480 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
March 24. 
[ It may be said that the chief inducement to sow Spring 
! Wheat in ordinary seasons, is to substitute it for barley upon 
' good soils in a high state of fertility, where the latter would 
I pi’ovc deficient in riuantily and quality, and probably destroy 
i the grass seeds sown with it, whereas the clover generally 
; talco.s reuuu'liably well sown amongst Spring 'Wheat. 
; In connection with the subject of sowing Spring IVlieat 
I the practical .management and cultivation of the land must 
bo considered a most important point; for although the fore- 
j going observations relate to the advantages of certain sorts 
of 'Wheat for various soils, yet, in practice, it will be found 
^ that they require very different management in preparing 
i the land. The Talavcra Wheat should not be sown until 
I the land will work freely, and leave a kind and good seed 
bod, and ought not to be sown earlier than the first week in 
jMarch, at which period there will be a chance, in ordinary 
, seasons, of the seed coming up immediately, and the plant 
j proceeding towards maturity without any check; and the 
latest period of sowing this sort of 'IVheat, with a fair chance 
, of success, is the last week in March. The Nursery Wheat 
I may bo sown at any time in tho spring up to the middle of 
I March; and the Bearded, ov April IffAent, may bo sown as 
j late as the last week in April. 
Tho two last-named varieties of wheat do not require any 
I nicely in the preparation of the land, but will bo found to 
I succeed best when tho soil is comparatively heavy and close, 
j and if the land can bo worked, and the seed covered, by the 
use of the iron harrows, that will ho quite suflicient, for the 
heavier the tillage tho more these sorts of ‘Wheat will 
j flourish, and the crop will be less infested with weeds than 
i when the land is sown in a light and kind season; one 
I ploughing will always be found sufficient. 
I In sowing Spring Wheat, or at any time of the winter, I 
prefer sowing the land ns fast ns ploughed; the plan being 
to apportion the horse-power so that tho scedman or drill 
may follow tho ploughs, and every land be seeded and 
finished harrowing immediately after ploughing, in case of 
rain setting in at any period of the day. By this means I 
have often obtained a good season for wheat; whereas, had 
the sowing been deferred one day, the land oftentimes could 
I not have been sowm until weeks or months afteinvoi-ds. 
I I prefer sowing Spring Wheat broadcast, except whore 
^ weeds are expected to appear; I would thou drill at five or 
seven inches apart, but I do not approve of dibbling Wheat 
for winter or spring season. When dibbled, tho Wheat is 
called upon to tiller and branch out to make up a good 
plant, in which case the crop would be rendered more un¬ 
certain, both as regards quantity and quality.— J. Blundeix. 
I _ 
LACED rOLANDS. 
With due submission to Dr. Horner, I think ho has left 
the question of laced Bolands exactly where he found it, for 
beyond his ipse dixit I find nothing touching on tho ques¬ 
tion. lie certainly says, spangled birds are the ihiiiy — “ it 
' is so, and of necessitybut it wore ns easy to have written 
j “ it is iial so.” With respect, however, to die characteristics 
! of your humble servant, ho is more specific, but, I submit, 
not less incorrect. He states that I have taken my cue 
from tho Eev. Mr. Dixon, and have misquoted his work: 
the former is mere assertion, and cannot be the fact, if , ns 
I ho says, my opinions were formed on I’olands twenty years 
I ago ; and tho latter charge, of misquotation, I fling back on 
the worthy gentleman, by the following ungnrbled extract 
j from the work :—“ The Holden Polands are sometimes 
I called Gold Spangled, but surely not correctly , because, 
although the bird has spots, those markings are not uni- 
1 versnl; but many of the_/i»rsf specimens have the feathers 
merely fringed with a darker colour,” &c.; and a few lines 
further on Blr. Dixon is guilty of an indiscrclinn , according 
to Dr. Horner, by saying, that “ the hen is richly laced with 
diuk brown, or black, on an ochre ground.” 
I am next charged (dimly, it is true) with having seduced 
an “uninitiated” young friend at Hull into my oiiinion, by 
sending him a wing* coverlet! (sic.) Let me assure the 
j doctor, upon my honour, that I never sent a feather to any 
j person except yourself, and have, moreovei’, no “ young 
I • Coverlet—The outermost of the bed clothes.—JoAMSoa. 
friend,” or correspondent, at Hull. I need not further 
allude to tills part of his letter, where “ function is smo¬ 
thered in surmise, and nothing is, but what is not,” beyond 
complying with his request, that I will send you some crop 
feathers, which are herewith enclosed. [These are pre¬ 
cisely like tho engraving we gave last week, and are breast 
feathers.— Ed. C. G.] 
The doctor appears to have been won by that “ gay, young, 1 
fresh, and beauteous wooer,” gold, as ho says that he sold | 
some spotted birds {may I add, tho purchaser also) for six j 
guineas, whilst some laced Polands remained unnoticed— | 
unnoticed by me, certainly, notwithstanding a most minute 
examination of those exhibited. By the u-ay, where did he 
got Ills laced birds, if, as he supposes, “ Scrutator is iioking 
fun," and laced birds are altogether fabulous animals. 
“ Depend upon it Dr. Horner is a wag ; ” “ do ask him for 
some crop feathers : so bait your trap, and, my word for it, 
ho will be caught.” There can be no difficulty, as they arc 
unsold. 
I heartily concur with Dr. Horner in his opinion, that 
these are days of progress and improvement; and as I 
hope, ere long, to enter the field as a competitor, I with 
confidence await tho time when “ our fair appointments may 
be well perused,” and sincerely believe that, unless tho 
present breeders progress, and rapidly too, tho true laced 
Polands are destined to drive the present mongrels (see 
Dixon) from the field, as the laced Bantams have tho span¬ 
gled, in spile of our friend's admiration for oven tho latter 
birds.— Scrutator. 
THE VICISSITUDE OE THE CLIMATE OE 
ENGLAND; 
BEING AN EPITOME OF A WEATHER JOURNAL KEPT BY 
H. W. NEWMAN, ESQ., IN OLOUCESTERSHIRE. 
Having kept a journal of the weather for many years, 
perhaps some account of tho changes which take place may 
be of use to “ Young England,”— I mean to those gardeners 
wlio have seen some twenty or twenty-five summers only. 
I am old enough to remember tho long winter of 1700- 
IHOO; this was distinguished by a long frost, and a heavy 
fall 6f snow, which lay on the ground nearly two months, 
and many sheep were lost in the north of Scotland. This 
winter was preceded by a very cold, wet summer; the harvest 
was damaged, and great scarcity prevailed. The winter of 
1800-1 was mild; of 1801-2, severe ; May, 1802, a very cold 
month; of 1803-4, mild; of ISOo-fi, very mild, and ex¬ 
tremely wet and tempestuous. In 1800, a splendid summer; 
and tho winter, 1800-7, mild. In 1807-8, a very severe frost, 
which continued for nearly two months; the turnpike-roads, 
at the end of January, for several days were a complete 
sheet of ice, and young men and boys were skating on them. 
During this frost one of those beautiful appearances on the 
trees, of frozen rain, took place; they were festooned with 
rime for a day, and there is no finer sight than some large 
elms covered with this rime. Such rime frosts seem to 
occur about once in every fifteen or eighteen years, during 
severe weather, and generally near the end of tho frost; a 
correct drawing or painting of these sights in winter, so few 
and far between, would bo most desirable. In 18(ii)-10 there 
was severe frost; 1810-11, 1811-12, and 1812-13, wore, 
generally speaking, mild winters. The summer of iwi.q was 
wet, and then commenced the long winter of 1813-14. The 
frost commenced on the 2fith of December, and on the 7th of 
January, 1814, snow fell for neaily three days consecutively, 
to tho depth of six feet on level open ground, and drifted to 
tho height of twenty feet in certain places. This frost con¬ 
tinued (with an intermission of four days in February) for 
thirteen weeks. The Thames was frozen over for a long 
period, and a fair held upon it. The snow was not melted 
in tho valleys in England until April. A fine summer 
followed. In 1814-15 was a mild ivinter, but in May, 1815, 
about the 1.5th, there was a severe frost; the goosebeiries 
in many jjlaces were destroyed. In 1815-10 was rather 
an extraordinary winter; no frost occurred until the 10th 
of February, when a most severe one comniencod. TJie 
Thames was frozen over for a week, and myriads of people 
were on the ice. It broke up suddenly, and a BTetehed 
