310 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER, 
April  7,  1904. 
weli-illastrated  volume  in  place  "of  the  small  quarterlies  in  paper 
backs.  We  have  a  book  now  that  compares  favourably  with 
American  books,  and  is  really  an  ornament  to  a  library.  The  old 
blue  paper  backs  had  either  to  be  rebound  or  else  relegated  to 
a  b?ick  shelf.  We  also  think  facts  are  so  much  better  conveyed 
by  the  u.se  of  good  engravings  rather  than  by  the  best  letter- 
press. 
The  volume  opens  with  a  poi’trait  and  short  memoir  of  His 
Grace  the  sixth  Duke  of  Richmond  and  Gordon,  who  was  asso¬ 
ciated  with  the  society  as  far  back  as  June,  1838,  when  that 
society  was  only  six  weeks  old. 
In  1879  the  Duke  was  chosen  chairman  of  the  Royal  Commi.s- 
sion  on  Agriculture.  He  was  also  deeply  interested  in  the 
Administration  of  the  Contagious  Diseases  (Animals)  Act.  He 
thoroughly  re-organised  the  veterinary  department,  placing  Sir 
George  Brown  at  the  head.  In  fact,  in  every  subject  that 
appertained  to  agriculture  he  took  a  lively  and  very  active 
interest — an  interest  not  confined  to  words,  but  manifested  in 
deeds.  Peace  to  his  a.shes. 
There  is  one  journal  that  often  comes  under  our  notice  pub¬ 
lished  in  the  northern  capital  of  our  island.  That  weekly 
devotes  a  considerable  space  to  forestry,  and  wisely  so,  for  we 
know  of  no  estates  into  which  woodland  is  not  largely  a  com¬ 
ponent  part.  Indeed,  on  well  managed  properties  the  wood¬ 
land  area  provides  some  comfortable  as.sets.  We  have  in  our 
mind  just  now  one  wise  landlord  who,  instead  of  letting  some 
moderate  land  at  nominal  rents,  is  gradually  planting  it  up 
most  scientifically.  Possibly  be  will  not  reap  much  benefit 
during  his  lifetime  (we  hope  he  will,  for  he’s  a  real  good  sort), 
but  the  heir  will  be  materially  enriched.  We  have  lived  in 
districts  where  forestry  was  practised  as  a  fine  art,  and  we 
thoroughly  appreciate  the  paper  by  C.  E.  Curtis  on  “The 
Management  and  Planting 'of  British  Woodlands.”  The  plates 
thoroughly  illustrate  the  subject,  and  are  beautiful  in  them¬ 
selves,  even  if  taken  without  the  accompanying  letterpress.  This 
article  is  followed  by  one  on  the  conversion  of  home-grown 
timber— a  very  suitable  conjunction.  To  those  of  us  who  do  not 
possess  more  timber  than  is  to  be  found  in  the  farm  orchard 
these  papers  are  most  interesting.  Who  knows  what  we  may 
possess  some  day  ? 
Then  follows  a  most  exhairstive  article  on  the  manuring  of 
grass  lands  at  Rothamsted.  That  grass  lands  require  manurial 
treatment  other  than  what  they  receive  from  grazing  stock  is 
now  a  generally  accepted  fact ;  but,  like  many  other  facts,  is 
more  ignored  than  it  should  be.  All  the  manures  are  saved  for 
the  arable  except  by  those  far-seeing  men  ivho  know  how  to 
value  and  how  to  foster  good  grass,  _  The  writer  has  carefully 
tabulated  the  conclusions  arrived  at  at  Rothamsted,  and  for 
brevity  and  conciseness  ive  cannot  ,do  better  than  quote  him 
verbatim  : — 
“  1.  It  is  preferable  to  hay  the  same  piece  of  land  everv 
year,  using  a  suitable  manure,  than  to  graze  and  hav  alter¬ 
nately,  trusting  to  the  food  supplied  to  the  stock  for  the'manur- 
ing  of  the  hay. 
.  “2.  Grass  land,  e.specially  on  light  soils,  is  much  benefited 
by  an  occasional  dressing  of  farmvard  manure — once  everv  four 
or  five  years  will  be  sufficient.  ‘ 
“3.  The  manure  for  hay  should  be  mainly  nitrogenous  for 
pastures  chiefly,  potassic  phosphatic  manures  being  needed  in 
both  cases. 
“4.  An  occasional  liming  will  be  of  great  value  to  restore 
the  neutrality  of  the  soil,  and  prevent  the  development  of 
characteristic  ‘  sourland  weeds  like  Sorrel.  The  lime  will  also 
bring  into  action  manurial  residues,  potash  in  particular,  that 
would  be  otherwise  wasted. 
,  j  \  One-sided  manuring  with  a  single  comstitiient  of  a  plant 
food,  however  valuable  at  first,  will,  if  persisted  in,  reduce  the 
land  to  a  very  impoverished  condition.” 
The  Royal  Society  has  had  like  experiments  tried  in  various 
parts  of  the  kingdom — the  plots  were  of  the  poorest  kind  of 
pa.stures.  In  mo.st  cases  the  predominant  grass  was  bent  grass 
or  twitch  (Yorkshire  fog),  and  in  many  cases  weeds  predominated 
over  pa.sture. 
In  rnost  ca.se.s,  says  the  article,  the  best  effect  was  produced  by 
basic  slag,  the  exceptions  being  light  sandy  loam.  Cheshire, 
sandy  soil-  Lincoln,  stiff  loam  with  limestone  near  the  sur¬ 
face.  Where  the  basic  slag  did  not  answer,  lime  produced  im¬ 
provement.  Bonemeal  was  useless.  Dung  made  the  crop  coarse. 
Basic  slag,  as  a  rule,  increased  the  clover.  Superphosphate  in 
some  places  gave  results  equal  to  slag. 
“  Pa.stures  that  are  on  stiff  soils,  deficient  in  phosphoric  acid 
and  carbonate  of  lime,  respond  readily  to  fairly  heavy  dressings 
of  basic  slag,  6cwts  to  lOcwts  per  acre,  and  in  a  less  degree  to 
liming.  The  basic  slag  starts  a  free  growth  of  white  clover,  and 
crowd.s  out  the  weeds.” 
At  Cockle  Park,  Northumberland,  many  experiments  have 
been  carried  out  since  1897  to  demonstrate  which  are  the  best 
manures  to  increase  the  quantity  and  quality  of  hay  from  old 
meadow  land.  Time  fails  us  to  go  fully  into  particulars,  but 
the  experiments  were  most  exhaustive,  and  to  most  minds  most 
•oonvuicing. 
Mr.  Hall,  the  writer  of  the  papers,  sums  up  in  short  para¬ 
graphs  the  principal  features  of  the  various  experiments,  and 
one  or  two  of  the  remarks  we  will  quote ;  — 
“  On  poor  land  any  large  expenditure  on  manures  will  be 
wasted,  the  character  of  the  herbage  must  be  slowly  reformed, 
A  full  manuring  is  only  utilised  where  there  are  plenty  of 
strong  and  vigorous  gras.ses  and  clovers  among  the  vegetation.” 
“  For  the  production  of  hay.  On  strong  loams,  with  a  good 
mixed  herbage,  a  dre.ssing  of  10  to  15  tons  of  farmyard  manure 
should  be  given  every  fifth  year.  In  other  years  a  winter 
manuring  (January,  February)  of  2cwt  per  acre  of  superphos¬ 
phates,  3cwts  kaiiiit,  with  llcwt  nitrate  of  soda  when  growth  is 
starting.  On  old  grass  land  an  occasional  dressing  of  ground 
lime  i  ton  per  acre)  applied  in  .early  winter  the  year  after  the 
application  of  dung  will  do  good.  On  strong  clays  substitute 
3cwt  or  4cwt  basic  slag  for  superphosphate,  and  reduce  or  omit 
kainit.  On  light  sanely  soils  first  irse  dung,  and  feed  on  with 
cake  until  the  herbage  is  vigorous.  Then  apply  Icwt  nitrate  of 
soda,  Icwt  superphosphate,  3cwt.  kainit.  On  poor  clay  land 
begin  with  lOcwt  basic  slag  per  acre. 
“  For  poor  pastures  on  strong  soils  use  first  year  lOcwts  basic 
slag,  nothing  for  two  years,  then  dress  every  other  year  with 
5cwts  basic  slag.  Sandy  clays  may  need  3cwt  of  kainit.  On 
good  pastures  3cwt  of  superphosphate;  3cwt  kainit  per  acre  will 
increa.se  the  feeding  value.  Here,  too,  cake  feeding  has  its 
maximum  effect.  Pastures  on  light  soils  want  potash  (kainit, 
3cwts).  Here  basic  slag  shows  no  result.  Nitrogen  is  required, 
and  Icwt  nitrate  of  soda  in  spring  will  be  repaid.”  We  wanted  to 
treat  on  various  diseases,  both  of  stock  and  crops  that  are 
found  in  this  number,  of  some  of  the  new  implements,  of  weeds 
and  poisonous  plants,  and  so  on,  but  time  fails.  We  must,  how¬ 
ever,  just  refer  to  some  pictures  representing  Apples  trees— shall 
we  say  very  much  like  the  ears  of  corn  seen  by  Pharaoh  in  his 
dream  ?  some  fine  and  promising,  others  weak,  fruitless,  and 
altogether  poor.  The  same  varieties  of  tree  planted  at  the  same 
time,  but  differently  treated  ;  one  class  kept  clear  of  grass  at  the 
root,  the  other  smothered  in  grass.  These  experimental  trees 
have  been  grown  on  the  Duke  of  Bedford’s  fruit  farm  at 
Woburn,  and  the  last  nine  years  shows  conclusive  proof  that  no 
better  way  exists  of  dwarfing  and  stimulating  trees  than  by 
allowing  them  to  become  grown  round  with  grass.  In  how 
many  orchards  that  we  know  is  sufficient  care  taken  to  keep  the 
ground  round  young  trees  carefully  cleaned?  We  do  it  a  year 
or  two,  and  then  it  is  forgotten  or  put  off  to  a  more  convenient 
season,  and  still  all  the  time  we  are  expecting  good  fruit  returns, 
or  are  inclined  to  blame  the  nurseryman  for  sending  us  poor, 
useless  stuff,  when  the  fault  is  all  our  own. 
Work  on  the  Home  Farm. 
Notwithstanding  occasional  cold  showers,  the  weather  is  now 
more  spring-like,  and,  although  the  tilth  is  not  all  we  could  wish, 
yet  fair  progress  is  being  made  with  spring  sowing.  Oats  are 
going  in  well,  but  we  should  like  to  see  a  little  dust  behind  the 
barley  drill.  That  a  peck  of  March  dust  is  worth  a  king’s 
ransom  must  have  been  very  well  illustrated  this  year,  for  it 
has  been  as  scarce  on  the  farms  as  gold  ha,s  been  in  the  purse. 
Although  we  are  able  to  sow  under  fair  conditions,  it  is  not 
so  everywhere.  We  yesterday  attended  a  sale  in  a  high,  cold 
district^  and  during  a  20-mile  journey  saw  hardly  a  sown  field 
except  during  the  first  two  or  three  miles.  Ploughing  turnip 
land  appeared  to  be  the  chief  occupation,  and  very  sticky  the 
land  appeared  to  be.  We  saw  very  little  wheat,  and  what 
there  was  appeared  backward  and  patchy.  We  said  lately 
that  the  wheat  crop  would  be  the  smallest  on  record,  and  every¬ 
thing  we  have  seen  since  bears  out  the  correctness  of  that 
opinion.  .  .  .  ,  .  i 
We  have  dragged  over  our  prospective  mangold  patch  witli 
the  spring  tooth  cultivator,  and  pulled  out  sundry  pieces  of  fat 
twitch.  This  we  shall  get  off  as  soon  as  possible,  and  leave  the 
land  as  it  is  until  we  ridge  and  manure  it  in  about  three  weeks’ 
time.  Having  somewhat  failed  in  our  attempts  at  mangold¬ 
growing,  we  naturally  take  extra  care  this  year  to  ensure  a 
^^^Tfiiis  is  the  time  for  drilling  spring  cabbage,  but  the  land  is 
not  drv  enough,  and  a  week  later  w'ill  do.  Autumn  cabbages 
have  stood  the  winter  well,  where  hares  and  rabbits  have 
allowed  them  to  do  so,  and  they  are  ready  for  horse-hoeing  and 
cleaning.  They  are  healthy  but  rather  backward,  and  wdll  not 
be  ready  for  use  until  late  in  July.  We  shall  give  them  a 
dressing  of  6  to  8  cwt.  per  acre  of  household  soot.  We  have 
tried  other  artificials,  but  have  found  nothing  to  beat  thq,t  ^r 
cabbages.  W^e  are  sowing  our  small  seeds  after  the  drill.  By 
waiting  until  the  barley  is  up  we  should  risk  our  clover  plant, 
which  we  prefer  to  make  a  certainty  of. 
The  lambing  is  nearly  over,  and  is  satisfactory.  Good  lamb 
is  scarce,  and  makes  a  good  price  ;  but  ewes  with  strong  singles 
are  not  so  dear  as  they  were,  whilst  we  have  seen  useful  pairs 
sold  for  60s  for  the  three  lives.  They  must  be  a  good  invest¬ 
ment,  with  such  a  good  prospect  for  summer  keep.  Entire 
horses  arc  commencing  their  rouir’s.  >o  foals  here  yet. 
