566 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
December  12, 1895. 
the  reduction  of  the  laboured  area  by  the  putting  away  in 
temporary  pasture.  The  making  of  permanent  pastures  is  a 
subject  that  has  been  greatly  exercising  the  agricultural  mind 
for  some  years  past;  but  I  do  not  hesitate  to  state  my  personal 
experience  that  on  ordinary  soils  this  is  a  great  mistake,  though, 
of  course,  there  are  many  exceptional  cases  where  the  land 
ought  to  be  in  grass  and  never  ploughed  up  again.  But  putting 
into  grass  for  a  few  years  is  quite  a  different  matter,  and  has 
everything  to  recommend  it.  It  is,  in  fact,  adopting  a  six,  seven, 
or  eight  years’  rotation,  three,  four,  or  five  of  which  are  in 
*  seeds.’  By  this  means  the  total  amount  of  actually  ploughed 
land  is  permanently  reduced,  as  for  every  lea  field  broken  up 
there  is  one  laid  down  ;  at  the  same  time  the  ‘  vegetable  soul  ’ 
of  the  soil  is  renovated  by  the  formation  of  a  young  turf, 
while  the  weeds  disappear  more  or  less.” 
He  goes  on  to  call  attention  to  the  good  crops  derived  from 
new  broken-up  land,  and  to  the  superior  benefit  accruing  from 
any  manure  put  on  such  land.  Then,  as  to  cleaning,  of  the 
three  Grasses  which  foul  clay  land.  Couch  Grass  (Triticum 
repens),  and  Black  Bent  (Alopecurus  agrestis)  die  out  of  them¬ 
selves  when  clay  land  is  put  into  pasture.  The  third  one,  which 
is  Water  Grass  (Agrostis  vulgaris),  also  dies  under  persistent 
manuring,  and  he  well  adds  that  ‘‘  instead  of  the  laborious  and 
expensive  cleaning  of  land  by  a  bare  fallow  or  by  roots,  we 
simply  plough  properly,  manure  heavily,  grow  good  crops,  lay 
the  land  down  to  grass,  and  there  is  no  further  trouble  ” 
The  mixture  of  seeds  used  by  Mr.  McConnell  for  the  Essex 
clays  is  an  outcome  of  close  observation,  of  repeated  trials,  of 
judicious  changes  year  by  year  till  the  selection  found  to  answer 
best  and  “  settled  down  to  ”  is  per  acre. 
LBS. 
Perennial  Rye  Grass  . 13 
Italian  Rye  Grass  .  ...  ...  5 
Cocksfoot .  5 
Timothy .  3 
Meadow  Foxtail .  2 
Broad  Red  Clover  .  ...  3 
Broad  Perennial  Clover  .  3 
White  Clover  .  2 
Alsike  Cloveri  .  2 
Trefoil  or  Lucerne  .  2 
40 
The  average  cost  is  about  £1  per  acre,  the  results  being  big 
crops  alike  profitable  for  home  consumption  or  sale.  This 
thick  seeding  is  done  advisedly  in  opposition  to  the  general  idea 
which  favours  thinner  seeding,  because  it  has  been  found  a  thin 
plant  is  unsatisfactory.  With  the  dense  clothing  of  the  surface 
from  such  thick  seeding  the  sward  continues  steadily  improving, 
and  is  so  good  when  its  turn  comes  for  breaking  up  that  it  is  often 
done  with  regret.  The  improvement  is  accounted  for  by  the 
fact  of  the  land  being  put  into  good  heart  to  begin  with. 
At  the  very  basis  of  this  putting  into  good  heart  is  the 
dressing  of  gas  lime  applied  to  pasture  when  it  is  broken 
up,  at  the  rate  of  from  4  to  G  tons  per  acre.  It  is  claimed 
for  it  that  it  destroys  grubs,  partly  kills  the  turf,  renders  the 
soil  friable,  and  stimulates  its  natural  fertility.  Frequently 
its  effects  in  the  last  two  points  are  remarkable,  the  improve¬ 
ment  in  the  mechanical  texture  of  the  soil  being  very  great, 
and  the  manurial  effect  equal  to  that  of  nitrate  of  soda.  We 
have  no  doubt  that  the  caustic  properties  of  such  lime  do  tell 
beneficially  on  the  stubborn  clay,  dividing  its  particles  and 
setting  free  much  of  its  plant  food. 
WORK  ON  THE  HOME  FARM. 
Well  timed  was  Mr.  W.  R.  Raillem’s  note  on  spoiled  butter  from  the 
use  of  green-topped  Carrots,  because  this  is  precisely  the  time  of  year 
when  such  troubles  arise  from  mistaken  or  careless  feeding.  The  key 
note  to  the  successful  management  of  dairy  cows  in  winter  is  cleanliness 
in  the  buildings,  the  litter,  the  cows’  coats,  the  air  they  breathe,  the  food 
and  water  they  consume,  in  the  hands  and  dress  of  the  milkmen,  and  in 
the  milk  pails. 
Given  all  this,  with  proper  shelter  and  the  exclusion  of  the  milk  oE 
stale  cows  from  that  which  is  separated  for  the  daily  household  butter, 
and  there  should  be  no  failure — no  just  cause  of  complaint.  Never 
forget  that  the  full  colour  and  full  rich  flavour  of  summer  butter  is 
impossible  now,  but  it  may  be  worth  while  to  impart  just  a  trace  of 
summer  beauty  by  the  use  of  a  little  liquid  annatto.  This  requires  much 
care  so  as  not  to  overdo  it,  and  should  only  be  done  at  all  as  a  conces¬ 
sion  to  that  prejudice  which  is  wont  to  regard  the  pale  colour  of  winter 
butter  as  a  fault — an  indication  of  poor  quality. 
Give  close  daily  attention  to  the  thorough  cleaning  of  the  cow 
stalls.  We  like  a  wide  shallow  gutter  at  the  foot  of  the  stalls  with  a 
sufficient  fall  to  the  outlet  to  be  cleansed  easily  by  water  once  or  twice 
daily  ;  the  latter  is  really  necessary  when  the  cows  are  kept  tied  in  the 
stalls  during  stormy  weather,  such  as  we  had  last  week.  See  that  the 
cows’  coats  are  kept  quite  clean  now  by  the  curry  comb,  by  brushing  and, 
when  necessary,  by  washing.  Nothing  short  of  disgraceful  is  the  filthy 
condition  of  the  coats  of  many  a  herd  of  cows  now ;  clotted  with  filth, 
much  of  which  is  moist,  how  can  the  cows  be  either  healthy  or  com¬ 
fortable  ?  We  hold  that  a  cow  house  and  the  cows  in  it  should  be  as, 
tidy  and  well  cared  for  as  our  best  stables  and  horses. 
One  more  word  about  the  gutter.  We  have  recently  had  all  the- 
gratings  in  the  gutter  of  a  very  long  cow  hovel  taken  out  and  the  drains 
they  covered  stopped,  as  the  gratings  were  practically  useless,  being 
constantly  choked  by  straw  and  filth.  The  gutter  was  widened,  made  to 
fall  from  the  middle  of  the  hovel  to  each  end  of  it  and  to  empty  through 
a  hole  in  the  wall,  over  which  there  are  vertical  iron  bars  inside  to 
exclude  rats,  and  which  can  easily  be  kept  open. 
OUR  LETTER  BOX. 
Mossy  Park  Xiand  Cut  for  Hay  (JLime  and  Leaf  2Ioidd'), — Moss 
is  usually  an  indication  of  a  close  and  moist  surface,  but  we  have  found 
quite  as  much  moss  on  dry  soil  as  on  heavy,  the  difference  being  in  the 
variety  or  varieties  of  moss.  Leaf  mould  being  of  a  humus  nature  will 
encourage  the  growth  of  mosses.  We  have,  however,  used  it  extensively 
both  for  lawns  and  park  land  without  prejudice  to  the  grass,  and  as  that 
grows  so  does  the  moss  decline,  provided  the  soil  contains  sufficient  lime  for 
the  complete  transformation  of  the  leaf  mould.  This  is  not  always  the 
case,  therefore  the  leaf  mould  or  humus  formed  by  it  accumulates  and 
the  moss  flourishes  correspondingly.  By  applying  lime  the  leaf  mould 
is  rapidly  decomposed  and  its  constituents  made  available  as  food  for 
the  grasses  and  herbage  plants.  More,  the  mosses  are  actually  poisoned 
by  the  nitrate  of  lime  ;  therefore  ground  to  which  it  is  applied  has  a. 
browned  appearance  for  some  time  from  the  destroyed  moss,  but  after 
a  time  the  chemical  changes  are  effected  in  favour  of  the  grasses 
and  they  flourish  in  consequence.  The  amount  of  lime  to  be  used 
depends  on  the  quantity  of  moss.  In  bad  cases,  8  tons  per  acre,  1  cwt. 
per  rod  is  not  too  much  to  use,  which  should  be  in  the  slacked  condition,, 
but  if  slacked  on  the  ground  it  will  burn  the  grass  and  kill  it  more  or 
less  where  the  heaps  lie.  This  means  either  slacking  the  lime  off  the 
ground  or  using  air-slacked,  both  of  which  add  to  the  expense.  In  treating 
mossy  land  we  have  used  lime  very  successfully  with  compost,  1  ton  to  six. 
cartloads,  mixing  the  freshly  burned  lime  with  the  heap.  For  leaf 
mould  about  one  part  in  ten  is  sufficient,  the  lime  being  slacked 
wholly  or  partially  and  mixed  with  the  leaf  heap,  this  being  done  a  few 
weeks  before  the  compost  is  put  on  the  land  and  the  heaps  turned 
at  least  once.  The  effect  of  the  lime  is  to  reduce  the  leaves  (nearly 
decayed)  one-third,  and  twenty  to  thirty  or  even  forty  cartloads  being 
used  per  acre  the  requisite  amount  of  lime  is  supplied  as  needed. 
METEOROLOGICAL  OBSERVATIONS. 
Oamdbn  Squabs,  London. 
Lat.51°  32' 40"  N. ;  Long.  0°  8/  0"  W.:  Altitude  111  feet. 
Date. 
9  A.M. 
IN  THE  Day. 
.9 
1895. 
December. 
1  Barometer 
at  32°,  and 
1  Sea  Level. 
Hygrometer. 
Direc¬ 
tion  of 
Wind. 
Temp, 
of  soil 
at 
1  foot. 
Shade  Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Mas. 
Min. 
In 
Sun. 
On 
Grass. 
Inchs. 
deg. 
deg. 
dear. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
Incha. 
Sunday  . .  1 
30-046 
37-3 
37-3 
S. 
46-7 
43-9 
35-0 
4b'0 
29-9 
— 
Monday  . .  2 
30-186 
36-6 
36-2 
w. 
43-6 
50-0 
33-3 
54-1 
29-1 
— 
Tuesday  . .  3 
30-008 
49-7 
47-3 
S.W. 
43-6 
6D-2 
36-9 
57-1 
34-1 
— 
W  ednesday  4 
30-102 
42-4 
40-9 
w. 
43-1 
64-0 
38-1 
61-7 
33-0 
0-032 
Thursday . ,  5 
29-632 
53-8 
49-4 
w. 
44-0 
56-4 
42-6 
62  9 
39-9 
0-028 
Friday  ..  6 
29-425 
47-2 
45-6 
w. 
46-2 
48-9 
46-1 
78-7 
44-2 
C-038 
Saturday  . .  7 
29-602 
35-1 
33-0 
w. 
43  7 
40-8 
33-8 
62-8 
29-4 
— 
29-857 
43-2 
41-4 
44-1 
49-2 
38-0 
60-5 
34-2 
0-098 
REMARKS. 
1st. — Misty  early ;  sun  visible  through  haze  or  slight  fog  all  day. 
2nd. — Sunny,  but  atmosphere  thick  ;  cioudy  towards  sunset. 
3rd.— Cloudy  morning,  -with  spots  of  rain ;  solar  halo  at  noon,  and  generally  sunny 
after ;  clear  night. 
4th.— Sunny  till  noon  ;  cloudy  after,  and  dull  and  rainy  from  3  P.M. ;  gale  at  night. 
6th.— Westerly  gale  all  day  ;  spots  of  rain  early  ;  fine  day  and  evening. 
6th. — Showery  between  7  A.M.  and  11  A.M  ,  with  a  little  hail ;  almost  unbroken  sun¬ 
shine  after,  and  clear  night. 
7th.— A  siight  shower  at  3.30  A.M. ;  sunny  almost  all  day,  but  a  sprinkle  of  snow 
about  3  P.M. 
An  ordinary  December  week,  but  noteworthy  for  wind  in  the  middle  of  it,  and  for 
'  warm  sunshine  on  the  iast  two  days. — G.  J.  SYMONP. 
