470 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
May  27,  1897. 
ON  SPOILING  GOOD  LAND. 
Not  intentionally,  by  any  means ;  ignorance  has  more  to 
answer  for  than  pure  malice.  There  are  very  few  malicious 
people  about,  but  a  good  many  ignoiant  ones,  and  endowed  with 
that  most  hopeless  form  of  ignorance,  overwhelming  conceit  ;  a 
■conceit  that  makes  them  both  deafer  and  blinder  than  the  nations 
who  sat  in  darkness,  of  whom  the  prophet  spoke. 
The  worst  of  it  is  that  some  of  the  good  land  has  been  spoiled 
at  great  expense.  The  money  has  been  deliberately  thrown  away — 
buried  fathoms  deep.  Some  startling  facts  have  lately  been  pre¬ 
sented  to  our  notice  by  the  Rev.  E.  Adrian  Woodruffe-Peacock, 
F.L.S.,  F.G-.S.,  a  Lincolnshire  vicar,  a  man  who  thoroughly  under¬ 
stands  what  he  is  talking  of.  He  is  speaking  of  drainage  on 
heavy  low-lying  soils.  He  is  a  man  of  great  observation,  and  he 
throws  a  light  on  several  things  that  have  puzzled  us  for  a  long 
time.  We  heard  the  same  questions  discussed  years  ago  in  our 
childhood  s  home,  where  much  money  was  annually  expended  in 
draining  and  redraining  the  strongest  of  Holderness  clays. 
Within  the  last  twenty  years  a  material  change  has  come  over 
our  farming,  and  we  no  longer  fiad  the  fine  Wheat  crops  we  used 
to  know  grown  on  strong  land.  The  crop  now  is  not  worth  the 
labour  of  production,  and  therefore  the  golden  grain  has  given 
place  to  pasture  land. 
A  generation  ago  draining  on  the  whole  was  neglected,  then 
came  a  time  of  reaction,  and,  as  is  generally  the  case,  the  new 
converts  were  ardent,  zeal  not  being  tempered  with  discretion,  and 
the  consequence  has  been  that  iu  dry  times  the  land  is  perfectly 
denuded  of  every  drop  of  moisture.  The  cattle  have  no  drinking 
places,  and  the  dykes  that  stand  instead  of  fences  are  simply 
useless. 
Mr.  Peacock  says  : — “  Many  of  our  unyielding  clays  are  as  good 
as  impervious  to  water  a  little  below  the  soil  limit.  In  such  stiff 
clays  the  pipes  should  be  laid  as  near  the  surface  as  is  consistent 
with  avoiding  agricultural  operations,  and  with  retaining  their 
proper  position  under  the  pressure  of  cartage.” 
Some  of  our  less  impervious  clays  which  were  drained  in 
bygone  years  for  Wheat  growing  are  much  too  deeply  sapped  for 
grass  in  a  dry  season.  Wheat  has  a  water  root,  which  will  go  down 
till  it  reaches  moisture  ;  grass  not  having  that  natural  advantage 
dries  out  and  perishes.  It  is  difficult  to  bring  that  water  back 
again,  and  we  have  had  these  last  dry  seasons  to  pay  the  price  of  our 
forefathers  over  zealous  draining.  The  price  has  been  paid  twice. 
Has  anyone  noticed  what  a  shrinkage  there  is  when  peat  land 
has  been  drained  ?  Whittlesea  Mere  sank  9  inches  per  annum 
for  the  first  ten  years  after  it  was  drained.  On  such  soil  pipes 
are  practically  useless,  the  area  is  elastic  and  shrinking,  and  the 
pipes  by  pressure  from  above  soon  become  unlevel,  and  get  choked. 
Tiles  and  flats  obviate  this  difficulty,  the  tiles  meeting  in  the 
middle  of  a  flat,  and  the  flats  in  the  middle  of  a  tile.  The 
pressure  from  above  on  a  tile  carries  the  junction  of  two  flats 
with  it ;  the  tiles  at  either  side  on  the  other  ends  of  the  flats  keep 
them  in  their  places. 
On  grass  land  there  should  be  .o  stagnant  water  in  the  surface 
soil,  and  just  below  heat,  air,  and  rain  will  enter  fteely.  “Drain 
too  much,  so  as  to  destroy  the  capillar;  j  from  the  water  table 
supplying  the  loss  of  moisture  from  eva  jration,  the  heat  produces 
drought,  and  the  air,  finding  free  acce^,  but  lacking  the  moisture, 
which  is  its  brother  workman,  proves  a  curse  rathqr  than  a  blessing 
by  draining  the  soil  still  further  of  its  water,  as  tens  of  thousands 
of  acres  of  valuable  pasture  and  meadow  uemonst/ate  to  the  eye 
•that  can  see  at  this  moment.” 
But  excessive  draining  is  not  the  only  way  of  spoiling  good 
land.  To  anyone  who  has  much  acquaintance  with  farm  leases  or 
agreements  we  need  not  speak  of  the  rigid  laws  therein  laid  down. 
In  most,  except  perhaps  a  few  very  modern  ones,  the  farmer  is 
tied  hand  and  foot.  No  variation  in  season,  no  fluctuation  in  price, 
no  land  sickness  are  allowed  for.  Who  has  not  heard  of  Clover 
sickness  and  finger  and  toe  in  Turnips  ?  Whereas  a  little  judicious 
cross-cropping  would  put  money  into  the  farmer’s  pocket  and  heart 
into  the  land. 
We  know  farms  where  a  farmer  daring  to  grow  Potatoes  would, 
if  leaving,  be  mulct  to  the  extent  of  £5  per  acre  for  all  his  Potatoes, 
although  at  the  same  time  no  one  could  deny  the  magnificence  of 
the  following  Wheat  crop  or  the  garden-like  cleanliness  of  the  soil. 
There  was  another  little  fad  which  at  one  time  proved  a  most 
useless  and  expensive  experiment — we  refer  to  steam  cultivation. 
If  Mr.  Peacock  speaks  of  thousands  of  acres  of  good  pasture  wasted 
by  injudicious  draining,  what  of  thousands  of  acres  of  good  arable 
land  utterly  ruined  by  the  bringing  up  of  bad  useless  subsoil  ? 
Land  does  not  get  over  treatment  of  that  sort  for  one  generation, 
and  nothing  will  make  stiff  tenacious  clay  change  from  the  character 
of  bullock’s  liver  in  consistency  as  well  as  colour. 
WORK  ON  THE  HOME  FARM. 
Instead  of  becoming  warmer  the  weather  has  been  colder  and  colder 
every  day.  It  was  cold  enough  when  the  wind  was  in  the  north-west 
and  north,  but  now  there  is  a  spice  of  east  in  it  the  temperature  is  more 
like  March  than  May.  Several  frosts  have  been  noted  in  the  early 
mornings,  but  not  so  severe  as  is  reported  from  other  districts.  Rain  is 
beginning  to  be  seriously  wanted  ;  there  is  no  absolute  drought,  and 
there  is  plenty  of  moisture  beneath  the  surface,  but  the  frosts  and  dry 
cutting  winds  have  had  a  bad  effect  on  young  vegetation,  and  rain  is  the 
only  antidote.  Let  us  hope  when  it  come3  we  may  have  more  genial 
weather  with  it. 
The  later  Wheats  have  again  shown  improvement,  but  the  earlier 
ones  have  still  further  gone  back.  Barley  and  Oats  on  sound  land  still 
look  fairly  well  ;  on  the  other  hand  many  fields  show  patches  of  yellow, 
indicating  places  where  either  the  subsoil  is  weak  or  the  drainage 
deficient. 
Thousand-heads  are  up,  and  look  well  j  Mangold  comes  up  slowly,  and 
is  almost  as  well  under  ground  as  the" weather  is  now  ;  early  Swedes  and 
Turnips  are  all  in,  but  not  up  yet.  We  are  only  waiting  for  a  nice  rain 
to  mellow  the  soil  and  improve  the  tilth,  and  we  shall  at  once  have  in 
the  main  bulk  of  the  Turnip  crop. 
Though  it  has  been  a  bad  time  for  growing  crops,  it  has  been  capital 
for  dealing  with  weeds  and  twitch,  and  cleaning  of  fallows  is  now  quite 
completed.  It  is  almost  a  record,  for  we  can  with  difficulty  remember 
such  an  early  and  satisfactory  finish.  We,  whilst  waiting  for  rain,  can 
afford  to  give  the  horses  a  rest,  and  send  all  hands  to  the  hoe.  Wheat 
has  been  looked  over,  and  has  not  furnished  an  arduous  task. 
Barley  and  Oats  are  rather  full  of  thistles,  worse  than  we  had  thought, 
but  are  being  rapidly  run  over.  Potato  weeding  is  the  next  operation. 
The  tubers  have  been  slow  in  sending  up  the  young  shoots  (fortunately 
so),  and  very  few  are  appearing  yet,  so  we  have  to  wait  as  cleaning  cannot 
be  done  with  safety  until  nearly  all  are  showing.  Live  stock  are  look¬ 
ing  fairly  well  on  bare  pastures. 
METEOROLOGICAL  OBSERVATIONS. 
Oamden  Square,  London. 
Lat.  61°  12' 40"  N. ;  Long.  0°  8/  0"  W.:  Altitude  111  feet 
Date. 
9  A.M. 
In  the  Day. 
d 
’a 
1897. 
May. 
|  Barometer 
at  32°,  and 
|  Sea  Level. 
Hygrometer. 
Direc¬ 
tion  of 
Wind. 
Temp, 
of  soil 
at 
1  foot. 
Shade  Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
Sun. 
On 
Grass. 
Inchs. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg 
deg. 
deg 
Inch?. 
Sunday  ....  16 
30-387 
55-0 
47-4 
N. 
50-7 
68-3 
39-7 
112-6 
32-6 
— 
Monday  ....  17 
30-125 
59-1 
52-9 
N.E. 
52-9 
7b-l 
46  8 
118-9 
40-4 
_ 
Tuesday  ....  18 
30-090 
64-8 
67-6 
N.E. 
55-1 
78-0 
50-4 
124-7 
46-2 
_ 
Wednesday  19 
30-lb3 
54-7 
48  9 
N 
58-2 
69-1 
44-1 
113-1 
40-4 
_ 
Thursday  ..  20 
30-05 1 
53-9 
47-6 
N. 
54-2 
74-2 
41-4 
117-3 
38-3 
_ 
Friday  ...  2 1 
29-981 
634 
52-9 
N.E. 
57-6 
70-7 
47-1 
122-1 
411 
— 
Saturday  ..  21 
29  880 
55-6 
49-9 
N. 
57-8 
65-1 
42-9 
115-0 
38-0 
— 
30-097 
58-1 
51-0 
55-2 
71  6 
44-6 
117-7 
396 
- 
REMARKS. 
16th.— Bright  sun  almost  throughout,  but  high  wind  and  some  cloud  in  afternoon. 
17th. — Fine,  but  not  much  sun  before  11  A.M. ;  bright  and  warm  after. 
18th. — Bright  sun  almost  throughout ;  warm  day  ;  cool  breeze  in  evening, 
a  19th.— Oloudy  early  ;  bright  aun  from  9.15  a  m. 
20th. — Bright  sunshine  almost  throughout,  but  a  little  cloudy  at  midday. 
21st. — Bright  sunshine  throughout. 
22nd.— Bright  and  clear  throughout. 
Another  rainless  week— in  fact,  the  drought  has  now  lasted  seventeen  day 3.  Very 
high  temperatures  on  several  days.— G.  J.  SYMONS. 
