132 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  CQTTAGE  GARDENER, 
February  11,  1904. 
The  Stale  Furrow. 
To  the  greater*  number  of  farmers  this  is  an  old  and 
worn  out  question  which  they  are  quite  satisfied  about ; 
but  so  many  people  have  been  invited  recently  to  take  a 
part  in  arable  cultivation,  and  have  accepted  the  invita¬ 
tions,  that  it  is  necessary  to  reiterate  in  their  interests 
some  of  the  old  formulas.  We  are  being  told  in  the 
interests  of  people  who  are  interested  in  motor  cultivators 
that  the  old  idea  of  the  stale  furrow  is  a  thing  of  the  past. 
Well !  if  the  motor  will  do  all  that  the  spade  has  done  we 
do  not  deny  it  ;  but  there  is  the  rub.  The  motor  cultivator 
will  only  do  the  same  work  as  horses,  but  under  different 
conditions,  the  whole  point  being  the  thorough  breaking 
up  of  the  yearling  or  two-year-old  sod  so  as  to  produce 
and  allow  for  a  period  of  disintegration  before  the  seed  or 
tuber  is  introduced.  This  is  the  point !  The  land  which 
has  been  under  seeds  for  one  or  more  years  must  be  con¬ 
solidated  before  being  sown  with  a  corn  crop. 
In  this  connection  we  remark  that  Professor  Wrightson 
has  recently  undergone  some  criticism  for  advising  people 
to  follow  the  old  system  and  provide  for  a  few  weeks’ 
interval  between  ploughing  and  sowing  land  which  has  just 
been  under  Clover.  One  of  the  opponents  of  the  stale 
furrow  writes  to  the  “  Agricultural  Gazette  ”  from  a  street 
in  Edinburgh,  and  a  perusal  of  his  letter  gives  us  the 
impression  that  he  is  more  interested  in  the  motor  industry 
than  in  farming,  except  in  so  far  as  the  latter  may  be  made 
a  medium  for  the  exploitation  of  the  former. 
We  will  quote  one  sentence  from  his  letter:  '‘One 
motorman  can  work  five,  ten,  or  twenty  times  more  acres 
than  a  teamster  can  do  in  a  day.  The  motorman  can, 
therefore,  wait  for  the  right  time  to  cultivate,  which  he 
finds  is  also  the  right  time  to  seed,  so  he  cultivates  and 
seeds  at  the  same  time.”  This  all  sounds  beautifully  con¬ 
venient,  and  is  a  very  powerful  argument  in  favour  of 
motor  cultivation  if  it  were  true  that  the  right  time  to 
cultivate  is  also  the  right  time  to  seed  ;  but  it  is  not.  We 
shall  not  attempt  to  argue  that  a  good  crop  of  wheat  has 
never  been  grown  by  sowing  immediately  after  the  plough, 
for  such  a  contention  would  deny  the  usefulness  of  the 
l^ress  drill.  There  are  some  staples  of  heavy  soil  which  are 
very  difficult  to  sow,  except  under  such  favourable  weather 
conditions  as  seldom  occur,  and  on  such  soils  the  press 
drill  is  invaluable,  and  by  its  means  the  land  is  ploughed 
and  sown  in  one  day.  But  this  ploughing  and  sowing 
invariably  takes  place  early  in  the  season,  and  this  early 
sowing  has  a  most  beneficial  effect  on  the  vigour  and 
healthiness  of  the  crop. 
It  seems  that  a  Mr.  Woodhouse  has  grown  wheat  suc¬ 
cessfully  on  strong  land  by  ploughing  and  drilling  immedi¬ 
ately  afterwards.  However,  one  swallow  does  not  make  a 
summer,  and  we  would  strongly  warn  farmers  against 
following  his  example,  and  especially  on  light  and  thin 
soils.  We  entirely  agree  with  Professor  Wrightson  when 
he  says:  “We  cannot  ignore  the  soundness  of  old  practice 
iu  insistiug  upon  the  importance  of  getting  up  clover  lairs 
early.”  Onr  own  thirty-five  years’  experience  is  overwhelm¬ 
ingly  in  favour  of  early  ploughing.  We  have  several  times 
seen  ploughing  commenced  in  July  or  early  August, ,  a 
small  portion  of  the  field  only  being  turned  over  then,  and 
the  work  completed  two  months  later.  The  results  have 
always  been  the  same  ;  a  fine  full  plant  and  an  excellent 
crop  on  the  early  ploughed  strips,  and  comparative  failure 
on  the  remainder  of  the  field.  The  appearance  of  the 
latter  in  May  was  remarkable,  the  wheat  on  the  early 
ploughed  portion  being  so  much  forwarder  and  stronger 
than  that  on  the  other  portions  as  to  give  a  stranger  the 
impression  that  it  had  been  sown  a  month  earlier  and  not 
upon  the  same  day. 
Professor  Wrightson  sets  the  value  of  the  eatage  of 
clover  by  ewes  against  the  value  of  a  stale  furrow  for 
wheat,  and  estimates  the  latter  at  a  sack  an  acre.  We 
think  this  is  a  low  estimate,  and  should  suggest  twice  as 
much.  He  also  advises  resort  to  a  crop  of  oats  in  prefer¬ 
ence  to  wheat  sown  on  a  green  furrow.  '  We  entirely  agree 
with  him  here  also,  and  in  cases  where  grazing  for  sheep 
is  such  an  important  matter,  especially  on  arable  farms 
which  are  short  of  grass  land,  a  regular  system  of  keeping 
the  old  lea  unploughed  until  January  may  be  most  desirable. 
But  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  we  are  advocating  for 
the  oat  crop  what  we  deny  to  wheat.  It  is  every  bit  as 
necessary  to  irlough  lea  early  for  oats  or  barley 
as  it  is  for  wheat.  Oats  and  barley  like  a  free 
seed  bed,  but  they  also  like  it  fairly  firm,  and  they  do 
not  flourish  in  green  sod.  In  their  case  it  is  time  for  the 
sod  to  decay,  and  the  formation  of  humus  which  is  required. 
Therefore,  w*e  say  keep  your  seeds  up  for  grazing  until 
January,  then  plough  as  soon  as  convenient  so  as  to  give 
an  interval  of  six  or  eight  weeks  before  drilling. 
We  referred  above  to  motor  cultivation.  We  have  no 
objection  to  it  as  such,  we  only  object  to  the  idea  that  by 
using  it  we  can  make  wheat  grow  and  do  well  in  about 
five  minutes.  We  believe  that  motors  will  be  the  agri¬ 
cultural  traction  of  the  future.  More  than  tliat,  we  think 
that  the  breaking  up  of  lea  land  by  motor  cultivation  would 
constitute  an  excellent  preparation  for  wheat  sowing,  but 
not  on  the  same  day.  It  is  possible  that  the  land  would 
more  quickly  acquire  firmness  after  cultivation  than  it 
would  after  ploughing,  and  therefore  a  less  period  of  w*ait- 
ing  might  be  required.  That  there  is  a  doubt  as  to  this  is 
shown,  however,  by  the  uselessness  of  digging  ploughs  in 
preparing  lea  for  wheat.  There  are  hundreds  of  farmers 
who  keep  the  old-fashioned  ploughs  for  that  purpose  almost 
solely,  and  they  would  not  multiply  their  implements  with¬ 
out  good  i*eason.  It  must  be  remembered  that  the  stale 
furrow  question  only  applies  to  lea  and  not  to  land  which 
has  been  under  Tiu’nips,  Mangolds,  Potatoes,  etc. 
Work  on  the  Home  Farm. 
The  past  week  has  been  a  most  disappointing  one.  The 
land  was  getting  at  last  into  a  fairly  dry  condition,  we  had 
three  days  with  both  .sun  and  wind,  and  all  was  promising  when 
once  again  down  came  the  rain,  which  has  been  almost  con¬ 
tinuous  for  other  three  days,  and  now  we  are  as  badly  off  as 
ever.  Speaking  tO'  a  strong-land  fanner,  we  found  him  most 
de.spondent.  It  is,  as  he  said,  heartbreaking.  It  is  bad  for 
men  as  well  as  farmers,  for  nearly  all  the  usual  employments 
for  wet  days  have  been  used  up,  and  there  is  no  shelter  work 
for  the  daily  labourers. 
We  want  to  thresh  again,  but  the  weather  will  not  allow  of 
it.  There  is  no  corn  in  the  granary  waiting  for  winnowing,  no 
sacks  to  mend,  and  so  on. 
The  Potato  trade  is  very  slow,  and  not  many  are  being 
moved.  Even  Northern  Stars  are  a  drug,  for  at  a  sale  last 
week  they  fell  to  24s.  per  .stone.  Evergoods  for  seed  are  £8, 
Empress  Queen  £o  10s.  ;  King  Edward  VII.,  £12  10s. .  and  so 
oir;  Init  there  are  few  buyers  yet.  A  great  number  of  farmers 
will  stick  to  Up-to-Date,  in  spite  of  last  season’s  disasters. 
Barley  is  as  poor  a  trade  as  ever,  and  the  majority  of 
samples  fall  below  24s.  A  great  pro^jortion  of  the  barley  left 
in  .stack  is  unsaleable  except  for  grinding  ijurijo.ses.  There  is 
more  demand  for  oats,  and  a  prospect  of  an  advance.  Me 
should  advise  the  threshing  of  barley  and  tlie  reseiwation  of 
oats  until  summer.  The  turnip  sheep  are  in  a  dreadful  state, 
and  the  ewes  are  on  grass  once  more.  The  hogs  are  on  s\yedes 
and  walking  over  tliem  faster  than  we  like,  so  we  are  giving 
a  little  hay  to  make  the  swedes  go  further.  Me  have  no  lambs 
yet,  as  we  do  not  commence  lambing  early,  but  we  see  a  few 
about  in  the  neighbourhood.  Early  lambs  are  the  rule  now 
rather  than  the  exception.  Most  farmers  breed  a  few. 
There  is  a  great  scai’city  of  milk  cows  just  now,  and  they 
are  very  dear.  As  this  is  a  season  when  they  are  becoming 
more  plentifid,  and  farmers  require  them  to  lielj)  the  shepherd 
with  his  lamb-rearing,  tlie  scarcity  is  a  little  awkward.  Perhaps 
it  is  but  a  temporary  scarcity,  and  IMarch  may  see  a  change. 
Clover  seeds  are  likely  to  be  dearer  than  of  late,  and  farmers 
who  buy  early  will  do  well.  Prices  are  likely  to  rise  as  the 
spring  advances.  We  understand  that  a  good  deal  of  seed  was 
spoilt  l)y  bad  weather. 
Pigs  are  now  very  plentiful.  Farmers  have-  been  breeding 
them  largely,  and  litters  are  very  numerous. 
Potato  Cultivation  by  Electricity. 
Experiments  have  been  made  (says  Dr.  Griffiths)  for  the  im¬ 
provement  of  the  Potato  crop  by  distributing  electricity  through 
wires  amongst  the  crops;  and  by  this  means  the  yield  was  in- 
crea.sed  80  per  cent.  Electricity  oxidises  the  free  nitrogen  in 
the  soil  and  produces  nitrates,  and  it  may  stimulate  the  roots 
to  greater  activity. 
