lime, natural and chemical manures, affords them abun¬ 
dance of the best herbage for hay and for grazing their big 
herds of cows. 
Valuable as old rich pasture undoubtedly is, there can be no 
sound reason why inferior pasture should not be improved 
(however rough or neglected it may be) and rendered profitable, 
if not equal to the best pasture. The popular idea that only 
very old pasture can be fully profitable is altogether erroneous. 
Once let the principles of pasture cultivation be generally 
applied to practice, and we shall cease to see it brown and bare 
in the winter. Really good pasture is always green, simply 
because the soil condition is sound in every essential—drainage, 
porosity, and sustained fertility. It may be either permanent 
or temporary, it matters not which, and there are un¬ 
doubtedly local conditions which may render temporary 
pasture altogether preferable to permanent pasture, just 
because it is most profitable. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
The month draws to a close, there is a change to colder weather, 
useful growth has ceased, and the clearance of root crops from the land 
should be pushed on with briskly while carting is light, and before there 
is serious risk of harm to the roots from severe frost. Carrots, white 
Turnips, Swedes and Mangolds, are all heavy crops. The white Turnips 
are being folded with hoggets, having some crushed Oats and a run on 
pasture for awhile by day ; they are being drafted for sale in batches 
as they are ready for the butcher. The roots are going into heaps, 
mainly in the form of a long ridge, alongside a road to facilitate carting 
in the winter. Enough for the shepherd’s requirements will at once be 
carted from the field and stored in a heap near the lambing fold. This 
is easily managed by turning the whole of the carts in that direction, or 
if there is a lambing yard at the homestead enough roots may be accu¬ 
mulated there by sending the last cartloads there daily from the field. 
We like to have a field or two of late-sown Swedes left out for folding 
ewes and lambs on in March or April. Firm roots of medium size 
answer best, and the advantage of leaving them out in the field is the 
green tops which they have in mild weather, and which the lambs 
run forward and consume before the folds. Early lambs also make their 
mark on the roots before the ewes get to them. Where this crop is 
considered to be so forward as to be susceptible of severe injury from 
frost the roots are thrown together in small circular heaps all over the 
field, some soil being thrown over them for protection. 
A supply of roots will also be taken to the homestead for the cows, 
Carrots to be used for the next two months, and Mangold to come into 
use with the new year. In East Anglia the farm horses always have sliced 
or minced Mangold with Barley chaff during the winter. The mixture is 
wholesome and nutritious, the crisp sweet roots making it very palatable. 
Let the covering of all root heaps be frost-proof. Litter is plentiful 
enough generally now, and where bracken, sedges, or rushes can be had, 
they should be used to save the straw. We prefer ploughing in the root 
leaves, but where it is customary to turn in the flock let this be done 
while the leaves are fresh and crisp. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
Oamden Sqijabk, London. 
Lat.51° 32'40" N.; Long. 0° 8/ 0" W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
Date. 
9 A.M. 
In the Day. 
.a 
as 
P) 
1894. 
October. 
1 Barometer 
1 at 32°, and 
1 Sea Level. 
Hygrometer. 
Direc¬ 
tion of 
Wind. 
Temp, 
of soil 
at 
1 foot. 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
Sim. 
On 
Grass. 
Inchs. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
Inchs- 
Sunday .. 
14 
30 025 
49-2 
47-0 
N.E. 
54-0 
64-4 
47-8 
94-2 
48-0 
_ 
Monday .. 
15 
30-112 
43-9 
41-2 
N. 
51-8 
53-2 
36 9 
88 6 
34-1 
0-020 
Tuesday .. 
16 
30-160 
45-1 
43-6 
N. 
50 0 
63-8 
38 3 
90-9 
33-8 
0-029 
Wednesday 
17 
30-134 
42 1 
42-0 
N. 
48-9 
53-7 
31-2 
81-2 
29 2 
Thursday.. 
18 
29-8 ID 
44 8 
41-7 
N. 
48-1 
4v9 
41-9 
58-0 
39-9 
Friday .. 
19 
2i 668 
46-2 
44-0 
N.E. 
47 9 
51-4 
37-1 
65-3 
31-9 
— 
Saturday .. 
20 
29-508 
43-9 
42-7 
N.E. 
47 9 
48-2 
40 0 
51-8 
35-9 
0-280 
29 917 
45-0 
43-2 
49-8 
51-9 
39-0 
75-7 
36-1 
0 320 
REMARKS. 
14th.—Slight showers early ; bright sunshine nearly all day, but one or two very slight 
showers in afternoon ; clear cold night. 
15th.—Bright sun from sunrise to sunset, but slight showers at 3.30 P.M., and between 
5.30 P.M. and 7 P.M. 
16th.—Dull with spots of rain early; occasional sunshine during day, but heavy rain 
at 3.40 P.M. ; clear night. 
17th.—Foggy early; bright sunny day, overcast at times. 
18th—Overcast, but fair, throughout. 
19th.—Fair, but almost sunless. 
20th.—Overcast, with occasional spots of rain and showers from 5 P.M. to 6 P.M., and 
8.30 P.M. to 9.30 P.M. 
Considerably (about 8°) colder, but no sharp frost. Rain still below the average 
—G. J. Symons. 
