54G 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
June  30,  1898. 
iiarrassing  time.  The  glass  may  be  at  “  set  fair,”  and  every  sign  of 
■fine  weather.  The  mowers  begin  their  pleasant  task,  or  on  suitable 
land  the  grass-cutter  will  lay  swathe  after  swathe  of  the  fragrant 
herbage  low.  The  completion  of  a  field  generally  seems  a  signal  for 
a  break  in  the  weather,  and  down  comes  the  rain  in  torrents,  and  with 
a  relentlessness  that  is  perfectly  vindictive.  There  is  nothing  to  do 
but  to  wait,  feeling  all  the  time  that  the  soft  water  is  gently  drawing 
all  the  good  out  of  the  grass,  and  that  gallons  of  capital  hay  tea  are 
■being  lost. 
The  most  welcome  assistant  the  farmer  has  is  not  so  much  a 
burning  sun  as  a  brisk  drying  wind ;  the  sun  may  be  too  powerful 
and  take  all  the  nature  out,  but  a  good  wind  does  the  work  more 
thoroughly  and  does  not  detract  or  extract  the  valuable  properties 
from  the  grass.  Custom  varies  much  in  different  counties,  even  over 
'the  process  of  haymaking,  and  modern  machinery  has  greatly  lessened 
the  mechanical  labour.  Indeed  we  do  not  know  where  we  should  find 
a  sufificiency  of  men  able  and  wulling  to  mow;  they  only  expect  to  do 
the  rough  uneven  corners  and  tiresome  bits  where  the  machine  can 
hardly  go.  There  is  a  time  for  everything,  and  it  is  of  material 
importance  that  grass  should  be  cut  j  ust  when  it  is  at  its  best,  and  it 
is  most  provoking  when  through  stress  of  unsuitable  weather  the  crop 
fias  to  stand,  and  that  standing  causes  hourly  deterioration. 
The  crop  say  is  a  light  one,  possibly  owing  to  lack  of  moisture  or 
a  cold  backward  season.  The  farmer  cannot  possibly  spare  another 
acre  to  “  lay  in,”  so  he  is  naturally  eager  to  get  the  heaviest  amount 
possible.  He  allows  it  to  stand  in  the  hope  of  getting  better  bottom 
grass,  forgetting  at  the  same  time  that  the  taller  grasses,  having 
-flowered,  are  all  past  their  best,  and  have  reached  a  stage  when  their 
iiufritive  qualities  are  practically  nil. 
The  best  hay  is  produced  from  grass  cut  before  the  ripening  process 
has  taken  place,  and  the  best  Clover  is  made  when  the  plant  is  almost 
fully  in  “  knop,”  and  before  the  bottom  leaf  begins  to  fall  off.  Grass 
cut  too  late  is  deficient  in  some  of  its  best  properties.  “All  grass  in 
process  of  time  turns  to  straw,  and  in  doing  so  the  soluble  ingredients 
sugar,  cellulose,  and  mucilages — become  converted  partly  into  woody 
fibre.”  After  flowering  the  plant  is  impoverished,  the  strength  having 
gone  into  the  seed. 
We  do  not  like  to  see  hay  too  long  upon  the  ground.  Well,  we 
may  be  told,  no  one  does.  Possibly  not ;  but  for  all  that  there  are 
•  good  people  who  go  about  their  work  not  in  the  handiest  and  best 
manner.  If  the  weather  look  unsatisfactory  do  not  meddle.  As  long 
as  the  freshly  cut  grass  is  untouched  the  rain  does  not  do  great  harm ; 
it  is  when  half  made  that  the  damage  is  the  greatest.  Look  at  a 
-swathe  of  grass  ;  how  close  and  compact  it  lies.  Shake  it  about,  half 
make  it,  and  it  is  left  open  with  no  protection  against  showers. 
We  prefer,  given  a  suitable  day,  to  manipulate  only  as  much  as 
we  can  manage  to  turn  over  twice.  Thus  we  should  work  up  to 
dinner  time  turning  and  tossing,  then  begin  again  and  do  the  same 
portion  over.  It  is  wonderful  how  quickly  hay  will  “  make,”  and  by 
adopting  this  plan  at  any  rate  all  the  eggs  are  not  in  the  same 
basket.  W^e  have  a  fancy  to  see  hay  in  “  cock  ”  as  soon  as  practicable, 
believing  that  in  that  form  it  is  wonderfully  safe  from  stress  of 
weather.  We  know  this  is  not  a  universal  custom,  but  we  have 
proved  it  to  be  a  good  one. 
Clover  and  Sainfoin  need  very  little  handling,  indeed  in  handling 
great  damage  may  be  done.  It  is  not  the  thick  strong  stems  that 
are  of  the  greatest  value,  but  the  juicy  knop  and  the  tender  leaf. 
These  are  easily  broken  off  and  destroyed  more  easily  than  an 
amateur  would  suppose. 
It  is  a  very  pleasant  sight  to  see  the  last  load  safe  in  the  yard, 
and  it  is  still  pleasanter  when  the  stacks  are  well  thatched  down,  and  all 
danger  of  “  heating  ”  over.  A  small  degree  of  “  sweating  ”  is 
desirable,  but  it  is  an  unpleasant  surprise  to  be  told  that  the  stacks 
are  rapidly  rising  in  temperature.  We  fear  this  oftener  occurs  in  a  good 
hay  season  than  in  a  damp  one.  Nature  takes  her  own  time  to  work, 
and  there  must  be  due  allowance  made  for  the  proper  evaporation  of 
:  sap.  “  Huoien  slowly  ”  is  still  a  good  proverb  to  go  by,  and  much 
Jiay  and  many  corn  stacks  are  spoiled  by  too  great  hurry. 
We  believe  in  “topping”  up  a  stack  well  before  putting  on  the 
final  thatch.  There  may  always  be  found  on  a  farm  plenty  of  tough 
material  from  hedge  bottoms  and  waste  corners,  which  if  properly 
manipulated  will  form  an  excellent  protection  to  the  more  valuable 
crop.  We  are  great  advocates  for  cutting  up  and  preserving  all  sorts 
of  rough  hits  and  storing  them  with  a  view  to  future  contingencies. 
We  never  know  how  long  winter  may  last,  it  is  not  a  season  that  can 
be  measured  by  the  calendar,  and  cold  winds  and  sharp  frosts  often 
find  their  way  into  May  and  even  into  June. 
WORK  ON  THE  HOME  FARM. 
Hardly  were  our  notes  of  last  week  written  and  posted  before  wo  had 
an  experience,  which  happily  we  do  not  often  have  in  June— it  was  a 
really  keen  frost.  As  we  ourselves  lie  high  and  dry,  we  did  not  suffer 
the  damage  to  our  Potatoes  that  we  see  so  sadly  prevalent  ;  but  already 
the  sudden  chill  is  showing  its  effect  on  the  Wheat,  the  hue  of  which  is 
almost  as  golden  as  when  harvest  is  near.  We  can  only  hope  that  this 
yellow  rust  will  not  make  itself  felt  by  the  presence  of  mildew  later  on. 
We  say  that  we  hope,  but  experience  does  not  give  us  much  encouragement. 
Many  fields  of  Potatoes  have  been  very  seriously  injured  along  the 
north-east  coast,  the  haulm  being  now  only  a  blackened  mass.  The 
injury  has  not  been  general,  but  seems  to  have  been  local,  in  a  similar 
way  to  a  thunderstorm.  Low  wet  places  have  invariably  suffered,  but 
dry  ground  near  water  has  not  escaped.  There  is  a  curious  difference  in 
the  effect  on  different  Potatoes.  The  “  Up  to  Date”  variety  has  shown 
great*  susceptibility  to  frost,  and  in  one  case  a  row  of  this  kind  in  the 
midst  of  a  patch  of  earlies  was  the  only  one  injured.  This  seems  curious, 
but  we  can  only  account  for  it  on  the  supposition  that  the  haulm  having 
pushed  up  quickly  would  be  less  hardy  than  that  which  had  been  longer 
exposed. 
Since  the  frost  we  have  had  dry  warm  weather,  but  closely  followed 
with  a  beautiful  rain.  This  is  the  best  thing  possible  to  refresh  the 
cereals  after  the  check,  and  we  are  sure  to  see  very  considerable  benefit 
therefrom. 
Turnips  also  must  now  do  well,  and  we  hear  no  further  complaints 
of  fly.  Hoeing  and  singling  will  soon  be  the  staple  work  of  the  farm, 
alternated  of  course  with  the  necessary  periods  of  haymaking. 
We  are  dipping  our  sheep,  both  lambs  and  ewes  ;  the  ewes  take  very 
little  doing  now,  and  if  all  are  done  at  once,  and  again  in  September, 
there  should  be  no  further  trouble  from  insect  parasites. 
METEOROLOaiCAL  OBSERVATIONS. 
Camden  Square,  London. 
Lat.  .51°  32'  40"  N.;  Long.  0°  8'  0"  W.;  Altitude  111  feet. 
Date. 
9  A.M. 
In  the  Day'. 
Rain. 
1898. 
June. 
Barometer 
at  32°,  and 
Sea  Level 
Hygrometer 
Direc¬ 
tion  of 
Wind. 
Temp, 
of  soil 
at 
1  foot 
Shade  Tern, 
perature. 
Radiation 
Tempera¬ 
ture 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
Sun 
On 
Grass 
inchs 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
inchs 
Sunday  . . . . 
12 
30-267 
53-2 
60-8 
N.E. 
58-8 
.56-9 
50-0 
64-1 
51-7 
— 
Monday  . . . . 
13 
30  "272 
52-0 
48-7 
N. 
56-9 
58-6 
47-7 
76-1 
48-3 
— 
Tuesday  . . . . 
14 
30  "277 
52-2 
47-8 
N. 
56-0 
57-8 
48-4 
82-0 
48-9 
— 
Wednesday 
15 
30-274 
.51-3 
46-7 
N.E. 
55-1 
64-6 
46-9 
115-9 
46-9 
— 
Thursday  . 
16 
30-253 
53-4 
48-4 
N. 
56-0 
68-4 
44-3 
117-3 
41-6 
— 
Friday . 
17 
30-277 
59-1 
54-5 
S. 
56-8 
73-1 
50-3 
105-6 
46-9 
— 
Saturday. . . 
18 
30-182 
67-8 
59-0 
w. 
57-7 
77-4 
.51-8 
1-23-0 
48-3 
0-014 
30-257 
55-6 
50-8 
56-8 
65-3 
48-5 
97-7 
47-5 
0-014 
Sunday  _ 
19 
30-129 
65-1 
59-8 
w. 
60-2 
74-1 
60-1 
117-8 
.58-2 
— 
Monday  . . . . 
20 
30-062 
63-9 
.59-8 
AV. 
60-3 
74-8 
53-8 
114-8 
50-9 
— 
Tuesday  . . . . 
21 
-29-944 
68-7 
63-0 
AV. 
61-1 
77-2 
60-9 
124-8 
56-7 
0-010 
Wednesday 
22 
29-801 
66-2 
67  -9 
N. 
61-8 
71-7 
55-7 
1-22-1 
52-9 
— 
Thursday  . 
23 
-29-945 
60-0 
50-9 
AV. 
60-9 
69-1 
46-3 
119-4 
44-9 
0.077 
Friday . 
24 
-29-741 
56*4 
55-4 
AV. 
61-0 
61-2 
52-7 
100-1 
52-3 
0-195 
Saturday  . 
25 
-20-503 
59-7 
53-6 
S.AV. 
59-0 
64-8 
.52-8 
111*2 
49-9 
0-128 
29-875!  62-9 
j 
57-2 
60-6 
70-4 
54-6 
115-7 
52-3 
0-410 
REMARKS. 
12tli. — Cold,  -with  leaden  sky  througliout. 
13th.— Overcast  and  cold. 
14th. — Overcast  morning  ;  fair  afternoon,  but  sunless. 
15vh.— Overcast  early  ;  frequently  sunny  after  10.30,  and  bright  from  3  P.M. 
16th.— Overca.st  till  10.30  A.M.  ;  bright  sun  in  afternoon. 
17th.— Much  cloud,  but  sunny  at  times,  especially  in  afternoon. 
18th. — A  perfect  June  day,  but  a  shower  between  8  and  0  p.m. 
A  cold,  and  but  for  the  last  two  days,  a  very  cold  week.  Practically  no  rain 
19th.— Overcast  earlv,  but  generally  sunny  after  11  a.m. 
20th.— Generally  overcast  till  9.30  a.m.  and  after  noon  ;  frequent  sun  in  morning. 
21st.— Overcast  early,  and  frequent  cloud  in  morning  ;  bright  sun  in  afternoon. 
22nd.— A  sprinkle  of  rain  about  4  A.M.  ;  frequent  cloud  in  morning,  bright  sun 
after. 
23rd.— Bright  and  fresh  day  ;  overcast  evening. 
24ch.— Cold  and  dull,  with  rain  or  drizzle  almost  all  the  morning. 
2oth.— Alternate  sunshine  and  storm  rains  in  morning  ;  generally  cloudy  after, 
with  spots  of  rain. 
A  week  of  average  temperature  .and  rainfall. — G.  J.  Symoxs. 
