New York State College of Agriculture At Cornell University Ithaca, N. Y. Library Cornell University Library S 414.M88 186r " The farmer's calendar, describing the wor 0* 3 1924 001 166 283 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924001166283 CARSON'S ORIGINAL ANTI-CORROSION PAINT (Patronised by the QUEEN, And 7,000 and upwards of the Nobility and Gentry) FOR EVERY DESCRIPTION OF OUT-DOOR WORK, TRADE MARK. IRON, BRICK, lBMANLJFACTUREDJjjj]r~H]j| UlWALTEH zk ?5 w J§8mBgSffl STONE, AND WO O D, ENTERED AT STATIONERS HALL. C O M P O. ANY PERSON CAN LAY IT ON. 2 cwt. Free to any Station in Great Britain and Ireland. DETAILED PARTIODLABS, WITH Prices, Testimonials, and Pattern Cards, Post Free on application. PREPARED OIL-MIXTURE FOR THE ANTI-CORROSION. OILS, TURPENTINE. AND BRUSHES. TARNISHES, BOTE FOB OUTSIDE AND INSIDE PURPOSES. The Original Anti-Corrosion Paint can only be obtained of WALTER CARSON AND SONS, LA BELLE SAUSAGE YARD, LUDGATE HILL, LONDON. E.G., And 21, BACHELOR'S WALK, DUBLIN. CATJTION.— All Casks bear the Trade Mark, or are not Genuine. FARMER'S CALEND DESCBIBING THE WORK TO BE DONE ON VARIOUS KINDS OP FA DURING EVERY MONTH IN THE YEAR. BY JOHN CHALMERS MORTON, EDITOE OF ' THE AGBICULTUEAL GAZETTE," '* CYOLOP-fflDIA OF AGEICULTUBE,' "new pabmeb'b ALMANACK," fcTC. (2.\£o>3 LONDON : SAVIIX, EDWARDS AND CO., PRINTERS, CHANDOS STREET, COVENT GARDEN. TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAOBS Calendar for January 1 — 61 „ February .;.... 61—126 „ March 126—178 „ „ April 179 — 251 „ May 251—290 „ „ June 290—352 „ „ July 353—394 „ August 394—429 „ „ September 429 — 509 „ „ October 509—573 „ „ November 574 — 607 „ „ December 607 — 620 *»* For Index, see end of Volume. LIST OF ILLUSTBATIONS. PAGES Barley, sorts of 143, 144 Clover, sorts of 424, 425 Drainage outfalls 6 „ plans of 14, 15 section 25 wells 19 Faem Buildings : — Colesbill 77, 78 Englefield 89 Flemish Farm 90, 91 Haines hill 85, 86, 87 Kirtlington 93, 94 North Down Hall 75 Swanstone 83 A List of Illustrations. Grasses Grubber, Bentall's „ Coleman's „ Tennant's Harrow, rotating Hay-tedder Horse-hoe, Busby's „ Garrett's Horse-rake Mangold Wurzels, so>'ts of Mowing machine, Burgess and Key's „ „ Wood's Oats, sorts of Paring plough (Snowdon) Plough, Hancock's pulverizing „ Hornsby's „ Howard's „ Mid Lothian „ Bansome's „ Wilkie's Potatoe, sorts of Beapiug machine, Burgess and Key's „ „ Cuthbert's „ „ Wood's Shed-feeding Steam-plough, Fowler's „ „ Howard's Turnips, sorts of Wheats sorts of PAOE9 552, 554, 555, 557 302 302 303 298 323 3S5 281 323 228 315 315 147, 148, 149 260 296 294 293, 295 293 293, 294 294 223 371 372 372 82 609 611 230, 232 53S, 540, 542, 543, 546 PREFACE. The principal difference between farm practice now and in 1862, when the last edition of this book was published, lies in the present more general employment of the steam cultivator, and the reaping and mowing machine. That part of the Farmer's Calendar, therefore, which referred to those two subjects has been to a great extent re-written. The whole work has also been carefully read and corrected: the intro- duction, it will be seen, is republished ; and in accordance with the feeling expressed in the first paragraph of it, the name of Arthur Young has been removed from the title-page. His book, of which the twenty-fourth edition was published thirty years ago, did indeed little more than suggest the form in which the present publication has been issued. London, September, 1869. INTRODUCTION TO THE EDITION OF 1862. So much of the original work has been cancelled in this edition of it, that the editor has to apologize for his title-page. The serial publication of the book was begun before he had realized how much of the " Farmer's Calendar," written more than half a century ago, is obsolete. And the name of Arthur Toung has been thus un- wittingly committed to an almost entirely new book, not one twen- tieth part of which is his authorship. During the quarter of a century which has elapsed since the last edition of his work, agriculture has benefited by scientific research, by mechanical ingenuity, by extended resources, and by increasing skill, vastly more than during any similar period in our history. Fertility has been increased by the operation of new processes, and of new implements ; by the importation and the manufacture of new manures ; by the cultivation of new plants ; and by the main- tenance of a larger stock of improved animals. National Societies have stimulated and directed improvements, by publishing both failures and successes ; and there are now, from agriculturists and from scientific men, abundant records and satisfactory explanations of every branch and kind of agricultural experience. No wonder that any attempt to describe the practice and experience of the farmer now-a-day should force one almost entirely out of the track pursued by the agricultural writer of a previous generation. Besides abandoning most of what Arthur Toung had written for the guidance of the farmer fifty years ago, the plan of his work, generally adhered to, has been so far altered as to admit one new feature of considerable importance. Farm practice depends on climate and the weather more than on any other thing whatever. Great pains have been therefore taken to present in as condensed and compendious vi Introduction. a form as possible weather tables of the different months at many different stations in the United Kingdom. Eeaders can thus deter- mine how far the practice of One locality may be advisable in another. And to further supplementary remarks on this subject this introductory statement must now, for the most part, be confined. The Climate of Great Britain. — Information on this subject has been given in the text with reference to twenty-one selected stations in England. Monthly tables of temperature and rainfall are given for each of these stations. The object has been not to furnish a work on the meteorology of England, but to give such information regarding the usual weather of a number of characteristic points as will enable the reader, wherever he may be placed, to judge of his own circumstances as enabling him to adopt any practice in farming that answers elsewhere, or to judge of those circumstances of climate elsewhere which may justify or explain peculiarities of farm management there. For these tables the editor is indebted to Mr. E. J. Lowe, of Highfleld House and Beeston Observatory, Not- tinghamshire, one of the most experienced of English meteorologists, who has undertaken the labour of collecting and correcting the immense number of observations, whose results are here compiled. The twelve monthly tables of English weather given in this volume almost explain themselves : — To take, for instance, the line in each relating to Mr. Lowe's own station : — The mean tempera- ture at Highfleld House, as given in column 1, in every table, is the average of 51 years' observations in the shade. In column 2 the lowest mean temperature of each month that has occurred in that period is recorded ; and in column 3, the highest. Column 4 gives the greatest heat in the shade ; column 5 gives the lowest maximum heat of each month during the period : column 6, the highest minimum temperature during the period. — Taking Highfleld House in the month of July for an example, the table shows that the mean temperature is 61-3°, and that it has been as high as 68-4°, and as low as 555° — a range in mean temperature of nearly 13° ; the greatest heat has reached 91° in one year, and in another it did not rise above 77° ; the greatest cold has been as low as 36-3°, and as high as 50'4° ; the average amount of rain has been 2J inches, reaching, however, in one year 4£ inches, and not exceeding f of Introduction. vii an inch in another ; the average number of rainy days has been 15, yet varying from 7 to 21 days. Climate of Scotland. — It remains to give on the same authority figures descriptive of the weather at ten stations in Scotland. The observations at Bressay are by the Rev. Z. M. Hamilton ; those at Sandwick Manse, Orkney, by the Eev. C. Clowston (the mean tem- perature given here is over thirty-four years, from 1827 to 1861) ; those at the House of Tongue are by Mr. J. Crawford, factor to the Duke of Sutherland. The observations at Stornoway are by Mr. J. Kerr, inspector of works to Sir J. Matheson, Bart. ; those at Culloden, Inverne3S-shire, are by Mr. Arthur Forbes ; those at Perth by General A. Lindsay, C.B. The observations at Lochgilp- head, are by Mr. J. Eussell ; at Edinburgh, by Mr. J". Horsburgh, for Captain Stotherd, R.E. ; at Milne-G-raden, Berwickshire, by Mr. "W. Renwick, gardener to D. Milne Home, Esq. ; at Drum- lanrig, by Mr. J. Mcintosh, gardener to the Duke of Buccleuch. The Scotch tables being similar to those of England, require no explanation. They commence in the far north with the Shetland and Orkney Islands, and join the English stations in the South, and the Irish stations in the S.W. In Scotland the observations (with the exception of those in Orkney) are of five and six years' dura- tion, extending from 1856 to 1861. When consulting these returns it is necessary to remember that height above the sea gives a greater or less temperature. The British Association balloon ex- periments prove that a diminution of 1° Fahrenheit takes place with every increase of 276 feet elevation, and that this law is suffi- ciently accurate for all elevations in Great Britain or Ireland. Thus, taking October as example, at Culloden the mean temperature is recorded 46'7° ; at Braemar, near it, but 1100 feet above the sea, it was 43 - 2° ; add for elevation - 5° and 4'0° respectively, and the tem- perature of Culloden becomes 47'2°, and that of Braemar also 47"2° ; the difference in the two returns being due to elevation. Returns have been sent from Braemar, by Dr. J. Cameron and Mr. J. Arthur, but it has not been possible to use them. At so great an elevation, however, they are of less interest agriculturally than as a matter of science. Observations at Otter House, Lochfine, Argyllshire, by Dr. ~W. Rankin, have also been reluctantly omitted. c H u d U P"i«>eocoib4-i-^iaa O U3 -^ ^ -? Ol CI r? iH C« 03 RSSSS «o-*opt»©oooo nab t-ooos CO W CO r io -t< ic in -if February. ■*oi>oooeo'*»ou5t» 13 o >o >o ia us » QO eppOC'leSlr-l'3'OOSO HoocoeoGococococococo ■*t>«3Oi'*(ni>osa0'* NOHC0O»tst«HlO OfflOOMOOOOO 9HOONOW3SOO osaoo-floocooo March. t-j««as©co«t>.ao-* co ib u; n n n t-- h m i r4t-m^l(M0t>O0p«Db. ooooooowoo NNOOaOiO^^N tpoooin^cciifljoo CSipuJCDOtOCDIMCDH a0^l&>ii3^l>.iheb^tCO eococoeoeocococococo H^ooooonoo OOOOrlOOMOO ©^ooesjt-^i^nQinto rococo co co eo co t? eo co « ft£3 o i ^ ■^icDaoi>.0'*i>F-ios iHrtpipt-rtXt^pCO ^? CO CO CO CO -^ CO CO CO CO rHNCOffqUSOSCqiOCOiH ffiQQaONQijQH co^^co-^-"*^-^^-^ ■Sro « > s © -31 « »o t- o p £ S3 'Xiimjqojg FBI rg O a" lllll •qoaBjij * E g J- April. O VfeEgg' 1-Sn « £ » J 5.9 05 O u 6 fi'g 5*0 g ■2t3 \K SS! ► as* oj n o» p 1 i H Q OS to p a> © * » S 5 - ^S ot>oocoo>l>>c^cDu3ao N®i~HN»n«eenn© N CC N I- N C3-^pt*i-<-eiO>fHW5CO oo oc m m » © c m :i 3s mooeD(Mi>.t>.01C»5mrHrHl>. roOOSOOOOOJ^OO tJCOfflOtDOOHOO RsDcococDsoc-cot-c-c*. Auguat. HNMNHHNHH« COHNCOfflOHHODM ©fc-OOt-lffiCOCO-'JOCO ONO900WONON omoomooooo OOiOOr-tOOOON September. iNOlOOt-OiNCOasfc-i- OffltDOOOOfOO oooooooooo OWOOfflifflOOOO nOHOOWOOOOO oaoooooooo OlOOOlEOOfflON cbiirHii)ooa3>bi>.iHOD J Pj « o < S £3 Pa s-e ! H o ol ©pffllSC0««3H'*S «b©c»i>owo.^6o ep-^eot~p-*t-t-iHco c 10 10 w w o icno w 5 PI 1 13 njpp©NQOt»CDNODt> eqaow3ffit>-cqoa)co(M eowffieoiM^coi-icooi fl a. a- ID c 3 all ■(OaOQDNONlO^N H io 10 ic is iq o io 10 io lo lOiOiOiOOiOiOiQiOiO 1-1 --"J r-i r-H 3 •Xpif "d s Si's K J -a | J -a bS" 111 J3 •^euSny ■jeqaiajdegj a, a ■ Hs.s & a e f-i CO 3§l a ■ » S.9 312 11*8 \m 118 is m S 2. October. i>^Jir- P^ TJ1 TJ1 Tji Tjl Tjl TJ1 TJt Tjl TJ1 TJ1 KlS!lTlrua^HI>COiHG30Cft H ^? ^S ^ ^ ^? ^" ^? ^n ^P ~^r 0*fIOCOrHCiOSl>i>i-t OOOOeoOOr-lOO o oo o o oo oo icro © -coeD-?t-p(?5 December. r-> f ICBOOinCOCOOOOSCT ONOO^NOCDfflO "pylpOOb-C'IOOOSOOlS 0909000COOC 400WOOOON ooooooot>oo CDCDIAUSIM^NffiOn i? $ i? $ $ 9 £9 $ is i$ t-eo^osiot-osopao cococococoeoeomcoeo ■3 .►dm IsIs 1*2 if -A a O ■J9q(40() 'J9qni9Ao^[ •jaqraaoad Xll Introduction. Climate of Ireland.— It remains now to give such a representa- tion as is possible, in a similar way, of the climate of Ireland. In 1851, the Council of the Eoyal Irish Academy had meteorological observations taken in a number of selected localities, which were submitted to the Eev. H. Lloyd, who several years ago published a paper on the subject. Through the kindness of the author it has been possible to give the result of these observations, in two tables ; and in order to increase their value, tables of temperature at Armagh, Dublin, and Limerick have been added. The editor is also indebted, through Mr. Lowe, to the Eev. Dr. Eobinson for 17 years' observations at Armagh ; and to Colonel Sir Henry James, E.E., E.E.S., Superintendent of the Ordnance Survey, for 18 years' observations made at Dublin, and for 7 years' observations at Lime- rick ; the former under the superintendence of Lieut.-Colonel Larcom, E.E., and Captain Cameron, E.E., and the latter under Lieut.-Colonel Stotherd, E.E. These, on comparison with corre- sponding figures in the other tables, will, sufficiently show how very different is the climate of Ireland from that of England. Temperature. Jan. Feb. Mar. April. May. June. July. Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. Armagh. Deg. Deg. Deg. Deg. Deg. Deg. Deg. Deg. Deg. Deg. Deg. Deg. Greatest heat ... 62-8 527 55-6 62-7 69-1 74-4 74-8 73-1 68-5 61-9 65-7 64-0 Lowest max. „ . 34-4 361 39-3 45-3 50-3 66'3 60-0 58-4 53-8 45-9 38-5 35-3 25-4 26-2 27-2 32-4 34-3 43-6 46-5 45-6 41-2 34-2 28-8 25-2 Highest min. ... 44'3 44'4 45-5 48-8 53-0 58'4 69-6 69'7 66-4 637 49-3 45-4 Dublin. Highest mean ... 45-2 45-2 46'5 49-1 65-0 61-3 61-3 59-6 66-7 62-5 48-0 48-1 Lowest mean . 36-2 369 37-5 39-6 47-7 53-3 554 64-3 61-0 45-1 40-0 36-1 Range in mean. 9-0 8-3 9-0 9-5 7-3 8-0 5-9 6-3 6-7 7-4 8-0 12-0 Average mean . 40-5 41-1 42-3 45-5 50-8 55-5 58-2 57-2 63'8 43'7 44'5 42-8 Greatest heat . 67-5 58-5 61-1 71-0 75-3 80-0 79-8 77-0 77-0 67'0 630 599 48-6 49-0 61-0 67-6 61-5 66-0 65-6 68-5 65-5 58-9 61-6 47-0 Phcenix Park : 13-8 12-5 21-0 28-0 27-5 38-3 40-0 38-5 32-5 27-0 24-6 20-0 Highest min. . 30-5 330 33*5 38-0 46-0 49-0 51-0 52-0 45-0 43-5 35-0 330 LlMBBICK. Highest mean . 43'8 43-1 47-2 50-6 B4'0 63-4 59-7 60-8 65-8 48'0 47-6 439 Lowest mean . 38-2 40-1 42-3 46'0 62-1 66-5 66'1 66-9 52-2 48-9 43'4 39 6 Range in mean. 66 3-0 4-9 4'6 1-9 6-9 36 3'9 3-6 1-1 4-2 4-3 Average mean . Greatest heat . 56-0 66-0 62-0 70-0 76-5 83'0 74-5 78-5 70-0 60-0 68-6 55-0 51-5 52'0 64-0 65-0 70-0 695 68-6 69-0 67'5 68-0 63-0 52'5 23-3 26-5 2B-5 31-0 35-0 46-0 48-0 45-6 42.0 30-0 28-0 27-5 Highest min. . 33-0 82'0 37-6 40-0 42-0 60'0 61-0 62-0 48-0 3S-5 35-6 300 (pl-^oeocoeDNI>eoeo'^'eoos«p«7 , m « os « o n 9 ^s ct n © « 10 -fi w NaNnnQUjSH&ascqnosN eOCONOTOTT& ; *e«eSINWCOCO»Q-* nit»e0TP00«N0DepC0W'Hi7i«OO p'*CD9©OaiMM , *MCN«lQN iNOM'fflipNtpOHi'lOrHNHCO W»M HHNOOWHOHHNW' Piowiomofiiniotninioioir' ?ss h n oo ia in ^ wj n b f i ^ -fi « k a HOCO«OMHTiQNOtnHHN(0 COCO«CONCOtsOCNODN7jmCrO m>n9OHHCDC0(MMNinHC0(MN HtQiOiOiQtQiQlQCDiQiQlOtQCDtOCO os^Ncocn«cpia.fr-aoi>v5co C1MctC1COkeOCOCNcVl(?aeS)«*lU3'^> niaiaiawiowajwixpajaio oioioininu;ioioioiniooioinin ON USOO-^leOi-liHinr ?0 OOHOONWC ^iflioioiQiniooio' o in s on a 9 "(• ^ffliH^MCOOOr-lTptfJO'^iaOS Ui«X'H9NnN(DCpO!»in«WO H "^ ^f "^ "^ ^1 CO ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ tp ^ ^* ^osipyoooi'^iioipasoit-Ciost'- Seoo^esit-osoo'^oseDiMoo r-(CSlrHCOiHr-ICCOeOf-(SDlO»-l fflH CI CI ft o a M g w :M°i ifc'M is* :gi.- :■§ g. : o o :MO :3M iWfl g % I :: :M*ri § go i %%y& H? J in I o>- «^HNOO^«N CO CO CO GO COCO CM 1-1 CO CO CO CO (N (M N CN H -cp •gcOCO"^ CO -^"* CO r-( CO CO CO CO OO-^WCOrHCOTflCOlO S * 2 S « a o mONH CO CO CO t» COCO Cp "^ CO COWi^WOseOCpCOCO Oj-f O O O OO O CO O O O OOOOOOOOO bo a d ill <] a o »K)OtD CO COCO CO H CO !>• OS 1— I OJ>«C0C0C0»£S01r-iC!S CJCOrflCO CO COCO i-H i-li-t CO i-t CO CO CO CO r-( r-l CO 1— I CO CO So o 000 o 00 w 100 th o © Oirtooooocooco H OOCO O COCO 00 WO O p Ip CpOOIfJlOO^Offl n4hh co co*-- ai r* co co 6> HcboSiioAioicSw COCOCO CO COCO CO co-o CO CO CN cogocococococococo Jib ONW O COCO -* *■* O CO O W O^OOWOTHCOCO 00 w to o o IQOOIOOKJOON 6 »? .■as a to COW O) otp (O to WCOrHCOCOj-lr-lt-i r-i CO ^ *>• W CO !>. CO *"- Oi Ilia 3 B Js COCOCO t- w co CO NO o CO CO CO CUO CO O CO CO"*t-C0^-COC0cbt-- COCO CO COCO CO CO CO cococococococococo fill CO CO CO **H HIM -* CO J>- 7-H O W CO CO 00 WO O tD CO © CO "^ 1— ( CO OO) CO GO OS Oi i>- CO OSCOOSCOOOi— ICOOOCO ^-^■^ ** "* CO CO COCO CO CO CO COCOCOCOCO-*COCOCO 02 : p£§ P P§ 0) Q> m g L-3 d. a cwt. for turnips or mangold- wurzel, Qd. a cwt. for carrots and clover, and without charge for straw. Where an asterisk (*) is attached to any item, it is to be understood that the corn has been bruised or ground, or the hay or straw has been cut into chaff ; where a dagger (t) is appended, the article so marked has been boiled or steamed ; a mark of inter- rogation (?) indicates that the result so marked is uncertain, owing to some indefiniteness in the account given. The prices adopted in calculating the cost of food are the market prices of the grain con- sumed ; and in the cases of the hay and green food, the value which it is supposed they might produce if given to other kinds of live stouk on the farm. XI.— FENCES. This is the principal season for hedging and ditching. A farmer cannot give too much attention to the fences of his farm ; for, with- 58 Horses — Fences. [Jam. THE WEEKLY FCOD OP A FA.RM HORSE IN WINTER. I o a r^'co O O CD WOOOOOMO CQ ©CO CO O CO OS OS • CO CO COO *; co co os rn os -«* ©s as ia t- co r- j>- co *— os oo> o io io, cooo i u GQ il j d2 * * ~ IM * jq,o .: -a j£ ,*£ n - jo rQ -c : S S 5g^ : .§S3 5 ,S 3 3 - a : rH "XJ TJH^ IiHTl-d *& CM _ 'O "^ ^ * e3 rt *"d c3rtra *"o « «J re . * .* £ g £ £j£ ^ ^ TJ T3-3 « « d d tj ■a § CO 05 Ph M a CO fl .S^ : : S«|rt g'rn i S : ; ^- . — r -^ o^q Ecq ■ £eq : :« ^ n : Eh O O M -Sco'S^ *- CO CO IM •g J OH - co cooo cm ■»# ^ ma m* : ^ wa y-t : rH ; J jg '-a * — * * • ^ (Nj3 O (M MO !CD ; CO rH ^ ^ co ^ ; iq rH ^™ rH i-H •* I-H § 1 S3 "a o So _ < t » 4 p * p c 1 c * 1 rH* G a s J p o lO GO *-< « O CQ f £ J H S "p J3 £ ►i 1 IS s c "5 g ul e o £ o i 'o „ < 102 •- tT c 4> C •ga 43 Wt CO TJ .O rt3 » CQ -fl O 4 CQ ■- •■a 4 J , c c _ Q c a o a £ X a. « TJ O P Ph E-i "a ."S $ g ^3 O O E « 1 P Q. C K f- P J ■s 1 w c 4 I -t C a r- 1 " X PC " s c P- i m 1 s 8 * H P| s • ^ 4 § § P-9 IS PC > . 1 * a c i i < ' I j •- 2 n ^C 'o c 1 i -^ 1 a) d ,H CNI CO "^ IQtONOOOlOH CM CO -<* »CS CO I—CO OS O rH *»•] Fences. 59 of all the dead wood, brambles, and other irregularly-growing rub- bish, leaving along the top of the bank the straightest and best- growing stems of thorns, hazel, elm, oak, ash, sallow, beech, &c, about five or six in a yard ; but if there are any gaps or places thin of live wood, on each side of such places they leave the more. When this work is done, they repair the ditch, which I should never advise to be less than three feet by two and a half, and six inches wide at bottom in the driest soils ; but in all wet or moist ones, never less than four by three, and one at bottom. All the earth that arises from the ditch is to be thrown on the bank. The men, if no bargain is made with them beforehand, will lay some of it on the brow of the ditch ; but this must not be allowed, unless the ditch earth happens to be extraordinarily rich, and to pay well for carrying it to the land, otherwise the grass of the border is spoiled, and the farmer is at the expense of carting earth which may be worth but little. "When the ditch is finished, the men begin the hedge. Such of the stems left in cutting the old hedge as they find growing in the line where the new hedge is to run, they cut off three feet from the top of the bank, to serve as hedge-stakes to the new hedge. These stakes being immovable, and never rotting, keep up the new hedge, so that it never falls, or leans either way. In the next place, they drive in their dead hedge-stakes where wanted. The hedgers then plash down the remainder of the live wood left standing. They cut the stick twice, one stroke near the ground, and the other about ten or twelve inches higher, and just deep enough to slit out a part of the wood between the two, leaving the stem supported by little more than a quarter of its first size. It is then laid along the top of the bank and weaved among the hedge-stakes. All are served thus ; and, where they are not thick enough to finish the hedge, dead thorns are wove among them ; then the top of the hedge is " eddered" in the common manner. The fence thus made consists of a good ditch and a hedge most parts of which are alive ; that is, the stakes and much of the wood woven between them. This management insures a lasting fence ; whereas the hedges that are all dead, presently rot and fall into the ditch. Those farmers who live in counties that know nothing of the plashing method, cannot give too much attention to teaching it to their men. The best way is, to send for a labourer from "Warwick- shire, who, in one season, will easily iutruct their regular men in the business, which they may afterwards perform without difficulty. — The above instructions are left nearly as they were revised by Arthur Young forty years ago ; but it is right to add that the use of hedge-side ditches on well-drained lands is now becoming obsolete ; and thorns, like other plants, grow best on land through which on both sides of them they can send their roots. A young fence protected otherwise than by a ditch on one side of it when 60 Woodland. [Jan. young grows better on well-drained land than one planted on the top of a bank and ditch; and when strong enough to serve its pur- pose, it is to be kept in form by a proper annual pruning, which will dispense with the need of pleaching so as to cover blanks and reduce irregular growth. XII— WOODLAND. This month is generally a busy one in felling copse : the men who do the work are commonly paid by measure, or tale. In some districts the falls are only cut and laid in rows, and sold in that manner by the rood ; in others, the farmer converts the stuff to its proper use, and sorts it into faggots, poles, hoop-stuff, or hurdles : and this, I believe, will generally prove the most profitable way. In cutting woods there is one point much disputed, which is, the number of years' growth at which to cut. Customs vary from nine years to twenty-seven, but generally about twelve or fourteen. I have seen many woods, in cutting which one stem on a stool was left, to be of a double age at next cutting, in order to have some large wood in each fall. The question is, whether such stems draw from the root so much nourishment as to lessen the young growth as much as the large shoots amount to ? From viewing such woods, I have observed, that the part of twelve years' growth, among which were some stems twenty-four years old, was as good as others, where the whole was only twelve. If so, the additional growth is nearly all profit ; but if not, it certainly makes the wood when cut more saleable, and applicable to more purposes. In the beech woods of Buckinghamshire, this system has been carried exceedingly far ; for they are not cut till of thirty or forty years' growth ; the consequence of which is, they are destroyed as underwood, and nothing appears but single stems, which are succes- sions of young trees. The way of cutting them is not by falls, as in common woods, but by singling out, every year, the largest of the trees, and cutting enough of them to pay 12s., 15s., or 20s per acre, per annum, according to the goodness of the wood. These trees, though some of them when cut would more than measure as timber, are all sawn into lengths of four feet, or thereabouts, and rived into billets for fire-wood, for the London market, being conveyed there by the Thames. Good beech woods, upon this system, will pay 20s. an acre, clear of expenses, which is more than underwood would pay upon the same soil. I believe it will generally be found, that the older the growth, the greater will be the profit. At twelve years' growth of ash, the land must be very good to have a crop of hop-poles ; but at twenty years' growth, you will have very fine ones, and pay yourself much better than by the younger growth. Some woods are so very wet that the ash, hazel, hornbeam, aud Feb.] The Work of February. 61 oak stubs will not thrive ; in that case, the sallow and willow should be multiplied, or the wood drained, which is a practice coming into more general use in hop-pole and other plantations. Lest February should prove a forward month, ash timber had better be felled in January than delayed longer : this is upon the supposi- tion that the farmer occupies his own land, and employs a wheel- wright constantly, which I have found to be a cheaper plan than employing others in the common way. If elm abounds on the farm, this is the season to fell that also. Planting may be carried on and should be finished during this month. Whatever pruning deciduous timber trees require should be completed in January. Osiers may be cut in January. The planting of new beds may also be done this month. The sets are simply two or three feet cuts of wood of two or three years' growth, pushed right side down ten or twelve inches deep in any river-side land deeply dug in autumn, in which they are planted, in yard-wide rows, and at in- tervals of a couple of feet. Hop grounds give work this month in throwing and sorting the poles, in cutting underwood and pole plantations, occasionally in trenching operations, and in the preparation of manure. Orchards should be pruned in December and January, and pre- parations may soon be made for grafting by cutting back the line to be grafted, and by cutting grafts which may be stuck in a damp and shaded border until required for use. FEBRUARY. The ordinary weather of this month is described by the figures in the meteorological table on next page, which are descriptive of the temperature and rainfall of a number of English stations. February is more variable from year to year than any other month. Sometimes an early spring time, and in other years " February fill dyke," it is the ficklest of the twelve. Besides the ordinary operations of the farm, other subjects may properly engage the attention of the farmer in early spring time. Thus, (1) the Belations of Landlord and Tenant deserve his study before the Lady-day period of entry ; for if he be not now in the occupation of a farm, he is no doubt seeking one. — (2) The Erection of Farm Buildings, for which plans have been matured and materials have been gathered during the winter months, may be commenced as soon as possible after the frost has left us. 1 No. of years' obser- vations. CO CO CO CO ^n HHOJCC^ONOJH© rH r-1 rH r-i r-1 rH rH r-i reatest umber * rainy days. ■^ IO © CO tH -*# © ITS W5 | CM CM J> p ro - ™ P ^ b CM *-* lO i-H r-i CO H OH 1Q CO ^* CO "^K OS rH CO "^* OS © 1 L-^* CD lO OS CO CO CO **- CM CD OSOS>OCMW5©CO-^CO CM CM r-i CM r-i r-i CO ^n CO CMCOrH^CMCO^-^CM C5 . *>. OS !>■ r-i CO rH 1-" i>-J>. OS CO eo >*J>.OSrHCD©t>.t~-rH CM r-i rH CM i-H !-« rH l-H r-i r-i r-t r- r-i Highest mini- mum cold. O O O O id CO t— ia © co © ^* OOOOIO^OHJON O CO (M -* CM CO © os © J>. OS t- HQOOSOJOOcCHtO -* CO CO CO CO CM CO CM CO CM CM CM COCMCMCMCOCOCMCOCM Lowest maxi- mum heat. woto o CM *- © © © -* © *■- ©10©©0|>.-^CO»0 w«cc OS th io m cm © b» Tf OS (MCOCO©00C* lO «s -# -# •<# T^i ijl -Jl >J1 ■* CO ^'*'*COCO^>*CO'* 1L- lOOlQ o m W3 O ©1Q 00 id © ©©©©©OOCO©.-*COCOi>-l^lO wj eo « *o *d lO w iaiQ io WlOWU-JWlQlOlQlQ V o Highest mean tempe- rature. ■^ CO CO CO ■* OS t^ O © OS -* IG> ©rHJ>-©i— ICMIOITSCO CD t^. CO CO CM ■* -*M N CO CO lO-^CMi— li-iCOCMCOfM "* ■>* t* -«*l ■^ ■"* ■^ "^ "^H 'V -* ^•^-^■"ji^HTt*-^-^-^ Lowest mean tempe- rature. l£5 OO CO CD CO CN CO 00 CO © os ** CM CM -^ CM CO b- b- CO ia © r-i'-*H r-i 1ft CO CO CO CO CO CM CM CM CM CO CO CM CMCMCOCMCOCOCOCOCO Mean tempe- rature. OICOO **■ -* tH l>- CD r-t r-i CO CO ©CO^rHlC5t~~OS©{M i-l -# r- o OS J>- OS CO CO CO or OO -tf^^H T* CO CO CO CO CO CO CVJ CO COCOCOCOCOCOCOCOCO <1> - P^o m ^ 8=2 C-T3 at" "4 a Ph£ JS«*« J jg: s gdrdfgfi^r^d^ fisi a 5S MP P4 s £ C C u £ C u u % -SS t- - 0) o Hi > a w c F- a e i c c ■J 2 1 o i—l CO Worthing, Sus Clifton near Bri London Eoya Observatory Oxford .. (2 rf : ■-■ . fl : &■ ^ ft m * qj S b- 3 ° fc o X S . «• i "Slg Ot4- -e c £5 ' CO _- Feb.] Landlord and Tenant 63 Besides these, the ordinary field work may include the sowing of (3) Peas, (4) Beans, (5) Oats, Barley referred to more particularly in March, Vetches and Sainfoin, also described next month, (6) Parsnips, and the planting of Potatoes, generally done rather later in the year. In addition to these, the management of the livestock, especially of breeding (7) Cows, (8) Ewes, and (9) Swine, occupies a great deal of the attention of the farmer this month. (10) Fences may be planted in February. Irrigation, and the manuring and other management of grass land will need attending to. I.— THE RELATION OF LANDLORD AND TENANT. "Whatever it be, it ought to be defined in a written agreement between the two. The tenant would then know what to do ; and any evils in the arrangement would tend to correct themselves. Take, for instance, the case of Mr. Wetherall, of Kirkbridge, tenant of his Grace the Duke of Northumberland. He was re- quired, a few years ago, to bind himself to the performance of a number of stipulated acts of cultivation, under heavy penalties. There was nothing which the Duke of Northumberland did in re- quiring this agreement which it was not fully competent for his Grace to do. The articles on which he insisted as the only terms on which his land should be let were quite within his rights as owner; and Mr. Wetherall, his tenant, who gave up his farm rather than bind himself to their performance, had no legal grounds of complaint on account of the loss that he sustained. The policy of a relationship such as the owner then insisted on — such as the tenant then declined — is, nevertheless, a perfectly proper topic for public criticism. The impolicy of old-fashioned articles of agree- ment, handed down by copy after copy from models of a century ago, stands out boldly, and therefore usefully, when their proper fruit is borne. No tenant of intelligence and resolution and ability — if he be a free agent — will undertake the cultivation of land ex- cept on conditions which permit the exercise of that judgment by which he expects his capital to yield its annual return. Any landowner may, of course, refuse to allow the growth of hemp, rape, turnip, or flax as seed crops. He may require a rent of 101. for every acre above a certain quantity which shall be in pota- toes in any one year — manured with at least twelve tons of manure to an acre. He may require 51. an acre for every acre of arable land on which more than two crops of corn shall be taken to one of fallowing. He may insist that all the dung made each year shali each year be used and spread — that a certain length of fencing shali each year be cut and scoured — that the moles and rats be all de- stroyed — that twice in every year, at proper seasons, the rushes, thistles, weeds, be mown, and whins and brambles stubbed up, wLien 64 Tenancy at Will. [Feb. shall be found growing upon the pasture fields, sides of arable land, and in the lanes and hedges adjoining the premises. And in case the premises are not repaired, the moles destroyed, and the grass grounds scaled, the hedges and fences properly cut and scoured, and the rushes, thistles, and weeds twice mown, and the whins and brambles stubbed up within two months after notice by the landlord or his agent, he may employ proper persons to do the same, the ex- pense whereof shall be paid by the tenant, to be recovered in the same way as arrears of rent. It is perfectly competent for the owner of land to require and do all this, or even to descend to still greater detail, and enforce his own mode of cultivation with minuter particularity — connecting every departure from his rule with a severer penalty than any named in the particulars of agreement before us. But such a system produces its natural fruit when the land as its consequence falls into the hands of an inferior order of men, as to intelligence, capability, and independence. Mr. "William "Wetherall, of Kirkbridge, pointed out to his landowner that some of the con- ditions to which he was thus required to bind himself were impos- sible of fulfilment — that others were unjust when taken in con- nexion with those on which he had entered to his land. It needed no one to point out that in his case no stringency was needed to ensure good culture — that had already been exhibited. His farm but lately had received — its tenant from its owner — the premium as the best cultivated in the district. The dismissal of such men is the natural consequence of attempts to enforce the observance of conditions such as have been named ; and it is an instance of self-inflicted injury on the landlord, when he insists on detailed and absurd stipulations as to cultivation in the case of land let on lease for a term of years. Tenancy at Will — Of the results of entire uncertainty of tenure, excepting only that security which custom and public opinion give, we have ample evidence in the condition of whole districts. Compare Norfolk, Lincolnshire, portions of the north of England, and great part of Scotland, on the one side, where leases, or their equiva- lent, have long been customary, with midland, southern, and western England, on the other, where leases are not customary. It is sin- gular how, in a degree which cannot be altogether explained by differences in soil or climate, the first-named districts are almost entirely arable, while the last-named are pasture. There is a vast difference between these two conditions of land, the former yielding food and employment in abundance ; the latter yielding both but scarcely. In the case of arable lands held on lease, there is an in- vestment of capital in a manner in which it is not immediately conver- tible, and this is obviously the result of that confidence which is inspired by a hold in law upon the land. In the case of pasture Feb.] The T,mse. 65 lands, which are rarely held on lenao, the mode in which the tenant's capital is invested — in live stock, which may be driven to market to-morrow — equally exhibits that want of confidence on the part of the farmer, by which he is necessarily affected, under a system which renders him at any time liable to be the victim of a whim or an accident. The Lease. — "Whether, however, the land be arable or pasture, the grant of its use for a term of years is productive of the great- est benefit to all concerned. Look at the influence of such a deed upon the landowner. Will it not make him more careful in the se- lection of his tenant, than if he were able to get rid of him by a six months' notice ? Caution of this kind would be beneficial to all classes — to tenants, landowner, and labourers— it would raise the standard of the first, secure the interests of the second, and, as good farming would be its consequence, it would insure employ- ment for the third. Look at the influence of a lease for a suffi- ciently long term of years on the farmer — if he be a man of skill and sufficient capital, he will immediately avail himself of the se- curity he enjoys, in order to invest his money in those improve- ments of the land which, though unquestionably the most profitable of any in the long run, are nevertheless somewhat dilatory in re- payment. The security of the tenant may not create good farming — his energy and intelligence must have the credit of that — but the good farming will not exist without this security ; and where tenants are possessed of the requisite energy and capital, leases should be granted to them. The whole subject is well illustrated by the following case : — On the Beeston cattle estate (Cheshire), in the possession of the late Sir Thomas Mostyn, leases were granted for terms of twenty- one years. Only two individuals out of thirteen who received these leases made use of the security and advantages thus afforded them. As to eleven out of the thirteen, we are in- formed they and their land remained alike in statu quo. Some of those men had not the necessary means of effecting material im- provements — some few were in better circumstances, and better results might have been expected. There were, however, two indi- viduals who had the good sense to set to work at once to put their land into condition — Mr. Bird, of Beeston Hall, and Mr. Jones, of Park Gate. They drained extensively, and they manured with bones at an expense altogether of from 101. to 121. per acre. Such was the change produced by management on Mr. Bird's farm, that where his predecessor made about twenty-five or thirty cwt. of cheese per annum, he made upwards of four tons, and maintained besides as much stock in horses, and young cattle unproductive of milk, as had been before maintained. Mr. Jones adopted a course of treatment similar to that of Mr. Bird. It was known 2 3? 66 Length of Lease. [Feb. ^o his neighbours, that before lie drained and boned, be kept only twenty-three cows ; his land afterwards maintained forty-six, and such of his lands as were in tillage before are in tillage still, and partake of the good management bestowed upon his grass lands. This case proves how important, in a national as well as indivi- dual point of view, would be the effect of granting leases to well- selected tenants.* Unquestionably, as it has been well put by Mr. Hoskyns, of all the " good understandings" that can subsist be- tween landlord and tenant, the best is that which is recorded in the signature to a well-drawn lease, not crammed with unnecessary or antiquated stipulations and provisions at variance with advanced science and improved practice, but simply defining the term, which should always be dependent upon the course of cultivation. Whatever number of these " courses" the lease may grant, it should expire at the expiration of the course. Should the four-course system be adopted, the term granted should be some multiple of four — eight, twelve, sixteen, or twenty years, according to the original state of the land, and the outlay of capital required and intended. On the length of term — a point of great importance to both landlord and tenant — it is the experience of Mr. Grey, of Dilston, than whom we have no better authority on the relations between landlord and tenant, that where no unusual outlay is required for improving a farm, fifteen years is a sufficient length of term for an owner to relinquish the power over his property, and for a tenant to have a fair course of crops ; and in holdings of small size, he says : — " I see no need to alter that opinion. But in offering two large farms to let last autumn, believing that tenants of large means are not willing to remove and establish themselves in concerns de- manding great capital without the prospect of lengthened occupa- tion, I offered them on leases of fifteen or twenty-one years, as parties might propose. The result was, that of ten proposals for one farm, which was eventually let at a rent of 2000/. — only three offered for both terms, and mark the difference of the offers. One for fifteen years was 1630/., but for twenty-one years 1760/., viz., 130Z. more for the longer term, during the whole lease. Another for fifteen years was 1620/., but for twenty-one years 1730/., being a difference of 110?. per annum. Another for fifteen years was 1400/., and for twenty-one years 1626Z., making the great difference of 226/. The other seven competitors offered only for a term of twenty-one years. Then, for another farm offered on the same conditions, and let for 1305/., of six parties, not one proposed for the shorter term." This shows plainly enough that all that tenants possessed of * These instances were quoted some years ago, in a lecture on this subject ty Mr. Maugham, of Dudley. Feb.] Tenant-right. 67 capital and intelligence require, is the use of the land for a long enough period of years to ensure the profitable employment of their capital. If to this there be added such an arrangement on leaving the farm as shall act as a premium on good cultivation till the very close of the term, then the relationship of landlord and tenant wilL be perfect. Tenant Bight. — But there are large districts in this country where no leases are prevalent — where the security of the tenant's residence on the estate (the permanency of his home) depends on the custom, and the character of the owner — and where the security of the tenant's capital is provided for by the observance of what are called " Tenant's rights." In Lincolnshire, where this system chiefly obtains, it has resulted in a high degree of fertility over the districts thus affected. When the tenant leaves the farm, he is allowed a certain proportion of the sums spent by him in past years in various acts of cultivation or improvement, varying in amount according to the number of years which have elapsed since the expenditure. It is plain that when the proportion thus allowed is liberal, there is every encourage- ment to a tenant to proceed with liberal farming, whether he is under notice to quit the farm or not. Mr. "Williams, agent to the Earl of Tarborough, thus described the custom of tenant right prevalent in North Lincolnshire, in the Journal of the Agricultural Society of England : — " The usual allowances in the north of Lincolnshire to outgoing tenants for unexhausted improvements are as follows : — " Bone-dust. — This is considered to last for three years, and a tenant quitting in the spring of 1861 receives therefore two- thirds of the cost of what he put on in 1860 (one-third being supposed to be exhausted by his turnip crop), and one-third of what he put on in 1859, of which he has had the benefit of the other two-thirds in the crops of that year and of 1860. " Precisely the same principle is adopted in the following improve- ments, the only difference being the number of years which each is assumed to last, and which are as follows : — " Marl or chalk, seven years. " Lime, five years. " Clay, put on sandy land, four years, and on some estates seven years, which is probably a fairer allowance. " Draining with tiles or stone, when the tenant pays the whole cost, seven years. This is, however, now a rare case, the usual practice being for the landlord to find the tiles. In this case the tenant has generally no allowance for putting them in if he has had a crop off the land, though he certainly ought to have a proportion of the cost, as it must often happen that the first crop will not pay j? 2 68 Allowances to Tenants. [Feb, for the labour of draining. It would be probably right to put this on the same footing as bones. "Draining with sods or thorns, four years. This allowance, I believe, is not always made. Indeed this mode of draining is now not much practised. "The tenant is also paid the cost price of the seeds sown the spring previous to quitting, and for the labour of sowing, &c, pro- vided they are not stocked after the 1st of November, and have not been unfairly stocked before. " "Whtin seeds are ploughed up for wheat the autumn previous to quitting, he is allowed for herbage until the end of the term ; but it is not usual to allow anything on ploughing up clover-stubble for wheat, that being considered the crop which ought to follow clover as a matter of course. " Tor naked fallow, on strong land, he is allowed for ploughing and all the labour performed, but not for rent or taxes, unless ho paid for them on entry. The cost of seed and labour on corn sown for the incoming tenant is of course always paid by the latter." " On some estates buildings are allowed for, like other improve- ments, on a term of twenty years." " In addition to these allow- ances, a fresh one for oilcake given to stock has been established on Lord Yarborough's estate. The allowance is based on the assump- tion that the manure is improved to the extent of one half the value of the oilcake consumed ; but to get a fair average as to both quan- tity and price, it is made to extend over the last two years, and the allowance is two-sixths of the cake used in the last year, and one- sixth of that used in the previous one, making together half a year's consumption." To this I add another table of allowances, adopted on some estates on the recommendation of Mr. Humberston, of Chester : — Description - or Improvement. 1. Fine ground bone and half-inch, bones 2. Bone dust and half-inch bones 3. Dissolved bones or guano 4. Lime.. 6. linseed-cake . Conditions Annexed. On drained or naturally dry Ul- lage land On dry or well-drained pasture or meadow laud, the same not being afterwards mown On dry or well-drained land On dry or well drained land Consumed on the farm Eate of Compensation to re Allowed on Quitting. Two-thirds of the cost of what has been used in the last year of tenancy, and one-third of that used in the year pre- ceding. Seven -eighths of the cost of that used in the last year of tenancy, and dimi- nishing one-eighth every previous year subsequent to the application. One-fourth of the cost of that used in the last year of tenancy for Turnips and Rape. Three-fourths of the cost of that used in the last year of tenancy, and one- fourth of that used in the preceding year. Three-fourths of the cost of that used in the last year of tenancy. The ma- nure being carefully preserved in the i'oldyard. [Feb. Allowances to Temnls. 69 Description op Improvement. Conditions Annexed. Rate op Compensation to be Allowed on Quitting. 6. Draining — land- lord finding tiles 7. Draining— tenant finding tiles 8. New buildings or walls — landlord finding materials Provided the drains are not less than three feet deep at regular distances, and cut under the superintendence of the land- lord or his agentB, and are in perfect order at the expira- tion of tenancy Same proviso as above 9. Ponds . Provided the same are done un- der the direction and approved of by the landlord or his agent, according to plan and specifi- cation previously agreed upon Same proviso as above 10. New walls or buildings — tenant finding all materials 11. New fences of hawthorn — land- lord finding posts and rails 12. Clover and Grass Same proviso as above, tenant keeping and delivering up in good repair Provided they have been pro- perly protected and cleaned Provided proper seeds have beeu sown in a husbandlike and proper manner, and have not been depastured or trod by stock Four-fifths of the expense of cutting, laying, and filling in the drains made during the last year of tenancy, and diminishing one-fifth for every crop grown on the land since it was drained. Six-sevenths of the cost of those made in the last year of the tenancy, and de- creasing one-seventh for every crop grown since it was drained. Nine-tenths of the cost of those erected in the last year of the tenancy, and de- creasing one-tenth for each year's oc- cupation after erection. Nine-tenths of the cost of those made or filled up in the last year of the tenancy, and decreasing one-tenth for each year's occupation after completion. Nineteen-twentieths of, the cost of those made in the last year of tenancy, and decreasing one-twentieth for each year's occupation after erection. Nine-tenths of the cost of those made in the last year of tenancy, and de- creasing one-tenth for each year's oc- cupation after completion. The invoice cost of seeds sown in the last year of tenancy. It is plain that there is nothing in the two systems of lease and tenant right to make them antagonistic ; they should be combined in order to the best result. The amount of rent offered for the use of land will depend upon the security, freedom, and advantages granted to the tenant. The best right which he can demand and secure for himself, when arranging the terms of his occupation, is that of peaceable possession of the land for a term of years. And, us regards the owner, obviously the best policy he can adopt is that which shall secure the permanence of the tenant-made fertility which he may then expect. The advantages of the lease to the farmer appear self-evident. The certainty of a home which it confers upon him, and the certainty cf all the investments he can make under it, are essential to the satis- factory prosecution of his business. He who, apart from the nature of the bargain, and merely on the ground of its permanence, should refuse a lease of the land he occupies, must surely either be without capital to invest, or without the spirit necessary to make it useful. The question lies between a twenty-one years' or a six. months' notice to quit. A landowner may object to the former, but that a tenant aiming at the profitable employment of farm capital should prefer the latter, is beyond comprehension. And I believe that, properly arranged, the longer term is the better for both parties ; that the more, within certain limits, that their respective positions 70 Tenant-right. t F ™' are assimilated, the more will self-interest lead each to act well for the other ; that, in fact, the longer the interest of the tenant in the land, the more earnestly will he aim at that permanence of fertility which is for the benefit of the landlord as well. There are, however, two aspects in which the lease may be con- sidered relatively to tenancy at will ; for the certainty of its termi- nation is no less influential on the farmer than the certainty of ita duration. The tenant, if it be not his interest to do otherwise, will certainly endeavour, as the known period of his lease approaches, to recover as much of his outlay as the short-sighted policy which alone it is then his interest to adopt enables. Restrictive clauses are powerless against the ingenuity of a wilful opponent : — self- interest and the sense of a just claim will hinder the expensive ap- pliances by which the fertility must have hitherto been maintained, and which, though profitable in the case of a three or four years' occupation, will never be made by a tenant under short notice to quit. And the consequence is, that in many districts the produc- tiveness of the land is intermittent : the cultivator enters upon it after it has been impoverished by his predecessor ; the first five years thereafter are a period of outlay and gradual recovery ; the next eight or nine years may be considered one of entire conva- lescence, during which the land is at its maximum fertility ; while during the rest of the term it suffers a gradual and ultimately an entire relapse. The only remedy for this state of things — that by which the owner of land may expect to maintain a tenant-made fertility throughout the lease — is the acknowledgment on his part of a liberal tenant right at the close of it. It must be made as much the farmer's in- terest to cultivate " highly" during the last as during any preceding year of his occupation. The lengthened tenancy will have insured to the owner of the land the advantages which drainage and other permanent improvements can confer, and the "tenant right" ac- knowledged at the close of it will hinder the diminution of the cur- rent fertility which, as it is the only obvious indication of the value of land, has the greatest influence on the rental offered for it. It is as much for the incoming tenant's interest to make the payment for this high current fertility of the land at once as it would he to spread it over half-a-dozen years — indeed, it is far more his interest to do this, for a longer period will remain during which he reaps the fruit of his outlay' — and the rental therefore cannot suffer on this account. Let the tenant be able to say — " I hold land for a term of years on terms which render it my interest to cultivate it highly till the last. These terms are simply the acknowledgment of my right, when the lease terminates, to the full value of all the produce of that cultivation, and to so much also of its cost as shall then remain unexhausted on the land. And the guide to the valuation Feb.] Tenant -rig fit Legislation. 71 is the document which specifies the similar valuation on behalf of my predecessor on the commencement of my tenancy. Leaving at Lady-day, I am thus insured the payment of 3s. 6d. per cubic yard for all made farm-yard manure — will not this induce abundant growth of straw in the previous year ? — and there is no better test of fertility than the growth of bulky grain crops. I am also insured the ex- penses hitherto of the young wheat crop, my entry having been at spring time, and with this, half the cost of manure and cultivation spent on the preceding root crop is to be repaid me. I am to be paid the market value of all unused straw, without liberty to move it ; and I have permission to consume my roots in the buildings up to a sufficiently late period of the year." If there be any difference, the tenant, under such circumstances, has a greater inducement tc cultivate well during the last than during any previous year of his lease. His successor will find his otherwise five-years' outlay satis- factorily condensed into a single payment on entry, and the whole period of his lease will thus be one of uniformly profitable cultiva- tion. His landlord will find that a high actual fertility is most in- fluential on the offers of rent he receives. His labourers enjoy constant work till the close of his occupation. And the country, of course, benefits by the uniform productiveness of his land. I be- lieve that the lease, as the encouragement of works for the perma- nent benefit to the land, with a " tenant right" at the close of it in reference to those acts of cultivation on which its current fertility depends, is the bond of relationship between landlord and tenant which the most effectually serves the interests of all parties. The conditions of a lease form, of course, an altogether different subject of consideration : one to which your attention will be directed before Michaelmas, which is the commonest period of entry to arable land in this country. Tenant-right Legislation. — So obvious are the advantages to all of any system which encourages the outlay of a tenant's capital on the land, that attempts have been made to secure for him by law a right to his unexhausted improvements at the end of his tenancy ; hut the subject seems fitter for private agreement than for inter- ference by legislation. In order to define what is due to an outgoing tenant, it would be necessary, according to the report on this subject, in 184S, to the Law Amendment Society, to determine not only " (1) the annual value of the land at the commencement of the tenancy, which might, perhaps, be obtained by reference to the rent, and the poor-rate assessment ; (2) not only the annual value of the land at the end of the tenancy, which would require a special valuation ; (3) not only proof of the fact that the improvements were made; (4) but also proof of the extent to which the improvements alone, as dis- tinguished from other co-operating circumstances, have affected the 72 Tenant-right Legislation. [Feb. value. JSTow, without taking into consideration the three former requisites, this last proof alone it would be almost impossible to give." Clearly the tenant has no right to the whole difference in the value of his farm at the commencement and close of his occupation. That may have arisen from the increase of population or of prices, from the improved condition of the people, from the neighbourhood of a lately constructed railroad, or from the settlement of a manufacture in its neighbourhood. Prom these causes in which the tenant has had no part, as well as from the fact that at such a date so much was spent in draining, liming, or manuring the land, has its increased value arisen ; and who is to eliminate that portion of the result due to this, which is only one of its causes ? Indeed, a great apparent increase in the intrinsic value of an estate may often arise from a comparatively inexpensive act on the part of its cultivator. Draining, liming, or subsoiling, will some- times increase the value of land far beyond the cost of the opera- tion ; but notwithstanding this, no claim can justly be made for more than this cost : its effect has been so great, not because it has added to the soil anything for which the tenant paid, but because it developed and brought into action that which though dormant there, had a pre-existenee as the property of the landowner. The most fertile soil, if blocked up with water, loses its fertility ; the roots of plants growing on it will exhaust their respective lo- calities of the food proper for them, and then linger and die ; but break up this stagnation, allow the water to circulate, as by drain- age you may, and every successive shower will prepare fresh food, and, as it passes these roots, furnish them with fresh supplies of nourishment — of nourishment, observe, not added by the tenant, but existing in the land before he came to it. The increased fer- tility cannot be claimed as the tenant's own — the warehouse was full of food before his occupancy — he was only at the expense of the key. Here, then, is a new difficulty. Who is to determine what portion of the increased value of the land is due to its culti- vator as the addition of real material at his cost, and what portion of it is a mere alteration of character, due no doubt to him as the instrument, but which he could not have effected had not the very basis of that character already existed — the landlord's property — in the soil ? The case against tenant-right legislation then is simply this : — It is impossible. It is the voluntary establishment of tenant-right that must be urged. The only period at which it can be success- fully enforced occurs in the ease of every farmer just before he, enters his farm. It is a subject proper for private agreement, not for public enactment. But what an absurdity it seems to be, speaking of enforcing this matter as against landlords, when of all the parties to the occupation of land, they would benefit the most Feb.] Farm Buildings. 73 by an agreement which should leave it in an improved con- dition. "Who has any interest in a system which induces the investment of capital in cultivation, if the landlord has none ? He of all should be the loudest in condemning unprotected tenancy at will — that miserable system on which large tracts in this country are still held — and to which, with its invariable attendants, ignorance and want of enterprise, we must attribute the bad farming which over such districts still prevails. Land is valuable just in the degree in which capital is invested in its cultivation. A mode of tenure which should induce a doubly high cultivation would double the value of an estate. Let any landlord select the best fields on each of his farms — those paying the highest rent. Are they those ori- ginally or intrinsically the most valuable — those which the geologist would point out as occupying the most favourable sites — those whose subsoils would indicate extraordinary fertility ? No — what- ever their subsoils may be, they are invariably the home grounds, where the tenant, whether he intended it or not, has been most actively at work ; those nearest the dung-heap, and whose cultivation has been the most costly. Is it not, then, the interest of the owner that his tenant should be encouraged to farm liberally and with energy ? These general remarks on the relation of landlord and tenant are offered with propriety at a period of the year when many are looking out for farms. The details of a Lady-day and a Michaelmas entry will be given in March and September respectively. II.— FAKM BUILDINGS. " On this subject," says Lord Torrington,* " I cannot do better than point the reader's attention to the buildings of the calculating manufacturer (be his occupation what it may). Observe the ar- rangement of his premises : mark how judiciously they are placed with a view to the economy of time and labour, aided by excellent machinery, so contrived and placed as to be easily accessible for all the purposes for which it may be required ; and by this combination of power, producing his goods in a short period, and at the lowest possible cost ; thus enabling him to sell at remunerating prices. "Why, I ask, may not the same objects be kept in view in the erec- tion and arrangements of farm buildings ?" This is the true point of view from which to regard this subject. Economy in the application of labour is one chief road to profitable farming. The manure made on a farm is the main stay of its fer- tility ; let it be made and provided on such a spot as that the car- * On Farm Buildings. Eidgway, Piccadilly. 74 Parts of a Farmery. > [Feb. riage of it to the various parts of the farm may be effected at the least expense of labour — this will also be the spot on which the produce of the farm, whether it be grain, roots, or hay, may he concentrated with the least labour of carriage. On this spot, then, let the farm-buildings be erected ; due regard being had to a suit- able aspect, the means of drainage, and a supply of water ; and let the various parts of the whole have such a relative position as may be compatible with the greatest economy of the labour carried on within them. Immediate conuexion should be made between the stack-yard, barn, granaries, and straw-house ; and both the last- named and the root-stores should be immediately in connexion with the feeding-stalls, the byres, stables, cattle and sheep-yards, and pigsties. The stables should be near the implement and cart or waggon-sheds, which should have a northern or eastern aspect, and over which, in order to diminish the labour of loading, it is well that the granaries be situated. Careful drainage of the stables, byres, feeding-stalls, and yards, is an essential feature in any good system of farm-buildings — the liquid manure,if not absorbed by litter, being hoarded in tanks by the stance for the manure, so that the latter may be easily soaked with the water before being removed. Let these general features of the plan be scrupulously attended to and developed on as small a space of ground as may be com- patible with easy and roomy arrangement of parts — let the ac- commodation afforded by the several parts be duly in accordance with the wants and capabilities of the farm — let the fitting-up of the several parts be according to the best methods, due regard being had, among other things, to perfect ventilation, and the result will doubtless be a great annual saving in the farm expenses, and a con- siderable addition to the farm receipts. On a farm of 400 acres, adopting the plans and estimates of Mr. Cook, of Holton Hall, Suffolk, where an excellent farmery was lately erected, these items amount to at least 100?. a year, which is 51. per cent, on 2000Z., quite enough to cover the cost of buildings for such a farm, and enough therefore to justify the outlay. The essential parts of a farmery are, (1) stabling for the farm horses ; (2) threshing barns and granary for the storage of grain ; (3) shelter for live stock. Besides these there are in all complete buildings, straw barn, house for preparation of food, and cart and implement sheds. It is on the third of the above departments of a farmery that its character will depend. Cattle are kept in yards covered or open, in stalls or in boxes. In all cases the stabling and threshing barns and granaries are somewhat alike, but the provision of accommodation for the cattle and feeding stock very materially varies. I propose to give three or four plans and drawings illustrative of as many different farmeries, and point out the merits of each. 1. The following (Eig. 8) represents) a set of buildings designed JCbb.J Mr. Blackburn's Buildings. 75 76 Mr. Blackburn's Buildings, [Feb. by Mr. Blackburn, of Northdown Hall, Margate, in -which accommo- dation for barn-fed cattle is well but expensively provided. The references to the index figures are as follows : — 1. Straw barn. 2. Threshing barn on the up- per floor. 3. Corn barn on the lower floor. 4. Cow byre. 0. Calves' hammels, or for young horses, &e. 6. X"ard for ditto. 7.7. Quadrangles, containing loose boxes for 13 beasts, with manure-pit in the cen- tre. Boxes, 10 feet by 12 feet. 8.8. Stores for turnips or other roots. 9.9. Cattle boxes for 15 beasts, as in 7,7. 10. Five loose boxes for cat- tle. Boxes 10 feet by 9 feet. 11. Six loose boxes for cattle. Do. do. 12. Loose box. 13. Hen-house. 14. Hay-house. 15. Work-horse stable. 16,16. Cart-shed. 17. Loose box. 18. Manure store. 19. Herd's store. 20. Slaughter-house. 21,21. Loose boxes. 22. Hay-house. 23. Gig and harness house. 24. Riding-horse stable. 25. Loose box. 26. Piggeries. 27. Covered liquid manure tank, holding 11,000 gallons. 28. Granary which extends to the south wall of 8. 29. Carpenter's and black- smith's shed. In addition to the above, the position of the steam-engine and boiler-house is suffi- ciently indicated by the chimney, and under that roof the steaming apparatus for preparing cattle food is also placed. This plan possesses many obvious merits. Thus the reader (who looks at it from the south-west) will see that the whole is sheltered by high buildings on the north and east : the cart and implement sheds have a dry and cool eastern exposure : the feeding-boxes are for the most part together : straw and roots are easily accessible from them : the cow-byre and calves' house, connected together, are also both of them near food and litter : the stable, detached from the rest of the buildings, is not at an inconvenient distance from the straw-house, and it is close both to hay and to the granary where the horse-corn is kept ; and if a communication be opened through the central wall of that building, it is in immediate com- munication with the implement-shed. All the private accommodation — gig-house, riding-horse stable, &c, for the farmer's use as distin- guished from that of the farm — is separate from the rest of the buildings. On the other hand, some faults are observable. One of them, is the distance of the steaming-house, where the cattle food is prepared ; this is placed near the steam-engine, no doubt to have the use of the engine-boiler ; but it would certainly be better more in the neighbourhood of the cattle-boxes and piggeries, even though a separate boiler and furnace should have to be erected for it. Another fault appears in the number of detached loose boxes scat- tered about at 12, 17, 21, and 25, which answer the purpose of filling the odd comers that would otherwise have made the place appear incomplete, but which will certainly require considerably more labour of attendance than if they had been along with the others in one complete stack. There are many farmeries, some of which are represented in other pages, in which the cattle-boxes are collected together under one roof, and they have perfectly answered their purpose. The above plan, in which one side of every box is exposed to the sun and air, is expensive of room and of building also, though probably healthier Ji " EU ' I The Coles/till tannery. 77 than where .a very large number of cattle are congregated under one root, and sutler from difficulties of ventilation. 2. In the next plan (Fig. 9) represented also in perspective in Fig-. 9.— Plan of Coleshill Farmery. -3 ::: f&C mm f : i< stiff m • '• § •V; « iiJ wHMfe llf. Hi lilt ii^ii€!^iffi*-Iiwiii If 1 a Feb.] The Coleshill Farmery. 79 Fig. 10, we have provision made for all the various methods of housing cattle. The buildings at Coleshill, Berkshire, the seat of the Earl of Eadnor, arc on the largest scale of farmeries, and confessedly in the style fitted for a nobleman's home farm. The execution, space, style and quality of ■work, and, therefore, the expense, are probably higher than the mere economy of the farm would justify. But for the principles of its arrangement, the skilful connexion of the different parts, the clever adaptation of the circumstances of the site, and the perfect adaptation of each part to its purpose, we know of few to equal it. Among its obvious merits are the ad- mirable arrangement of threshing, grinding, and cutting machinery ; the accessibility and roominess of the granaries, and their connexion with a cartway beneath ; the relation of steaming-house and food stores generally with cattle boxes and stalls ; the proper mixture of boxes, stalls, and yards — the first for fattening cattle, the second especially for stables (box feeding answering only in the case of animals continually standing on the litter), and the third for younger stock ; lastly, the sheep-yards and the sheep feeding house over a sparred and open floor, which seems specially adapted, and we might say only adapted to the case of sheep, which carry their bed-clothes continually about them, and do not suffer from so hard a mattress. The following references to the index figures on the plan will, with the assistance of the perspective drawing (Fig. 10), enable the reader fully to understand these buildings : — The barn is shown at 1, 1. 2 and 3 are the engine-house and coal-house — the power is communicated to shafting on the second-floor of the barn, from which threshing machinery and machines for winnowing, grinding, bruising, and cake-crushing are driven. From this shafting, too, turnip cutters on the lower floor of the barn are driven ; they are supplied with roots from the stores in 33, close by, which are filled from the rick- yard, which is on a higher level; and from which therefore the grain to be threshed is also easily delivered on to the second floor of the barn. 4 is the chaff-house, and 5, 6, a steaming house. Over these, and connected with the threshing floor of the barn is the granary. There is a roofed gangway be- tween the barn and the chaff-house, in which carts may be loaded from the granary : and it should be here mentioned that the second floor over 34, 35, &c, on one side of the barn, is also avail- able as storage for grain. It is plain that hitherto the arrange- ments are exceedingly convenient. The corn is brought to the ma- chine, its straw, cut into chaff, is stored .away close by ; its grain, winnowed clean, is also stored away close by, and is easily deliver- able into carts. The roots are brought easily to the cutters, close by the power which drives them, and near to the chaff and other food with which they are to be mixed. Cake and corn crushers, close to the power which drives them, and to the store of food which they have 80 The CoceshitC Farmery. [Feb. to prepare, deliver this prepared food at the very door of the food-house and the steaming house, whence, finally, food and litter are both sent out to the yards, byres, and stalls. These, accord- ingly, are arranged conveniently around this centre of distribution. A railway takes them down the central building, and, at its end, on either side, to boxes, stalls, and piggeries — 7 being fatting stalls ; 8, 8, pigsties opening into yards ; 9, 9, fatting pigsties or boxes ; 10 and 11, a shed and yard for young cattle ; 12 and 13, stalls and boxes for cows ; 14, a calves' house, and 15, hay-house ; 16 are boxes for calves ; 17, 17, fatting boxes for cattle ; 18 and 19, yards and sheds for young cattle. At 20 there is a covered dung-pit, with tank underneath, where the soiled litter of all the cattle stalls may be easily concentrated ; 21, still easily supplied from the food-house by the central gangway, is a house for fatting and other sheep on sparred flooring ; 22 and 23 are sheds and yards available for sheep at the lambing season, or for young stock at any season ; 24, 24, is the stable ; 25 for corn, chaff, and hay-store ; 26 for harness ; 25 and 26 have bed-rooms over them ; 27 is a loose box ; 28, a cart shed, and for implements ; 29, kitchen for boys and bed-room over; 30, a house for implements ; 31, excavated archways for waggons ; 32, also for waggons and carts, which may here be loaded from the granaries above ; 33 is a root-store, already referred to ; 34, 35, 36, 37, are provisions for riding horses, harness, and carriage house; 38, shepherd's house and bed-room over ; 39, carpenters' shops ; 40, office ; 41, warehouse ; 42, wheelwright's shop ; 43, open shed ; 44, warehouse. The yard partly enclosed by these last numbers, and by an open shed facing them, is a timber yard and sawyer's shed for the purposes of the estate ; 45 is the rick-yard. An examination of the perspective drawing will show how the buildings lie on the successive steps of a sloping ground ; the grain being built on the higher ground, level almost with the upper floor of the barns, and the general fall of the land being made available both for drainage and for the easy delivery of the food and discharge of the manure. A careful examination of the whole will discover the fitness of those different parts to each other which are placed near to one an- other on the plan, as well as the adaptation of the whole to the circumstances of the farm, which is of 800 acres — 500 acres grass, and 300 acres arable. These buildings were designed and erected by E. Moore, Esq., agent to the Earl of Radnor. Two of the methods of feeding indicated in these buildings— viz., box-feeding for cattle, which is now everywhere adopted, and feed- ing on sparred floors for sheep, less commonly met with, deserve a further notice. The practice will be described in another month, but it may be added here that the accommodation for it may be much more cheaply provided than is the case in the buildings here illustrated. F ™-] Cattle-boxes. 81 The following, for instance, describes a cheap and yet efficient set of cattle-boxes which I used for many years on Whitfield Farm, Gloucestershire : — It was very cheaply erected against an east and west wall about six feet high, which had foundations about two feet deep. The ground was excavated eighteen inches. The sub- soil is a stiff clay. About ten feet out from the wall, posts were planted eight feet apart, the top of each being on a level with the top of the wall. These were connected with a set of strong poles from top to top, squared at the ends so as to rest on the uprights : and from the top of each there was also a strong pole reaching across to the wall and acting as a beam for the roofing. These beams supported a number of smaller larch poles parallel to the wall, about one foot apart, and on these was piled ridgewiae a lot of faggots, which were thatched over. This was the shed. It was divided into boxes (one in each of the intervals between the poles) thus : Prom each beam there descended two uprights to the ground, in which they were sunk to a depth of eighteen inches. One of these uprights was three feet from the wall and the other three feet from the main posts, and there was also an upright about three feet from each post, descending from the front beam to the ground. These uprights and posts formed the framework, against which three or four horizontal strips were nailed, dividing the sheds into separate boxes, ten feet by eight. In one of the front cor- ners, that in which was the post with the two uprights three feet on either side of it, stood the feeding trough, made by nailing from post to upright, and from upright to upright, a set of strips en- closing a triangular space, which was filled to a height of about three feet with coal ashes and then boarded over. This completed the business. The cattle were turned in upon the litter, and in three or four months, if put in fresh, were taken out fat, after having filled the eighteen-inch pit and risen about eighteen inches above the level of the ground. The whole labour here did not exceed 10s. a box. The boxes were open to the south, and furnished a dry lair and good shelter to the cattle, which improved rapidly in condition so housed. For stall feeding or shed feeding of sheep, again, on a sparred flooring covering a tank for their manure, the outlay need not be excessively great. The following is the plan adopted in a case de- scribed in the Agricultural Gazette of 1848. Figure 11 repre- sents a section and interior of the arrangement where stall feed- ing is adopted, each sheep being tied by the neck to its share of the common trough (S), which is supplied from a waggon tra- versing the central railroad .(«)• They stand on an open flooring (c), and their dung and urine pass into the tank below. The width of the shed may be from twelve to fourteen feet : each animal will need from eighteen to twenty-four inches in width : the 2 G S.'i Shed-feeding Sheep. [Fed. rail above the trough should just touch their shoulders when they stand under it to feed. The roof is of fir poles, the principals Fig. 11. VM- being connected by rods of ash, fir, or any other light wood. The uprights are oak posts, refuse of coppice thinnings ; the stall rails are hurdle stakes. The tanks are sided with outside slabs, refuse of sawpit ; the bottom is the natural bed of earth beaten hard, and half filled with sawdust or burnt earth. The whole of the above is to be found on most farms for the trouble of cutting down. The labour of the sawing of the slabs is hardly to be charged, as it be- longs more properly to the planking cut from between the slabs. These materials, if already in existence on an estate, would probably be supplied gratis by the landlord ; and for the thatch, heather or straw. The troughs may be of refuse fir slabs, the heavier the better, as the iron staples of the sheeps' collars and chains are driven into them, and clenched inside, and their own weight keeps them steady. The ends of the houses are wattled and thatched, the sides banked up with earth (e) taken from the tank, and raised to within six inches of the eaves ; the outside slopes should be turfed or seeded. In cold weather, if additional warmth is desirable, the aperture under the eaves may be closed by long bundles of straw laid lengthwise ; and the central opening should also be closed at night by a wattled hurdle. The length of the sheep's chain is from seven to nine inches, long enough to allow the animal to lie down with its head clear of the trough, and not so long as to allow of its putting its fore-feet into it. Lastly, for each sparred floor, ten battens of two and three-quarter inches, three-quarter inch apart, cover two feet eleven inches, which area is quite sufficient for any sheep. These battens should be of inch larch, with bearings at Feb.] Swanstone Buildings. 83 every three feet, and length to suit the openings of the side up- rights. 3. I now give the plan of a set of buildings (Kg. 12), erected at Fig. 12. — Swanstone Buildings, near Edinburgh, 0OOOOOOO j OOOOOOOOi Swanstone, near Edinburgh, from the plans of J. Newlands, Esq., C.E., now Borough Engineer of Liverpool, because it well illus- trates two of the cardinal rules of such architecture — viz., that all parts of like uses be classed and placed together, and all parts whose uses hinge on ODe another be close to one another. The following is the index to its several parts : — a, Main entrance, b, Hay-house, c, Stables, d, Servants' house, e, Infirmary. ,£ Potatoe- house. g, Turnip-house, h, Bull-house, i. Bull-yard, j, Cow-byre, k, House for feeding cattle. I, Turnip bays, m, Straw-barn, n, Dressing-barn, o, Stairs, p, Store for rape cake, q, Tool- house, v, Cart shed, s. Implement yard and shed, t, Saddle-horse stall, u, Carriage-house. v, Harness-house, to, Shelter sheds and yards, x, Working-court, y, Stack-yard, z, Stacks placed on frames, numbered. (1) Steam-engine. (2) Kngine-boiler. (3) Boiler-shed. (4>) Boiler for steaming food. (5) House for steaming food. (6) Hemmels and yards. (7) Yard for poultry. (8) Poultry-house. (9) Piggeries. (10) Course of prevailing winds. The granaries connected with the dressing-barn n, extend in an upper floor over p, q,r, r. The arrow represents the course of prevailing winds. The first point deserving attention is the existence of a two-storied building extending from r to in ; thus acting as a shelter to the whole : and it will also be seen that the cart and implement sheds are open to leeward. It may next be noticed that all the parts of like use are together ; thus, h, i,j, h, w, and (6), the bull-house, cow-byres, feeding-house, cattle-sheds, and hemmels (small yards) for fatting cattle are to- gether ; c, c, u, v, the stables, are arranged in one line ; q, r, r, and s, the tool, implement, and cart-sheds, are connected ; m, n- the 84 Swanstone Farm. [l'a. threshing and straw barns, and the granaries over o, p, q, r, are ona building. It will also be observed that the economy of labour has been at- tended to ; buildings dependent upon one another in use are con- nected in position. Thus i, h, the hay-house, d, the servants' house, and e, the infirmary, are close by e, c, and t, u, v, the stables ; (j and I, the turnip-houses, and m, the straw-barn, are close by J, k, 10, the houses for cattle ; the granary is right over the cart-shed ; the steam-houses are close by the piggeries, the poultry-house, and the stables ; the horses have not far to go to the implements ; the stack yard is close to the threshing barn. But I may point out some further particulars by which the suit- ableness of these buildings to the farm on which they are erected will be made to appear. The farm is one of 600 acres of arable land, and (500 acres of hill pasture. It consists generally of what is considered good turnip soil, and is managed on a five-years' course of cropping ; f. being in pasture, one and two years old in equal proportion, and no hay being made for sale ; -J- in green crop (potatoes thirty, and turnips ninety acres) ; \ in oats ; and ^ in wheat and barley, sown with grass- seeds ; the former after potatoes, the latter, after turnips. The turnips are consumed on the ground with sheep, excepting so much as is required for thirty cattle and twenty horses ; four of the latter being young stock rearing for agricultural purposes. Prom the care and attention that have been paid on this farm to the purity of the seed sown, a regular demand exists for spring corn, and a granary of great extent is thus a matter of importance, in which the farmer is enabled to store grain during the winter months, threshing it in order to use or sell the straw as occasion requires. A large storeage for potatoes is also needed. The circumstances thus recorded in which the farm is placed, taken in connexion with the leading principles common to all such erections which have guided the architect, will be found to afford a satisfactory explanation and justification of the arrangement of parts and development of each in the subjoined plan. In this set of buildings the cattle are fed in small open yards or hemmels. Latterly, however, as already referred to at page 35, the practice of feeding cattle in covered yards has become prevalent; and it is justified by the more rapid fattening of the cattle, and by the better quality of the manure thus made. I propose, therefore, to give drawings of farmeries where this system is adopted. 4. At the Home Farm, Haines Hill (Figs. 13, 14, 15), Berkshire, on the estate of J. C. Garth, Esq., capital buildings have been erected on this principle by Messrs. Beadel, of Grresham-street, E. C, and their leading feature — extensive yards under lofty roofing — is more or less carried out at all the other homesteads which those gentle- Feb-] Haines Hill Farmery. 85 men have erected on the estate. The main block of buildings oc- cupies a ground plan of about 140 feet by 100. There i3 a lofty range on the long side, which runs north and south, and from the Fig'. 13. — Haines Hill : Ground Plan. middle of this projects a shorter piece of the same height towards the east ; while the main block is an extension for about 100 feet westwards of the same roof of its full length, generally, however, of a somewhat lower elevation. The lofty range includes in its centre a very complete threshing machinery, worked by a steam-engine of eight-horse power — all erected by Messrs. Eansome, of Ipswich. On the one side of this centre-piece lie the granaries above and cattle-food stores with chaff-house below ; and on the other side lies hay and chaffing apparatus above and roots below. The hay is put hi from the cart or waggon outside, on the level of the upper floor ; the roots are thrown in from the ground floor below. The corn to be threshed is thrown in on the upper floor at the end of the arm 86 Haines Hill Farmery. [Fra. of the buildings which projects eastward ; the ground floor of that piece being occupied by carpenters' shops. The corn fed into the machine on the upper floor passes downwards, the chaff is blown out Pig. 14. — Haines Bill : Upper Floor below; the straw re-appears, being lifted by the clever el&vatiig shaker employed by Messrs. Bansoine in their fixed bam machinery ; and the corn being winnowed on its descent is brought upwards in elevators and passed through another winnower before it reaches the separators, from which it is delivered in sacks on the granary level. These are at once wheeled off to the stores, while the straw is carried away and stored on a floor on the same level, which ex- tends under the higher part of the roof right over the covered yard below, from which it is thrown down for the supply of the yards. From this floor you look down upon the yard below, and you see that the space is divided by three parallel gangways, extending west- ward from the north and south line of stores of chaff and roots, pa- rallel with the sides of the vard. The two side gangways are about 1-'ei;.] Haines Hill Farmery. 87 four or five yards from the side walls, the middle gangway extends down the centre of the intervening space. As you walk down one of these side gangways, you have on either hand the boxes in which Fig. 15. the farm horses are kept solitarily, most complete in all their equip- ment, with manger, water-trough, &c, only boarded up so high as to make it a case of complete solitary confinement except in so far as each has a look-out on the gangway. As you walk down the other side gangway you have on one hand first boxes for cows, then little yards for sows with litters. On the other hand you have three yards each for six or eight cattle ; either dairy stock, fatting beasts, or young and growing heifers and steers. The central gangway under the straw floor from which you see all this, has upon one side a long range of sparred flooring divided into yards for ten or a dozen sheep each, and containing about sixty Hampshire Down tegs, which, when I saw them, were evidently in thriving condition. On the other side, and between you and the horse-boxes lie another series of yards for fatting cattle. Over the sparred flooring on which the sheep are fed, gypsum is occasionally spread, and the whole is brushed over every now and then ; but the sheep keep in capital condition ; and when a lot have been brought in lame from the pas- tures they have soon recovered themselves on the sparred flooring. The yards are sheltered on the north and east by the highest por- tion of the erection, and being also walled up on the sides to the roof, they are left for the most part opeu on the western side. The ridge lines of the roof are glass, and there is ample window room for light, so that light and ventilation are provided along with per- fect shelter. Apart from this main block of buildings lies the manager's house, and outhouses, including dairy, slaughter-house, poultry-house, &c. Figs. 13 (ground plan), 14 (plan of second floor), and 15 (cross section, from o to v on the ground plan), are sufficientlyexplanatoryof this very efficient set of Messrs. Beadel's farm buildings. They cost, as a general rule, from 101. to 14il. per square of 100 feet (10 feet square), varying according to the proportion of loftier building 88 Englefteld farmery. [Feb. erected and the preliminary difficulties of the ground. We add here the following references to the index letters : — Kg. 13. Ground Plan of Buildings at Haines Bill.— a, Carpenter's shop. 5, Sawing-room. c, Threshing and dressing room, d, Engine-room, e, BoUer-house. c, Boiler. /, Coal-house. /', Ash-pit. g, Meal-house, h, Cooking-room, i, Chaff-house, j, Mill-room, k, Hoot-house. I, Mixed food for horses, m, m, Gangways, m, n, Loose boxes for horses* o, Harness-room. p, Bailiff's horse, q, q, Calves' pens, r, r. Sheep boxes, with sparred floors. s, s, Cow-yards. t, t, Bullock-yards, w, u, Pig-sties, v, Bull-house, to, w, Breeding-sows, x, Horse-box. y t I n l firmary. Kg. 14. Plan of Second Floor of Buildings at Haines Hill.—l, 1, Sheaf-lofts, fed from the waggon outside. 2, Threshing-machine. 3, Granary. 4, 4, Corn-bins. 5, 5, Store-loft. 6, tf, Straw-floor, extending over yard. 7, 7, Roof of yard. Kg. 15. Section across Yard of Buildings at Haines Hill. — A, A, Eoof of granary and barn. .B, B, Hoof of yard. 6, 6, Floor of straw-gallery (see 6, 6, Kg. 14). m, Gangways, n, Horse- boxes, o, Harness-room, r, Sheep-pen, with tank beneath, s, s, Cow-yards, t, t, Bullock- yards, v, Bull-house. «-', Breeding sows. In the same county are many other admirable sets of buildings, to which reference may shortly be made. Indeed, Berkshire, which includes the Koyal farms near "Windsor, Coleshill farmery, that at Haines Hill, and one now to be named at Englefield, near Beading, furnishes as good illustrations of farm architecture as are anywhere to be met with. 5. At Englefield, near Reading, the home farm of E. Benyon, Esq., M.P., the system of box-feeding is more systematically carried out than on any of the other farms yet named. The buildings consist first of a block, some 50 feet by 100 feet, covered in by a double span roof, under which are forty-two boxes — six single rows of seven each — the rows being separated alternately by narrow gangways (three in number) for feeding, and by wider gangways (two) for carts entering to remove the dung. Each box has a manger for roots and hay, and a trough for water. They are separated by rough paling, and the cattle are hindered from dirtying their troughs by a loose pole which they have to lift before they can get at their manger. These boxes are cleaned out twice during the winter, and about three times in the year, being empty during summer and autumn. The price paid to the men engaged in filling the carts is Is. the box, or Id. per piled cartload. The boxes are three feet six inches deep. Another block of buildings of the same length includes threshing machines, granary, root-house, chaff-house, steam-house, and steam power (a fixed ten-horse engine, consuming eight cwt. a day of coals, and worked generally three days in the week). Between the two, the space is roofed over and occupied as a straw-house. The steam power is conveyed by strap to a longitudinal shaft upstairs, from which straps on pulleys carry it to threshing-machine, turnip-cutter, two pairs of mill-stones, two chaff-cutters, cake-crusher, and corn- bruiser. Tho steam power is used to cut the roots for two days' supply by means of Samuelson's largest Banbury cutter ; and to cut hay chaff at the rate of five tons in a day, two men feeding the chaff-cutter; also to crush oats and crack beans by Turner's capital machine for the purpose — all at one and the same time. .Feb.] Englefield Farmery. 89 On the south, side of this block of cattle-boxes is a shed for im- plements. On the west side is a range of stables, lofty and airy, ■with no particular nicety, but great convenience of internal arrange- ment, and on the other side, as a lean-to, are shedding and yards for the calves, of which fifty or sixty are kept in three divisions, pro- vided with racks for straw and mangers for the roots, and chaff, and cake. North of the threshing machinery and barns are six long rows of open roofing for storing away the corn. The implement shed, barns, straw-house, granaries, and corn-sheds thus succeed one .another as you go northwards. East of this range is a cow-byre, nag-stalls, slaughter-houses, poultry-house, &c, on two sides of a square, thus sheltering a yard for cows and calves from the north and east, and lying alongside of the cattle-boxes, and another square of pigsties and yards lying alongside of the granaries and threshing machinery. The corresponding space eastward of the rows of corn- sheds remains to be occupied by sheds and yards for cows, if it should be resolved to establish a herd of short-horns. The buildings were planned by Mr. Benyon and his steward, and erected by the workmen of the estate at a cost of about 3000Z. The following plan (Pig. 16) of these buildings is taken, by per- Fig. 16. — Englefield Buildings. Implement Hhrd. I :- i I !j I 10 1 ! «s I I :I I Hi ....! !....: L.J L.J i^« |TI[i $»*z f %"?' ivpmim Clinjf JI"'' * Stedinu/// g,iwp IHMfir. Stores. Jlousi\ j\ . \/''\ •' Fatt 'nj Zhu ; kl EPHM' ii n Bait ii,' FtA Jss&S B0.1I). 90 The Flemish Farm. [Feb. mission, from the 21st volume of the Journal of the Agricultural So- ciety of England, where they are described by Mr. J. 13. Spearing. 6. Of another method of developing the covered-yard principle, Fig. 17. — The Flemish Farmery. which is due to Mr. Wilkinson, architect, of Oxford, I give two illustrations. In all his buildings, the rick-yard is at one end, and Fee.] Kirtlington Farmery. 91 the threshing bam, straw-barn, granaries, and root-stores extend between it and the rest of the buildings along one side of a qua- drangle, in which stables, covered yards, cow-houses, cattle-boxes, piggeries, to be supplied with litter and fodder from the stores close by, are arranged under a common roof. This is all shown in the draw- ing (Tig. 17), taken, by permission, from the 21st volume of the English Agricultural Society's Journal, in which the different parts of the farmery erected for H.E.H the Prince Consort, by J. E. Turnbull, Esq., architect, Office of Works, Windsor Castle, are designated. The Flemish farm to which it belongs contains 400 acres of very stiff soil, of which 240 are arable. The plan on the adjoining page (Fig. 17) shows all the details of the building, ex- cept the second story over the boiler and engine-rooms, which is occupied as a granary. The chaff and litter cutters (I am quoting from Mr. Spearing's report in the journal) are placed on a floor over the chaff-room and a portion of the straw-barn, so that the cut falls ready for use in the covered yards and stables. As a further illustration of the general style of these buildings, I give the following elevations from the Agricultural Society's Jour- nal, Eig. 18, being the elevation of granary, sheaf-house, and root- Fig. 18. — Elevations of Flemish Farmery. Fig. 19. house, as seen from the reader's left of Eig. 17, and Eig. 19 giving the elevation of stable, covered yard, and cow-house, as seen from the reader's right. 7. The other illustrations of Mr. Wilkinson's covered yards are taken from Northbrook Earm, Kirtlington, near Oxford, the property of Sir G-. Dashwood, Bart. On this farm there was already a consi- derable quantity of shedding and other buildings, available for many of the purposes of the farm ; and Captain Dashwood, in whose hands the farm has for several years been,. wisely resolved to retain 92 Kirtlington Farmery. [F EC . it all until a few years' experience should have fully determined the requirements of the land under its altered management ; and ac- cordingly it is only that part of a farmery required for the accom- modation of the working and the feeding cattle that is new. The principle of covered yards, as here carried out, is thus perhaps more strikingly illustrated than where the attention of the spectator is drawn away by lofty barns, elaborate machinery, or any other more striking department of a complete set of farm buildings. There is no better established truth in the theory of agriculture than that which makes all growth, whether of the animal or plant, to be an actual building up of the matter within reach of either available for its nutrition. It is this growth which is the whole business of the farmer ; and it therefore tends greatly to his success if the process be carried out without waste — i.e., if the food of animals be burned (for that is the proper word) as little as need be in their lungs ; and if all the manure, which is the food of plants, be carried direct from the feeding-house where it is made, to the soil with which it is to be incorporated. To this end animals should be fed in warm and sheltered places, and dung should be made under cover. These are the two points for which special provision is made by covered yards for feeding stock. And at Northbrook, as at the Boyal farm, the system is well carried out. A central yard, thirty feet by ninety, somewhat excavated below the ground on either side of it, has a row of stabling for the farm horses on one side of it, and of piggeries, and cow-stalls, and cattle-boxes on the other side of it, along its whole length. The stable contains stalls for fourteen horses, and the soiled litter from them is thrown into the covered yard on one side of it ; while the dung from the piggeries and the cows and cattle is in like manner thrown into the central covered yard upon its other side. The dung from all sorts of cattle, whether in store or fattening condition, and however fed, is thus mingled together, and supplies a quantity of- fertilizing matter of uniform quality made as well as it can be. It is trodden under foot and mixed with the litter, and the excrement, of a large number of heavy fatting oxen in the cen- tral yard — and suffering no injury whatever by the washing of rain, is in the best possible condition for fertilizing the land. At the end of the stalls and piggeries on one side of the covered yard is the steaming-house, where cut straw of oats, and beans, and hay chaff, mixed with broken rapecake, are steamed, and afterwards given along with cut roots to the live stock ; and easy access is also given to cattle in open yards on the southern side of the buildings, provided with shedding which is part of the roofing of the general quadrangle. Light is provided from. the roof; and the openings at either end are manageable by louvre boards and windows, so as to regulate the ventilation. The roof of the central yard is also 1"E1!.J Kirtlington Farmery. id ventilation and light Fig. 20. — Kirtlington Farm Buildings. 93 higher than the rest, and ventilation and light are giren through the side walls. Fig. 20 is a plan of these buildings, and the following are refe- rences to the index letters : — a, a, Central covered yard, divided into three. b,h, Cattle-boxes, stalls, or piggeries, c, Pig- genes and sties, d, Food-house for pigs, c, e, Gangway, f, Steaming-house and food-house. ff, Sheds and yards for young cattle. 7i, h, Stable, i, i, Mangers in horse-stalls. j,j. Doorways (also in Fig. 23) for passing soiled litter into central yard. Tc, "Water-trough. I, Mangers and troughs for cows and pigs. The dotted lines indicate drainage, excepting the squares marked on the line of stabling, which indicate the position of the skylights. "Fig-. 21. — Elevation of Kirtlington Farmery. Pi"-. 21 is an elevation of the southern end of the buildings, re- presenting in succession, from the reader's left to right, stable, central yard, with its gateway for the removal of dung, &c, steaming and food house, and open yards. 91. Kirtlington Farmery. [Feb. Fig. 22 represents a section of the whole building across the line B, B, on the plan at Fig. 20. Fig. 22.' — Section of Kirtlington Farmery. ■mm* Fig. 23.— Section of Stable Fig. 23 represents a section, on a larger scale, of the stabling. This is a good illustration of economical and sufficient housing for the horses of the farm. Six-feet stalls, with ample gangway behind them, are provided with manger and rack ; water is at hand in two or three troughs, at which the horses drink when coming in from work. Ventilation is provided in the simplest way, bv an occa- sional ridge-tile being lifted out of the regular course, and bedded at either end upon its neighbours — the under boarding being there left open. And light, as already said, is provided from the roof by skylights, and by hanging lamps at night. Illustrations have thus been given of seven sets of buildings erected for the efficient equipment of ordinary arable farms, and for the ac- commodation of cattle on the bos-feeding, stall-feeding, hemel or open-yard, and covered-yard systems. It is no part of the plan of this book to instruct architects in the provision of all the necessary details of buildings for the farm. It has been thought advisable, however, to supply sufficient illustrations of the leading principles to be observed in designing such erections. l''i-'-] Weston Birt Farmery. 95 8. Perhaps it may be well to name, as one other instance of a good set of such buildings, those erected at Weston Birt, the seat of E. Holford, Esq., M.P., in Gloucestershire, where the home farm lias been recently supplied with a capital farmery designed by Mr. E. Eich, the agent for the estate, in order to suit the requirements of a large establishment, as well as to meet the wants of a large farm. The main block is in ground plan a sort of trident, the middle prong being represented by a double row of roomy cattle boxes with a central gangway — one of the side prongs being a row of cart-stables, and the other being a row of cattle-stalls and shed- ding. The spaces between these lines are yards used for cattle. These three parallel rows of building thus separated are united by a cross-head of double sheds with a gangway between them — cattle sheds opening on the south into the yards just named on one side — and cart and implement sheds opening to the north and west on the other side. Over these latter are granaries. The handle of the trident, to maintain the comparison, is a range of building extend- ing north, comprising most complete barn and steam-threshing and grinding machinery. And at the farther end lies a yard and saw- house, for which the same steampower is available, where carpen- ters' work for the estate is done. The main road through the buildings lies across the points of the three teeth of this trident, to which the ground plan of the build- ings has been compared. On its one side, and in the spaces be- tween these points, at the ends therefore of the two yards, are pig- pits and piggeries ; and on the other side lies the bailiff's house with admirable dairy, cottages, and yards and sheds for dairy cows. Provision is made for poultry in a separate set of houses on one side of the main block of buildings. The whole arrangement is very- convenient and economical of labour, and the construction of the several parts is praiseworthy. In particular the adoption of such a plan as was adaptable to any method of feeding, either in yards, sheds, or boxes, is worthy of being copied. There are several other points yet to be named which deserve mention in a paper on farm buildings. a. The choice of site should be determined in accordance with the water supply and the aspect, as near the centre of the farm as possible. b. In supplying power for the threshing of the grain and pre- paration of food it is perhaps better, now that moveable steam-en- gines are coming into such general use for cultivation as well as for threshing, to make provision for the standing of a locomotive engine which may be attached to fixed and other machinery, rather than to ave a fixed engine. c. Provision for the lighting of the buildings is now made in many Scottish farmeries by a small gaswork attached to the build- 96 Stall — Box — Covered Yard. [F EC . ings, which is found to provide better light in a more economical manner than was done by the old stable lantern. d. The selection of stall, box, or covered yard, as the guiding principle of the farmery, must be determined by the circumstances of the farm ; but the last is undoubtedly the most generally useful, because a quadrangle once roofed in may be subsequently made available in any way. And the following experience, now ten years old, is confirmatory of the merits of the plan. It was quoted by- Mr. Cook, of Holton Hall, some years ago, in a lecture before the Hadleigh Farmers' Club. His correspondent, an Essex agricul- turist, then answered a number of questions as follows : — The dung made in the covered homestall is fit for immediate use. There is no drainage from the dung to render tanks necessary. There is no unpleasant smell during the time it is making. About the same straw is required for littering the cattle. The cattle are warmer and more protected than in open yards. They fatten quicker on that account. The consumption of food is less. The quality of the dung is a vast deal better. One-third less is used per acre, with better effect. The homestall is as useful for cattle during summer as in winter. I should like to have them on all my occupations, and I recommend them most strongly. They are useful for the temporary protection of hay and corn during a fickle harvest. The money value of the dung made in the covered homestall is nearly double that made in open yards. e. On the relative merits of the box and stall-feeding plans, the following may suffice :- — The principal advantage of the former is the economy of food and manure which it affords. The ox rests better while it is enabled to take that amount of exercise necessary to health ; with proper treatment, it enjoys a purer atmosphere than in the stall, and is equally well sheltered from the inclemency of the weather, enjoying a more uniform temperature. It receives its food in quantity and quality as its size and constitution demand, and eats it without molestation or annoyance. AVe often see the ox standing or trying to stand across its stall, or hanging backwards as far as its chain will allow ; and when lying, manifesting similar symptoms of uneasiness from which it is endeavouring to get relief. In the feeding-box, on the other hand, the ox is enabled to take that amount of exercise which health demands. Cleanliness is equally essential to health as exercise ; and 15 to 20 lbs. of litter daily in the feeding-box will insure a dry and cleanly lair. Ventilation and an equable temperature can be secured better in the feeding-box than in the stalls. The whole of the manure is preserved, the liquid is all absorbed, and is thus better conveyed to the ground than when draining into tanks, and requiring altered Feb.] Portable Buildings. 97 management and new machines and extra labour for its conveyance to the crops. /. Portable buildings have been often advocated, and may be defensible in cases where landlords refuse to erect sufficient build- ings. The tenant would then have power to remove such erections at the end of the lease. The following are the considerations urged in defence of portable buildings by Mr. Barugh Alinack in a letter to the English Agricultural Society (1852) . " If any one doubts the value of having farm buildings moveable, let him bear in mind what a saving of labour there would be, in some cases, by having portable cattle-boxes, &c, to take to one end of the farm, instead of bringing the turnips and straw, &c, from that end of the farm, and then taking them back again as manure. Unnecessary labour causes other labour that would not otherwise be necessary ; for instance, unnecessary carting on roads causes labour in repairing them. By consuming the produce near to where it was grown, the saving in the cost of labour, and in the quality of the corn by harvesting it more rapidly, might be equal to the rent of the land. " If horses had portable stables close by their work, they would lose less time in going to and from it, and thus be able to do more work in the same time. They could be comfortable in the stable close by when not wanted on the land, and they could be making the best manure by eating lucerne, tares, or whatever else was most likely to be profitable to grow close by, and the manure so made would be close by where it was wanted. " I have no doubt it is quite practicable to make every necessary farm-building moveable ; and in many cases I am quite certain that it would pay well to make part of them portable, now that there is a probability of an increasing scarcity of farm labourers." g. On the possibility of such portable buildings it is sufficient to say that they ought to be made so by the easy fitting and porta- bility of their several parts, not by the whole being capable of being moved bodily on wheels. Any quantity of ground may be covered by a roof supported on wooden walls, in building which a certain number of grooved posts are used — receiving planks and carrying rafters and sheets of corrugated iron roofing — every part of each section being exactly like another, so that the whole can be taken down and unpacked, and carried away and replaced, without the drawing of a nail and with no need of any particular skill. h. On the cost of the erection of a permanent farmery, and who should bear it, the following is the opinion of an experienced archi- tect — Mr. Newlands, of Liverpool, as published in the Agricultural Gazette (1845). The erection of a homestead is necessarily attended with great expense — an expense greater in proportion on small farms than on 2 a 98 Cost of Buildings. [Keh. those of larger extent ; and it too often arises that in. the desire to lessen this expenditure, a landlord with injudicious parsimony will be found to curtail a tenant's accommodation, and probably withhold from him buildings essential to the conducting of his business ; or with mistaken economy, he may be induced to construct the build- ings without reference to strength and durability. On the other hand it may be that the tenant asks a greater extent of building than the wants of the farm demand ; or, to favour some passing pe- culiarity of his management, he may wish buildings provided which are not common in similar cases, and which, if erected, might prove useless to his successor, and very likely in a short time to himself. The prosperity of the tenant for the term of his lease in great mea- sure depends on the sufficiency and completeness of the accommo- dation afforded by the homestead, and it is therefore essential that the buildings forming it should be designed with the requisite fit- ness for the farm, and constructed with good materials, and with strength to insure durability. But although a sufficient amount of accommodation ought always to be given, too great an extent of it is an evil. It tends to unsystematize the management of the farm ; it entails a large expenditure ou the farmer for repairs, always grudgingly bestowed ; and the useless buildings are soon allowed to fall to ruin from neglect. The cost of erecting buildings does not always devolve on the landlord. The burden is sometimes thrown upon the tenant — upon one whose interest in the matter not being permanent, like that of his landlord, may lead to the commission of the very errors we have just been deprecating. The injurious tendency of this system, however, must be apparent. But there is another error more common which needs animadversion — viz., requiring the tenant to carry the building materials. It is asserted in defence of thiB practice, that the tenant can at spare times lead forward the materials at less cost than any one, having the requisite vehicles, horses, and labourers, in his own employment. Granting this to be true, it is still diverting his attention, his capital, and energy, from their legi- timate objects ; and that, too, at a time when they are most required — at the commencement of a lease. But the assertion is inaccurate; farm vehicles are not fitted for the carriage of building materials; bo true is this, that where the operations are extensive, and the farmer has this burden laid upon him, it is a wise economy on his part to procure the proper vehicles. Valuable farm horses, too, are rendered valueless by labours for which they are unfitted ; and the same economy under the same circumstances teaches that it is wisdom to purchase cheap animals in addition to those for the £arm, and dispose of them at whatever sacrifice when, the work is done. Further, the labours of the farm and those of the building can- Feb.] p e as. 99 not proceed together; hence there are frequent stoppages of th« one, or no less injurious interruptions of the other. Thus, no saving can result from this system, but, on the contrary, evil to all parties. The burden imposed on the tenant, of carrying the materials, should not be regarded as lessening the cost of the buildings, but as a pay- ment, in another form, of his share of the cost ; and in point of fact it forms part of the bargain of the lease. The cost of erecting farm buildings, then, should devolve on the landlord, but the expense of keeping them in repair properly falls on the tenant. It is a good arrangement to appoint a properly qualified person to make periodical examinations of the buildings of an estate, to see that this condition is strictly complied with. The neglect of a trifling reparation, at the proper time, may lead to serious damage ; and such negligence the vigilance of an inspection will prevent. III.— PEAS. This is the season for sowing the hardy sorts of pea ; and towards the end of the month any kind of field pea may be sown. The pea can hardly be called an ameliorating crop, but admitting of cultivation in the wide intervals between the rows in which it is usually sown, and afterwards covering the ground with a bulky smothering growth of haulm, it is when well cultivated a fallow crop. The land should thus be left cleaner after peas than it was ; and as the crop yields in its nutritious straw a capital contribution to the dung heap, a frequent crop of peas is no evidence of cross- cropping. It rarely, however, forms a regular part of the rotation, being taken now and then, in addition to the common course of crop- ping, when the land seems fit for it, or unfit for the crop which it is taken to displace. The soils best adapted for it are the lighter loams which are hardly stiff enough for beans ; and calcareous soils are especially fitted for it. Pea straw contains in its ashes from thirty-five to forty per cent, of lime, and twelve to fifteen per cent, of potash. This indicates the kind of soil which the plant requires. Peas need liberal treatment and good cultivation like any other crop, but bad farmers are too apt to sow this pulse when the land will yield nothing else. They have a proverb among them, which signifies, that the season does for peas as much as good husbandry ; and they from thence take care that good crops shall be owing to season alone. Hence arises the general idea of peas being the most uncer- tain crop. This is owing to their being too often sown on land that is not in good order. Let the careful husbandman lay it down as a maxim, that he should sow no crop on land that is not in good order ; not merely in respect of fine tilth at the time of sowing, h 2 100 Peas after Clover. [ Feb but also of the soil being in good heart and clear of weeds. I would not, however, here be understood to rank all kinds of crops together ; because beans and peas will admit of cleaning while they grow. On that account, if a farmer comes to a field which his pre- decessor has filled with weeds, a horse-hoed crop of beans might be expedient, when a barley crop would be utterly improper. Peas when managed in a spirited manner, will not have the reputation of being so very uncertain a crop, for this character has, in some mea- sure, been owing to ill conduct. From these remarks, however, the reader is not to understand that I think peas as certain as other crops ; but this quality will still much depend on management. Peas after Clover. — The white boiling pea, of many sorts, and under various names, is more tender than the greys and various kinds of hog peas ; but I have many times put them into the ground in February, and though very smart frosts followed, they received no injury. I have uniformly found, that the earlier they were sown the better. There is also a particular motive for being as early as possible ; which is, to get them off in time for stubble turnips. If they are sown in this month, and a right sort chosen, they will be off the land early in July, so that turnips may follow, at not too late a time for sowing that crop. All the sorts of early peas should be cultivated on dry soils only. Upon sands, dry sandy loams, gravels, and chalks, they succeed well. Broad-cast peas are to be utterly rejected in every case. The only question that can arise in their culture is between drilling and dibbling. If the former is determined on, the land should have been ploughed in autumn, with the skim-coulter. The surface being worked shallow with a scarifier and harrow as soon as possible after winter, drilling should directly follow. If dibbling is determined on, the land, if already clean, need not be ploughed till winter time or after it, and a heavy roller follows the plough. Dibbling peas on a clover layer generally results in a good crop. It is the practice of some farmers to manure for peas. If the land is in heart, and they are put in on a layer, they do not want manure. A very good crop may be gained without it. I have had five, and even five quarters and a half an acre, without any manure applied for this crop. Dung makes them run to long straw, and that is not favourable for podding productively. Beans will benefit from a heavy dressing of dung, but with peas the case is different. There are very few situations in which the farmer can have such a command of manure as to give him a sufficiency. It is therefore of much consequence to him never to spread a load but where it will be sure to answer best. Every man complains of a want of dung; and he should be careful therefore to give it to the crops that will pay best for the expense. Feb.] Peas after Stubble. 101 As to distance between the rows of peas the practice of various farmers differs exceedingly. Equidistant rows from nine to eighteen inches are common. I have seen them at two feet, and even at three. In dibbling, it is common in Norfolk and Suffolk, to put in a row on every flag or furrow-slice of nine or ten inches breadth ; and I have known very good crops in most of these distances. If horse-hoeing, or much hand hoeing is intended, double rows at nine inches, with intervals of eighteen, do well ; but the greatest crops I have known have been from planting every furrow-slice. "Where drilled in rows, the interval of fifteen to eighteen inches is to be preferred. This enables an efficient horse-hoeing of the land during the early stages of their growth. Prom two to two bushels and a half per acre is the usual quantity when planting every furrow. If they are drilled at greater distances, six or seven pecks will do. Some have trusted to one bushel per acre, but that quantity is too small. Peas after a stubble crop — are sown by the drill after the har- row upon land which was cleaned, manured, and ploughed the previous autumn. The manure thus lying some months in the ground becomes more thoroughly incorporated with the soil ; and is less likely to produce too gross and leafy a growth. The sorts sown may be (1) the early grey Warwick, which, however, being of more rapid growth, is adapted for March or later sowing ; it is not so productive as other sorts, and is especially adapted for late districts and land in good condition ; (2) the common grey field pea, later, more prolific, yielding a very bulky straw, and better adapted there- fore for dry soils and districts, and for land not in such rich condi- tion ; (3) the 'partridge pea, or grey maple, very prolific, yielding plenty of straw, and better adapted than the last for a late country ; (4) the winter field pea — referred to in autumn, when it is sown. There are also several white boiling peas adapted for field culture which may be named, as (5) the early Charlton, of medium bulk as to straw, yielding an abundant crop and tolerably early ; (6) the Carolina pea, later, equally abundant ; (7) the white sickle, a good cropper, yielding long bent pods, but much later than the others. The place of the crop in the rotation is either after clover, as already named, or after a corn stubble ; and in the latter case it generally takes either the place of clover in cases where there is believed to bealiability to "clover sickness," or the place of turnips in cases where there is believed to be a liability to the " finger and toe" disease. After autumn culture as already described, the land as soon as dry in February, is either scarified or merely well harrowed down, and the Beed, two to three bushels per acre, is drilled in rows, fifteen to eighteen inches apart, permitting the subsequent use of 102 Bean Culture. [Feb. the horse-hoe. The ground is then again harrowed and the field is shut up till the rows appear. IV.— BEAN CULTURE. Early in this month the farmer should begin to plant his beans, and, if possible, finish it before the end of the month, as later crops do not succeed so well. The land ought to have been cleansed, manured, and ploughed the autumn before ; by which means the only object now will be to sow the seed. When cul- tivated in rows, twenty to twenty-six: inches apart, and therefore allowing of the cultivation of the land during its growth, the bean is a fallow crop; i.e. it tends to clean the land, and to lay it open to " atmospheric influence." And where it is grown that its produce may be consumed on the farm, it may be considered in every respect as a fallow or restorative crop, and may be allowed to take the same place in the rotation as the turnip or any other green crop. When, however, it is grown for the sale of its produce, excepting on those lands which are peculiarly adapted for it, it should take the place of a corn or scourging crop in the rotation. The soil which the bean prefers is a stiffish loam. There are many ways of cultivating the plant, but the best plan is either to drill or to dibble it. 1. When the land was manured in the autumn, as described in October and November, the field, lying all winter in the lands in which it has been ploughed, will now harrow down, and the drill following will sow two or three bushels per acre, in rows two feet apart. 2. If the land has not been manured in autumn, it may have been well to rib it up in ridgelets two feet wide, or thereabout. The manure is carried on as soon as possible after winter, spread in the rows, and a bean barrow going up each row drops the seed over the manure, and the whole is covered up by the splitting of the intervening ridgelets with the double-mould-board plough. The new ridgelets covering the seed are afterwards partly harrowed; down before the young plants appear. This is the plan generally adopted in Scotland ; and I add the following description, written a few years ago, of an actual day 9 work in February on a Galloway farm : — " We are now occupied with bean sowing, which is performed in the following manner :— The land, which was trench-ploughed in autumn, from exposure to the weather now breaks down before the drill plough, without any other previous operation ; six drill ploughs, following each other, go a ' bout' in the morning, making twelve drills ; a drill barrow, which sows three drills, then enters, and at a 'bout' finishes six drills. By this time the six ploughs have again drawn six drills. Feb -J Soil for Beans. 103 and on returning up the field, they cover the first six drills, now- sown. They then draw off six new drills, and again cover six on their return, the drill barrow going at the same rate, and sowing at a 'bout' six drills also. A space of twelve drills is left between the opening and covering, which gives plenty of room for the working of the barrow and the passing of the horses. The drills are twenty-seven inches wide, and are made across the winter furrows. Part of the land was dunged on the stubble, but the part* which was not dunged is dressed with three cwt. of guano per acre, sown in the drills by hand, and covered in with the seed. Two and a-half bushels of beans are sown per acre, and with this force we get over from ten to twelve acres a day. An expeditious plan at this season is of the greatest consequence, in taking advantage of a favour- able seed time for beans." 3. Or, thirdly, if the manure be spread broad-cast, it is not an un- common practice to plough in the seed, a bean barrow following every second or third plough, as they turn the manure under. The young plants thus come up in scattered rows, at intervals of eighteen or twenty-seven inches, giving ample opportunity for horse-hoeing. 4. Lastly, beans are often hoed or dibbled in : the former operation costs about 6s. per acre. The seed is planted across the ridges in rows about twelve inches apart ; the labourer in the act of making each trench with his hoe fills the one already made, in which he has previously scattered a quantity of seed. Beans are sometimes dibbled : either the unharrowed furrow slice is used as the labourer's guide, and two or three beans are put into each of the dibble holes, which are made in alternate furrows, or, what is better, the land is first harrowed down, and a double line is used, the cords of which are ten or twelve inches apart, and the labourer facing them manages both rows at once. He makes in succession about four holes in the near line, and places seed in them ; and after doing the same on the far line, he moves sideways up the rows and repeats the operation. • The holes are filled in by a subsequent harrowing. Two to three bushels of seed are thus used, and about 5s. per acre are paid for it. Soil for Beans. — Everybody knows that all the sorts of strong and heavy soils are the common ones generally applied to this crop. The winter bear, sown in autumn (see September), is alone adapted to the lighter class of soils. Chemists tell us that the ashes of bean straw contain no less than twenty-one per cent, of potash, and an equal quantity of lime. The mineral part of the grain is also re- markable for the quantity (forty-two per cent.) of potash which it contains. And this seems to indicate what is, indeed, plain from experience, that clays which are richer than lighter soils in alka- line matters, and especially calcareous clays, are well adapted to the cultivation of this crop. The place of the plant in the rotation is * Guano and other artificial manures are of little use to beans. 104 Oats. [F EE that of a manured fallow crop, coming after other grain, and preceding a grain crop, generally wheat. Artificial manures are of little use to the bean crop ; as much of the manure of the farm as can be spared is ploughed in for it either in autumn, or as soon as possible after winter. And Mr. Lawes recommends that the richer part of the farm-yard dung be kept for other crops which need it more. " Beans and tares," he says, " may be manured with the inferior qualities of dung." Of the sorts of beans we name — (1) the Winter bean, a small oblong kind — two bushels containing seed enough per acre — weigh- ing very well, often seventy lbs. per bushel, adapted for light soils, and hardy enough for autumn sowing. (2) The common horse bean, a good deal larger, needing two to three bushels or more as the seeding of an acre, and requiring to be sown in spring on stiff soils. (3) The common tick bean — much smaller — very prolific, two bushels containing seed enough per acre. (4) Heligoland bean, a plump, round seed, adapted for good soils ; not so large as the horse bean , two bushels or ten pecks containing seed enough for an acre. (5) Long pod — a name for many different sorts, all of them much larger than those already named, requiring fertile land, in good order, for their efficient culture. (6) Mazagcm, also as much of a garden bean as the long pod, but yielding a valuable produce per acre in fields well cultivated and in good condition. V.— OATS. Oats may now be sown, the later sorts at once, on any land which has grown a manured or fallow-restorative crop during the previous year, and has since been ploughed. In Scotland, the com- mon place in the rotation for the oat crop is after a grass or clover layer. In England, such a place is always kept for the wheat crop ; and oats follow either mangold wurzel and other green crops, pulled and carried from the land, or turnips sometimes which have been fed on the land, or a corn crop — as in the Cotteswold district, where it sometimes follows wheat. In the fen districts it sometimes comes after rape or clover, and is followed by wheat. The oat crop is more largely cultivated ia the North than in England. It is a hardier grain, and will ripen under circumstances where wheat would hardly attain maturity. According to the most recent agricultural statistics of the island, it appears that of the 133 plots of 100,000 acres each, of which English arable land consists, 34 are in wheat, 18 are in barley, 15 are in oats, 8 are in beans or peas, 16 are in turnips, 24 are in clover and grass, 8 are in bare fallow, and the remainder potatoes, vetches, mangold wurzels, &c. In Scotland, again, of 34 such plots of 100,000 acres each, \\ Vtm.] Barley. 105 are in wheat, 2 in barley, no fewer than 10 in oats, J in beans and pease, 4| iu turnips, 1^ in potatoes, 12^ in clover, and the rest in other crops of less importance. It is from Scotland accordingly, where the relative importance of the crop is so much greater, that we learn almost all we know of the relative merits of the different sorts of oat in cultivation. The cultivation of the oat consists in harrowing down the lea farrow or the ploughed land, whatever may have been the previous crop, and drilling in rows nine to twelve inches apart, about three to four bushels per acre, according to the kind that is chosen. Where clover has been ploughed with the skim-coulter, and followed by the drill-presser, and left for some weeks until thoroughly con- solidated, oats may be very well sown broadcast over the land without any previous harrowing. It falls between the ribs left by the presser, and being well harrowed down, it comes up in rows. The sorts of oat in cultivation are exceedingly numerous. An enumeration of them, with illustrations, will be given next month. Meanwhile, as especially adapted for sowing this month, the Tar- tarian and late Angus oats may be named ; the former, whether black or white, are recognisable by the one-sided head and thin awny grain, weighing thirty-eight to forty lbs. per bushel, and needing at least one-third more seed per acre than many stouter smaller kinds ; yielding also a bulky straw, and a great quantity of grain : the latter yielding a better quality of grain, and a tall up- standing straw, and valuable for its property of resisting wind at har- vest time better than most other sorts, and well adapted for early sowing, especially on clay soils in early districts. Reference will be again made to the oat crop next month. In accordance with the resumS of farm operations at the head of this month, I add here remarks on the Barley crop, though it is more particularly discussed in March. Barley is more generally sown in March, but preparation must be made for its seed time by ploughing close up behind the sheep as they are folded on the turnips, whenever the land is dry enough. At a recent (1861) meeting of the Winfrith Farmers' Club (Dor- setshire), it was the universal testimony that early sowing was good policy. Illustrations will be given of some of the principal varieties of this grain next month ; meanwhile I give the following enume- ration of some of them, as described on the occasion just referred to by Mr. Randal, a member of the "Winfrith Farmers' Club. The Common, or Early English barley is the one most commonly cultivated through the kingdom ; and although from time to time many other varieties have been introduced, it still maintains its position. It is suitable for light lands where the practice of sheep- folding prevails, and also for a greater range of soils than many other varieties ; it has the advantage of coming to maturity earlier, 106 Sorts of Barley. [Feb. requiring only from fourteen to sixteen weeks to perfect its growth, For light lands of inferior descriptions this barley appears better adapted than any other kind ; and even on cold clay soils it8 early maturity and free manner of growing give it a decided superiority over those varieties which, although of finer quality, are of much slower growth ; it also works very well in the malthouse. The Chevalier barley is a great favourite with the maltster, and on good barley land answers the farmer's purpose very well ; but it is not in every district that so many bushels per acre of it can be grown aa of the coarser varieties. It must be sown rather earlier in the season, as it requires a longer time to ripen than some of the more common sorts. The Leghorn barley is a good sort, very fairly pro- ductive, and a good malting barley, and it is often worth several shillings per quarter more than the coarser barleys. The Annat barley is one obtaining now a very wide reputation ; but has not attained the celebrity of the Chevalier for malting purposes. It is very productive on sandy loams. The Nottingham barley makes a fine sample, but it is also considered coarse ; it is generally of a good colour, and works well in the malthouse, and is sown rather largely in the north of England. The Pomeranian, or German barley, is a sort introduced from the Continent, and cultivated suc- cessfully in the North ; it is hardy, early, and generally productive ; the straw is tall and strong, the ear long and open, the grain of good colour, and weighs well, generally forming a good sample, and is considered a good sort for cold soils and late districts. There is a sort called the Norfolk Shortnech, which is spoken of as being very suitable for high and exposed situations. It has a long and tough straw, compact ear, with long and strong awns attached, and generally produces a sample good in quantity as well as in quality. There is also a very useful barley called the July barley ; it can be sown later than any other sorts ; it is suitable for all barley soils, yields well, and is a good sample for the maltster. There are also several coarser varieties of barley or bere sown for feeding pur- poses, hardier than the better qualities of this grain. In the cultivation of barley, one great object to be attained before sowing it is to have the land perfectly clean and dry ; and when barley follows the turnip crop it is well immediately after the turnips are fed off, either to put- a scarifier across the field or to plough it very shallow, for by so doing we get the sheep-droppings more inti- mately mixed with the soil, and also prevent the dung being washed away by the rain, especially in the hilly districts. Shallow or thm ploughing for the barley crop, is considered beneficial to the growth of clovers, which, like wheat, thrive and stand the winter better on a firm subsoil. In most rotations of crops, barley follows the turnip crop, and is succeeded by clover. If the turnip crop, to which a liberal amount of artificial manures has been given, is all fed off on Feb.] Seed-time of Barley. 107 the land, and the soil be further enriched by oil cake or corn given to the sheep, the land may be sometimes left in too high condition, and the barley will grow too luxuriantly, and be laid, and the con- sequence is a very inferior sample of corn, and most likely the clover plant killed. To remedy this, a certain proportion of the turnips should be pulled and carted away for feeding elsewhere. Sufficient attention is not always paid to seed barleys, — the temptation of the higher price often takes all the best grain of the farm to the market, and the farmer then contents himself with sowing the best tailing. The seed ought to be of the best quality, fully matured, quite free from injury, and true in its variety. In sowing it some use the Suf- folk drill, others prefer the old-fashioned plan of sowing broadcast. The drill is to be preferred, as it not only deposits the seed at an uniform depth, but also puts it out of the way of the birds, and effects a considerable saving in the quantity of seed required. Very early in the season three bushels per acre, or even less, is quite suf- ficient ; but, as the season advances, a small addition to the quantity is required. Mr. Eandal, from whose paper on this subject the above remarks are taken, adds, " The early-sown barley is always the best. I think we ought, if possible, to get the greater part of it in in the month of March, the earlier in the month the better ; even the last week in February, if our hill land will work free, I do not think too early to begin sowing." And this opinion was expressed by others : — Mr. Eeader thought that where the general practice was to use large quantities of artificial manures for the root crop, and those roots fed off on the land, it was desirable the barley should be sown early — in February if the land would work well. He had always found early sown produce a larger quantity of corn, and of a very superior quality, and the straw of late sown was generally weak, consequently was often laid down, and injured very much the clover plant, which was a great consideration. Mr. Meade stated, with regard to the time of sowing barley, that the sooner it was done the better. He had once sown some in January, 2^- bushels per acre, and farther on in the season had sown the remainder of the field, 3 bushels per acre. At harvest he found the earliest sown much thicker on the ground, a larger quantity of corn, and a very much better quality. The Chairman had never known late sowing of barley to produce a good crop ; the quantity of straw would be very great, but the produce of grain was never nearly so good as early-sown corn. Barley on Fallow. — In some districts of heavy land it is the com- mon practice to sow barley on a summer fallow ; it is particularly so in Essex. There the farmers have long been accustomed to plough their fallows in August or September, on two-bout ridges, 108 Spring Wheat. [Feb. i.e. of four furrows each, of about three feet breadth ; if in August, some will reverse the ridges immediately after wheat sowing, others before it. They water grip the field well, and in February plough and sow, still on the same ridge, but harrowed nearly flat, by harrows made for the purpose. If they have a dry season to plough and sow, they get good crops, but much ever depends on this in spring tillage of clay lands, especially if imperfectly drained. To lay their lands in such form as to admit the scarifier and drill, the horses walking only in the furrows, and to avoid any spring ploughing, is necessary on undrained soils, and attended with success ; but the bet- ter plan is to thorough- drain the land, and then treat it like the rest. Spring wheats may be sown this month on any land adapted to them, either clover lea which has not been ploughed in time for an earlier sowing, or land which has borne a green crop — either pulled and carried away or fed on the land by sheep. The Talavera wheat is one of the best for sowing at this time — though almost any of the sorts usually sown in autumn will do very well. Later in the season the so called April wheat, a red-bearded sort, is alone fit for use as seed, and a description of it will accordingly be given next month. The present is the best time of the year for top dressings of wheat with half soluble manures, as guano, soot, rape cake, &c, and two or three cwts. of the first, thirty or forty bushels of the second, and four or five cwts. of the third, are a suflicient dressing per acre. It ought to be harrowed in as soon as possible. The more soluble manures, as nitrate of soda and sulphate of ammonia, are better sown somewhat later in the season, when growth is more active and will more rapidly make use of what is within its reach. To this subject reference will be made in March. Vetches to come into use for feeding during July may be sown now, as much as are likely to be wanted in that month. Three bushels per acre on any manured land of a clayey soil, are sown in rows eight inches or thereabouts apart, and will yield very valuable food for sheep and cattle, and be cleared away in time for a crop of good stubble turnips. Sainfoin, too, may be sown towards the end of this month, though it is more usually sown in March, when its cultivation is described. Seed beds for cabbages and kohl rabi should be sown this month for transplanting in May into the fields where they are to be grown. The seed bed should have been cleaned and manured and dug in autumn. Three or four ounces of seed should be sown on each square perch of the prepared nursery, well raked in, and then a peck of soot sown over each rod. A cabbage nursery cannot be too good, nor can too much care be taken to have strong plants, by afterwards thinning carefully. The Drumhead cabbage is the best sort for sowing at this season. And either the green or the purple Feb.] Parsnips. 109 variety of the kohl rabi may be chosen, if it be desired to try this crop. (See March.) Potatoes are sometimes planted as early as February ; but next month is the more ordinary season of planting in the field culture of this crop. It is right to plant early, to choose early sorts, and to plant them in early soils, in order to have reached maturity be- fore the time when the potato disease usually appears. If the land intended for them were not cleaned and manured, and deeply ploughed before winter, it may be well to plough the land this month, provided the weather be dry enough ; but in preparation for this, as well as for all other crops, no ploughing should go on while the soil is at all wet. VI. PAESNIPS. Parsnips sown in February on rich loamy soil, will repay cul- tivation ; but they demand a better soil than almost any other crop ; and if the farmer has not land of extraordinary quality, he had better not venture on their culture. They love a very deep, rich, dry, sound, friable, sandy loam, ploughed as deeply as possible towards the end of autumn, and left for the frost to pulverize and sweeten. About the middle of February, if the weather be favour- able, it will be proper to roll heavily and then sow and harrow in five or six pounds of seed per acre, in rows twelve or fifteen inches apart ; and they will come up in about six weeks. If the land is liable to grow small surface weeds, which will bury the young plants, some turnip seed, or a few grains of oats and barley should be sown with the parsnip. They will spring first, and show the position of the future row, and so enable the use of the hoe for keeping down intruders before the parsnip plant appears. The parsnip, on ordinary soils, is far out-distanced by the Belgian carrot, the mangold wurzel, and other root crops for cattle, sheep, or pigs ; but on rich parsnip soils, this root is undoubtedly both productive and remarkably nutritive ; and I here reproduce, some- what shortened, the statement given on this subject in the earlier editions of this book, by Mr. Budd, a correspondent of the Society of Arts, His report referred to the produce of one acre of parsnips. He said: — " In the first place, I put up sixteen hogs a fattening upon them, throwing the parsnips on the ground whole. This I con- tinued for about a month, when I observed they did not go on so well with them as at first. Upon this I boiled the par- snips, and made wash of them ; thickening the wash with half a bushel of barley-meal every day, giving it in a trough ; and I continued this method for two months, when I killed the hogs, and 110 Feeding -house. [Feb. found them to be very good meat, weighing from twenty-eight to thirty-three stone per hog, and worth in all 52Z. 17*. 4d. The barley-meal cost SI. 18s. 9d.; the fuel, 1Z. 10s.; attendance, 11. 5s.; which sums, added to the expenses attending the parsnips, prime cost of the hogs, &c, amount in the whole to 35Z. ; so that my profit upon this article only, is 17Z. 16s. Sd., which remains to be carried to the account of the parsnips. After my hogs were killed, I kept four dairy cows upon the remainder of the parsnips for three months, which, at Is. 6d. per week, amounted to 31. 12s.; and this sum, added to the 171. 16s. 8d., before mentioned, makes the nett profit on the one acre of parsnips to be 211. 8s. 8d. " I must observe, that giving my dairy cows the parsnips an- swered my purpose greatly, by increasing their milk, and making the butter much richer and finer than turnips or carrots, which I had given them long before. The manner in which I gave the parsnips was, cutting them in pieces." Mr. Budd's experience was a very unusual one. A good ordi- nary crop of the large Jersey parsnip may be ten to twelve tons per acre ; and it is- not generally worth, as food per acre, so much as the Belgian carrot or the mangold wurzel. Grass lands receive the same management this month as during January. Thoroughly dry pastures may be set apart for the ewes and lambs, which will receive cut roots and hay in troughs in the field. Water meadows are still treated as during winter, being flooded at intervals during February. If manure has not before been carried on to fields intended to be mown for hay, it may still be done in February during dry weather. And artificial manure may be applied, such as superphosphate of lime, and mixtures of it with guano, and with other mineral manures. On this subject see remarks in March. VII.— THE FEEDING-HOUSE ANJ) COW-BYRE. Cows are, many of them, about to calve. They should be suffered to run dry six or eight weeks before calving time ; and are kept in fair condition on chaff of hay and straw, with a limited allowance of roots ; or the roots are pulped, and the chaff is mixed with them a day before use. The whole acquires some heat from fermentation, and is more palatable and nutritious. As soon as they have calves, they are placed in the warmest yards, and put on a more liberal allowance of roots, either pulped or steamed, along with the best hay the farm affords. And it is a good thing to give them an allowance of bean-meal in their water. The management of the Calf was referred to in January. It may be added here, that in the Gloucestershire dairy districts, the calf is removed from the cow at six or eight days old, provided the Feb.] Weaning Calves. Ill dam be a cow, and not a heifer ; but if a heifer, the calf is allowed to remain about a fortnight, as the calf renders her easier to milk afterwards. At about a week old, calves are allowed each two quarts of the new milk twice a day. Nothing else is given till they are about two months old, except hay, which they generally eat well at a very early age, say three weeks. After two months old they consume a good quantity of hay, and then the two quarts of milk are reduced to one, and two quarts of water are added, which make a mixture of three quarts, as of course they require more to drink when they eat so much hay. At about ten weeks old they are turned to grass, and the milk is discontinued by degrees. It is not desirable that the heifer should suckle her first calf except for the limited period just mentioned; she should be made quiet for milking as soon as possible, and this object is defeated by allowing the calf to suck. The weaning of calves on skim-milk was alluded to at page 4*7. The practice prevalent in Berwickshire, where large numbers on every farm are reared and fed to come out as beef at two years old and upwards, is thus described by Mr. "Wilson, of Edington Mains. " It is desirable to have all the cows to calve between February 1 and April 1. If earlier, they will get almost dry ere the grass comes, and calves later than this will scarcely be fit for sale with the rest of the lot. "When a calf is dropped, it is immediately removed from its dam, rubbed dry with a coarse cloth or wisp of straw, and then placed in a crib in the calf-house among dry straw, where it receives a portion of its own mother's first milk. For a fortnight new milk is the only food suitable for it, and of this it should receive a liberal allowance twice a day ; but means should after this be used to train it to eat linseed cake and sliced Swedish turnips ; and the readiest way to do so is to put a bit of cake into its mouth immediately after getting its milk, as it will then suck greedily at anything it can get hold of. By repeating this a few times, and placing a few pieces in its trough, it will usually take to this food freely ; and whenever this is the case, it should have as much as it can take, so that its allowance of milk may be diminished to meet the necessities of the younger calves which are coming in succession. This is of the . greater importance that it is always most desirable to avoid mixing anything with their milk by way of helping the quantity. When a substitute must be resorted to, oatmeal porridge, mixed with the new milk, is perhaps the best. The sour smell invariably found in the calf-house when porridge, or jelly of any kind, is mixed with the milk, is proof sufficient that indigestion is the consequence. An egg put into each calf s allowance, and mixed with the milk by stirring with the hand, is a good help, and never does harm ; but, with this exception, it is best to give milk warm and unadulterated, however small the quantity ; and along with this dry farinaceous 112 The Sheepfold. [Feb. food, turnips and hay ad lib. If more liquid be needed, a pail with water may be put within their reach, as this does not produce the bad effects of mixed milt. Indeed, it is best to keep as closely as possible to the natural arrangement according to which the calf takes its suck at first frequently, and then at longer intervals, as it becomes able to eat of the same food as its dam. The diet of the cows at this season is a matter of some consequence. Swedish turnips yield the richest milk, but it is too scanty, and calves fed on it are liable to inflammatory attacks. Globe turnips should, therefore, form their principal food during the spring months. Care should also have been taken that they do not get too low in condition in the autumn and winter : and for this end it is well to put them dry at least three months before calving. Some may think this long ; but on a breeding farm milk is of little value at this season. The cows, when dry, are kept at less expense, and by this period of rest their consbitution is invigorated, greater jus- tice done to the foetus now rapidly advancing to maturity, and so much more milk obtained after calving, when it is really valuable. Patting beasts in boxes, stalls, and covered and open yards, con- tinue to receive their allowance of cake or meal, with cut or pulped or steamed roots and chaff. The main points to be attended to are to keep them well supplied with litter, and to be regular in giving them the requisite quantities and kinds of clean food in a clean place. (See Calendar in November.) They will be sold during early spring, as they become ready for the butcher. Cattle in store condition, whether young heifers, which will be put to the bull the ensuing summer, or young steers, which should be grazed during the summer, and afterwards fed during the following winter to be fit for the butcher at two years old, should have a sufficient supply of roots, either cut or pulped, along with chaff of hay and oat or bean-straw mixed. One or two lbs. a head of oil -cake along with this food will generally be repaid. VIII.— THE SHEEPFOLD. The Lambing season has now commenced on all low-land farms ; and the constant care and attention of the shepherd is now re- quired. Reference is made to the treatment of a lambing flock in the case of early lambs at page 50. By way of marking the contrast which obtains between the ma- nagement of a Highland sheep farm and that proper for February in lowland England, I again quote from the Lammermoor sheep farm, mentioned at page 55. " Lammermoor Sheep Farm, Feb. 5. — Erom the effects of the hard frost on the pastures, the sheep are beginning to lose condition, though they are still good for this time of the year. Towards the Kei--] Lammermoor Sheep Farm. 113 end of this month the leanest of ewes will be brought in, and get a moderate allowance of turnips daily. "With the exception of a few of the weakest, none of the hogs get turnips during winter, and they are not kept in a separate hirsel, but allowed to graze with the ewes. Two advantages are gained by this. The lambs, when weaned, being only kept from the ewes for about twelve days, when let back to them again generally recognise their own mothers, and continue to follow them during the winter, the ewe scraping the snow and lead- ing to shelter during storms. But the greatest advantage is, that since this plan was adopted there has been comparatively little loss from ' sickness,' an epidemic which, on some farms, in particular seasons, carried off nearly the whole of the young sheep. In some measure to compensate for the want of turnips, all the hogs of both breeds have a flannel jacket, twenty-two inches long and sixteen broad, sewed along their backs, to keep them warm and dry during cold, wet weather. This plan, as far as we are aware, is only adopted on another farm in this district. Though unsightly at the time, we are convinced that it is of great benefit, doing away with the neces- sity for smearing with tar, affording more protection to the animal, and greatly improving instead of injuring the fleece. The jackets are put on during the latter end of November, a few days after they are bathed. " Feb. 24. — At this season hill pastures, being deadened by frosts and bleached with rain, are at their worst, just when the additional demands made on the ewes, which are now heavy with lamb, would require a supply of more nourishing food. Quiet, fresh weather compensates greatly for the want of better food. ' The moss,' or hare's-tail cotton-grass, has been in perfection ; and on all grounds where this valuable plant abounds, the sheep are in nearly as good condition as they were three months ago. There is much, however, between the cup and the lip. Yesterday was fine, the ground actu- ally showing symptoms of spring, and our summer visitors, the plovers and curlews, making their appearance, when this day opened with three inches of snow on the ground, and the appearance of severe frosts. Such of the turnips as had escaped the effects of January's frosts have been stored for the use of the Cheviot ewes during March and April. The young sheep were put on turnips on the 22nd, and will continue to receive about one cart-load to 100 sheep, until the lambing has fairly commenced. The old ewes will begin to receive a few about the middle of March. Whenever the ground is sufficiently dry, the shepherds will begin to burn the heather." Fatting sheep, whether in the field on turnips or other roots, receiving oil cake or meal at the rate of about one lb. apiece, along with chaff of hay and a daily fold of green food ; or in sheltered 2 i 114 Sheep in sheds. [Feb. yards, brought in for the more economical consumption of their green food there, will now be making their best progress. Keep them dry, warm, and clean, if in yards, by daily supplies of fresh litter. The wet and cold weather which generally characterizes this month, makes a great difference between fatting sheep folded on turnips and sheep fed on them in yards, in cases where the latter can be kept free from foot-rot. Just the same difference, in fact, as the engineer finds in the cases respectively of a colliery steam- engine, with a boiler exposed to rain and snow, and one such as those found in Cornwall, where every part from which heat can escape is sheltered and covered. The farmer's object should be the same as that of the Cornish engineer. Both must adopt every means to economize the fuel ; for this is not with them, as with the engine at the coal-pit, to be had for nothing. Turnips and oil-cake are both costly articles — as much so to the farmer as are coals in Cornwall ; and the object of those who use them must be to pro- duce the intended effect with as small an expenditure as possible. Sheep and oxen in sheltered spots, and well littered, like steam- engines well "jacketed," waste a less portion of their food or their fuel in keeping up the heat proper to each ; and the remaining portion being much larger is more effective, by which the force is maintained in the one case, and the fat is laid on in the other. "Warmth is an equivalent for food;" for, supply warmth artifi- cially, and you will not need to supply so much of the food by which it is maintained naturally. Success in feeding depends, no doubt, on a good selection of stock, and on a proper selection of food for them ; but it also greatly depends on the attention of the farmer in keeping his stock dry, clean, and warm. Sheep in. sheds should this month be making about their best progress. Those intended for the butcher after shearing in May, should have received from the 1st Nov., peas, oats, or oil cake, com- mencing with half a pint of the first, three quarters of a pint of the second, or half a lb. of the third ; and increasing gradually up to three quarters of a pint, one pint, and one lb. respectively each. They will eat with these from fifteen up to twenty-five lbs. of cut Swedes each daily, according to the weight of the animals. It is a fair rule to. go by, that an animal, when full grown, will eat daily of green food a weight equal to one quarter the weight of its carcass when in fair condition ; and it may be assumed that the oil cake given will reduce the quantity of Swedes required by about eight lbs. of the latter for every lb. of the former. A good crop of Swedes pulled and cut, the sheep being folded on the land, will keep ten sheep for five months per acre ; the same crop may be assumed as equal to the keep of thirteen or fourteen under shed. I have had 350 sheep so kept during winter ; they ate about three and a half- tons of roots daily ; and a lad about nineteen years old, with two Feb.] Sheep in sheds. 115 boys under him, managed the whole. They were placed on two sides of a long yard, which was sheltered on each side, and the space under the shed was divided into pens, about ten feet by fif- teen; in each of these pens ten sheep were kept. They were littered as often as the straw became wetted, which was about twice a week, and the manure was removed from beneath them about once a month. Their feet were paired once a month ; and whenever there appeared the least growth of spongy matter, like that which precedes foot-rot, it was cut, and very dilute nitric acid placed on it. The sheep were fed three times a clay, about eight lbs. of Swedes a-piece being given them the first thing in the morning, half a pint ,of peas about eleven o'clock, four lbs. of Swedes at one p.m., and eight lbs. in the evening. The practice thus described was faulty, in that the sheep were not littered often enough. It is essential that they be kept dry, in order to avoid the foot-rot ; and, if necessary, they should be lit- tered twice !i day instead of twice a week. The subject of feeding sheep in yards has lately (March, 1861) .occupied a good deal of attention ; and I extract the following from Mr. Euston's account of his experience, then read before the London Farmers' Club. His farm lies in the fen district ; and mangold wurzels aro his great resource for yard feeding either of sheep or cattle. He says — " These fen lands of ours grow a heavy crop of mangolds and a bulky crop of straw, although the quality is inferior. We have the .corn standing in the stackyard, ready to be threshed, that the straw may be converted, during the winter months, into manure : we have Ahe mangolds also carted into heaps in the neighbourhood of the •fold-yard, ready to be consumed ; and we have the hay stacked -there, too, for the same purpose — at least so much of it as is not required for the work-horses. The question then arises, How can this straw be manufactured into manure, and this accumulation of food be consumed most profitably ? Can it be best effected by bul- locks or by sheep ? " The more common method of converting our coarse straw into •manure, and of consuming our mangolds and inferior hay, has been by purchasing for that purpose some growing bullocks in the autumn, giving them a few pounds of cake or corn per day, in addition to the natural food, and selling them again in the spring either at our home fairs, or at Norwich, or in some other grazing district. If the bullocks have kept healthy and thriven well, they have occasionally left 20s. or 30s. per head for the natural food con- sumed ; but it has been far more frequently the case that they have only just paid for their artificial food, and the mangolds and hay have had to be charged to the manure account. This mode of management was not very satisfactory. But the case has become i 2 116 Sheep in yards. [Feb, even worse during the last few years, since the appearance of the lung disease, and our losses from this cause alone have been fearful, " I have now tried sheep in yards for five years. Last year the lung disease appearing in a lot of Scots I had, excited my fears lest it should spread and decimate another lot which I had just received from Scotland. I therefore determined at once to send the latter lot away, and sell them again, keeping only those in which the disease had appeared. This drove me to the necessity of purchasing nearly 400 lambs for the purpose of consuming my hay and mangolds, and of manufacturing my straw into manure. I made very close observations, kept a diary of all necessary particulars, falued them iuto the j r ards, and valued them out to grass with the dates of going in and out ; calculated their cost for artificial food, noticed very narrowly what quantity of straw they made into manure, and also the quality of the manure, as far as appearances enabled me to judge. From close and careful observation last winter and again this — for I have now between 600 and 700 sheep in yards — I fmd six lambs will tread down as much straw, and make it into good manure, as a 121. or 14Z. bullock. I put the sheep into my ordinary fold yards, and always calculate six sheep to one bullock ; so that where I should have ten bullocks I put sixty sheep. During the whole of last winter I don't suppose I had more thau a dozen lame sheep whilst they were in the yards ; and there have been far less cases in the yards than there were previously to their coming in. I find it is very essential to keep a thin layer of dry straw over the yard. In wet days we litter them twice a day, and on fine days once, but we only use a small quantity at a time ; this just keeps the heat of the manure from rising to injure their feet, and prevents them also treading on wet straw during the day. "When they first come into the yard, and indeed until the end of February, when the days begin to lengthen, we give them a larger quantity of dry food ; they pick the bedding straw over, and where practicable have a stack or good heap in the yard to run to ; we also cut them chaff, hay and straw together, and feed them several times a day with it. We give them a few mangolds twice or thrice a day, but not in quanti- ties sufficiently large to make them scour ; but as the days lengthen we increase the quantity of roots, and reduce the supply of dry food. I find an acre of mangolds of an average crop will carry twenty-five sheep— i.e. twenty -five lambs— during the weeks they will require to be in the yard, say from the beginning of December till the beginning or middle of April ; old sheep would consume more, and twenty per acre would be a fair calculation. "I will now present some details in connexion with my last year's experiments. The 377 lambs wintered in the yards last year were bought during the months of August and September, and were kept entirely at grass-keeping without artificial food, until Decern- Feb.] Sheep in yards. 117 ber, when they were consigned to their winter quarters. A few of them were lost during the winter, hut at the end of the winter when turned out to grass the following had been the results : — " The whole 377 lambs were valued into £ s. d. £ s d. the yards at G18 14 They cost for artificial food ... 37 15 li Making a total cost of G5G 9 l-£ Further, the 364 put to grass were valued at S91 VI And the 13 casualties realised . . 9 1G 3 Making a total of 901 8 3 Which shows a profit on the whole of 244 19 l£ And this I dispose of as follows — viz., hay, straw, attendance, at 3s. per head, for 377 56 11 15 acres mangold, allowing 25 sheep to the acre, at 111. lis. 2§d. per acre "... 1S8 8 1|- or, if you take two acres more mangolds, and call the total quantity seventeen acres, it will then give you 111. Is. 8d. per acre for them, within a fraction : but I regard the former as the more correct calcu- lation." This was an instance of extraordinary return, and in Mr. Huston's case it was contrasted with great ill luck in the cattle feeding with which he had to compare it. This he describes as follows : — " The lot of Scots to which I have referred as having last year been afflicted with lung disease, were bought on the 12th of March, 1859, .and cost just 81. 3s. 4id. per head when they reached my farm. They were put upon a very good (for our country) field of grass, and made considerable progress, and on the 1st of July of the same year, when taking stock, with a view to closing and balancing my year's accounts, I valued them at 111. per head. On the 29th of October they were put into yards, and I then valued them at 12Z. 10s. per head. But before that time two of them were seized with lung disease, and had to be killed, and by the 3rd of Decem- ber the number was reduced to eighteen. Some of the best bullocks fell, and I found the better plan was to dispose of them at once, before they sustained any serious harm. After the 3rd of December no more disease appeared, and I kept the eighteen until the 2nd of February, 1860, when they left me in good health, but went to a bad market, keep being very short last spring, and they brought home, clear of expenses, only 121. lis. Gd. per head, or just Is. Gd. per head more than they were worth on the 29th of the previous October. During the time they were in the yards they consumed chaif— half hay and half straw — and three 118 Swine. [Feu, pounds of the best decorticated cotton-seed cake each per day. They had no mangolds, as they were at a farm where none were grown that year. The cost per head for cake was 11. Is. Gd. The six that fell with lung disease made 29Z. 6s. less than they were valued at when they went into the yards, and the eighteen that did not suffer lost 11. per head on the cake account, besides all the hay, straw, and attendance — rather a costly yard of manure ! " Take, however, a case where 30s. per head has been realized for the natural food consumed during the months that cattle have been in the yards, one bullock will return as much profit as two-and-a- half sheep, or a trifle over, and will yet have cost as much keeping as sis sheep. The figures will stand thus — Profit on one bullock, 11. 10s. ; profit on six sheep, which have consumed the same amount of food, and made the same amount of manure, 81. 18s. This year, I have, as before stated, 600 sheep in the yards ; these are con- suming the food and making the manure that 100 bullocks would consume and make. Taking 11. 10s. as the profit per head on 100 bullocks, and 31. 18s. the profit on six sheep — and I think the latter is quite as likely to be realized this year as the former, and indeed more so — what is my position ? Why, instead of getting 150Z. for the food consumed by 100 bullocks, for the very same food con- sumed by 600 sheep, I get 390L : which simply puts 240Z. into my pocket, and emboldens me to argue in favour of sheep as manure manufacturers/' I give Mr. Euston's experience in detail as it so strongly justifies his recommendation to adopt the winter feeding of sheep in yards. On the quality of the manure thus made it seems plain, as manure is just food minus growth, that the kind of animal has nothing to do with the question, which hinges entirely on the quality of food and the kind of growth that is being made out of it. Patting sheep fed equally well make as good manure as fatting beasts. On the other hand, the cattle are more liable to disease, and it seems that fen- grown food will not fatten them. Sheep, again, if well littered, will not suffer from lameness, and are not liable to any other attack, and they appear to yield a valuable coat of wool over and above as much meat as is made by bullocks. At any rate, in the case of Mr. Euston's farm, the difference is amazingly in favour of the sheep, and his experience will no doubt induce many copyists of his example. SWINE. Fatting logs may receive barley meal, and barley and oats, and pease meal mixed in a stiffish paste, as much as they will take daily towards the end of the feeding process. At first, "when put up to- fatten, large hogs may receive thirty or forty pounds of steamed Feb.] Composts. 119 roots — mangold warzels, carrots, or parsnips mixed up in a stiffish paste with four or five pounds of meal daily. Sows in farrow should bring forth in February or March, and their spring litters of the previous year may be either ready for sale now as stores for fattening, or they may have been fattened during their first winter, and come out weighing ten to twelve scores — more or less, according to the breed— as bacon soon after Christmas. COMPOSTS AND DUNG HEAPS. A good deal of work is generally done this month in clearing out yards and building dung heaps in the fields. The instructions given last month may still be observed with advantage. In the earlier edition of this work a quotation * was given commencing thus : — " The farmer may use composts to advantage when they con- sist of proper materials and are skilfully mixed." The writer goes on to describe the usual practice of malting composts as follows : — " The common way is to lay the several materials in layers, one over the other, till a large heap is raised ; and it is the practice of many farmers to make these layers from six inches to a foot in thickness ; but this I have found by experience is wrong. For the fermentation raised in the compost is not strong enough to penetrate these thick layers, especially those of clay or strong earth ; for after the rest have sufficiently fermented, and the compost is turned, these layers rise almost as whole as when first laid, and must be broken by hand, to mix them with the rest of the compost ; whence arise two inconveniences ; one, an extraordinary expense of labour ; and the other, that twice or thrice turning is sometimes necessary to dissolve these large pieces ; and as a new fermentation is excited every time the compost is turned, the strength of the manure is greatly wasted before it is laid upon the land, where it is then incapable of raising any considerable fermentation, which is one of the principal uses of manure. " The best way, therefore, of making compost, is not in thick layers ; but after the ground is marked out for the compost, to lay the several materials, after being well broken, in heaps round the space marked out for the compost heap ; and to place a man be^ tween each two heaps, to throw the manure abroad upon that space. In this manner the compost-heap will soon be raised to the intended height, and the several sorts of manure being thus well mixed, the whole will soon begin to ferment, and will incorporate as fully in two months, as the same manures, placed in layers in the usual way, will in four or five." * Arthur Young does not say from whom. 120 Composts. [Feb. Further remarks are made, but the editor concludes : — " So many farmers are fond of composts, that I have ventured this one quotation in their favour, which contains as much as can be said for them. In my own opinion, nearly the whole business of composts is founded in error, and that thus to apply any sort of dung or sea-weed is sure to be done to a loss ; and vegetable sub- stances should be thrown into a yard for making dung." This is probably the true view of the subject, and the policy of covered yards in which all excrementitious, and vegetable matters as litter, may bo mingled and trodden down under cattle, has been already considered. I will, however, add further remarks on this subject, both on composts and farm-yard manure. Composts. — The preparation of manure for use during the sea- son of vegetable growth is one great business of the winter season. This includes the purchase of fertilizers (referred to in March), both soluble salts, such as those of ammonia and the nitrates of potash and soda, for application as top dressing to the growing crops later in the season, and the less soluble fertilizers, as guano, superphos- phate and bone-dust, which may be applied early in the season with less risk of waste and more probability of being used by the plants as soon as ready for absorption. It also includes the manufacture of heaps of fertilizing matter on the farm, whether of farmyard dung exclusively, or of dung and the various vegetable and mineral auxiliary manures which the farm aifords. 1. Of those which are properly the compost heaps of the farm : — What a number of tilings may be turned to good account is plain from the mere list of the animal, vegetable, and mineral sub- stances existing on the farm, of some use as manures. There are thus, roots, hedge-clippings, fallen leaves, weeds, couch-grass, fern- leaves, moss, river- and sea-weeds, sods and turf from ditches, lanes, and hedgerows, sawdust, spent bark and peat when properly de- composed, among vegetable substances. Many of them contain their nitrogenous part in a higher proportion than the straw of grain, and several of them are equally rich in the mineral consti- tuents of plants. Besides these vegetable substances there is the animal waste, sometimes accessible on a farm, such as carcases, blood, bones, fat, blubber, waste fish, sprats, muscles and other shell-fish, which are in some places and sometimes to be had. They all contain a large proportion of nitrogen, much more, indeed, than ordinary farmyard dung. Mineral substances are also available, such as earth from hedges, scourings of ditches, banks, ponds, road- scrapings, and various marls, chalk, and sometimes beds containing a considerable proportion of phosphate of lime. Eefuse substances of trade are also sometimes available, and equal in their fertilizing effects to any known manure ; such are woollen rags, shoddy, Feb.] Farmyard dung, 121 eoapers' -waste, glue refuso, refuse of starch and sugar-works, of provision-curers, slaughter-houses, curriers, &c. Any of these substances which contain the food of plants are of course applicable with good effect as a manure ; but besides their direct contribution of matter to be built up in the growing crop, their influence on the texture of the soil to which they are to be applied has to be cousidered ; and hence, when applying mineral matter we improve light soils by the use of clayey composts, and stiff soils by the use of light and organic composts. It is, how- ever, the advantage of the compost form of manure, that the effect produced by its application is greater than the sum of the effects which would have been produced by the separate use of its several ingredients. And hence, in making our composts we use such in- gredients as will improve and act on one another in the heap. Many of the ingredients named require a complete disintegration, in order to their fertilizing character, and hence lime, which facilitates their decomposition, is a very important ingredient in most com- posts. Peat, for instance, is a substance which can be brought into use by the aid of lime, and composts of peat thus prepared, with the addition of farm dung, are often a most successful method of eking out and increasing the fertilizing resources of the farm. In practice, a half-charred mass of rough vegetable matter if it have been originally woody, or a half-rotten heap of such matter, if it have been originally succulent, along with lime, or even mere mould, may well be made the foundation and the top layer of heaps containing rotten flesh or blubber, or mere dung, to be ultimately well mixed up together and used, as the dung heap usually is, for the green crops of the farm. If the land be light or spongy it is well to mix as large a proportion of clay or marly earth as possible, for the sake of its influence on the texture of the land. It must, however, be added, that it is not to be recommended that much time be devoted to compost-making on the farm. Such manures are bulky, and involve great labour of cartage, and the 6ystem now is to spend money rather on the direct purchase of cattle food or portable manure, than on the labour of developing the less immediate home resources of the farm. The use of many of these ingredients, as peat, first well dried and broken, sawdust, and even spent bark (which is best half charred before use), is best confined to their employment as litter or in the yards, where they may suck up liquid fertilizers, otherwise liable to waste. If laid up in heaps they should be soaked with gas-water liquid manure, or other easily fermentable substances by which they are reduced into a more soluble condition. If lime be mixed with them, its caustic effect will be increased by the addition of a certain proportion of common salt. 2. Of Farmyard dung ; — This, as it consists specially of what 122 Farmyard dung. [Feb; has already grown out of the soil, acts as a fertilizer by restoring to the land ingredients taken thence, together with matters drawn also from the air, which shall thus feed another crop of plants. It is well, in order to check waste of manure on the farm, to have a dis- tinct impression of the quantitative nature of the fertility of the soil. Given a suitable climate and suitable plants, it depends en- tirely on the presence in sufficient quantity of those particular atoms which the plants invigorated by that climate need for the erection of their structures. It is often declared that the rain washes the valuable quality out of the dung, and that exposure to air induces the loss of its valuable qualities. Now, the quality of a manure depends altogether on that of its constituent particles. It is because ammonia contains nitrogen in a form in which plants can use it, that it is a useful element of the dung-heap, and to speak of exposure as rendering dung liable to the loss of much of its valu- able qualities, just means that it is liable to the loss of its ammonia. So with the phosphates and other soluble salts. Dung never loses quality except by losing quantity. They are actual material par- ticles, possessing weight, which fly from it or which flow from it - T and the distinct and definite idea that so much matter has gone by mismanagement, which if built into the plants would have added to their weight, is one which it is well to have fixed in the mind. The loss of so-called quality might be borne under the idea that by skilful management its lost character might be restored : the loss of so much quantity is absolute and irreparable ; as entire as if the value of the quantity in question had been thrown into the sea. The waste to which farmyard dung is liable arises chiefly out of the mode of its manufacture. Eor the sake of obtaining the dung in a condition in which it contains ready-made the food of plants, and in which it may be easily mixed with the soil, it is fer- mented in large heaps, and these are generally open to the air and rain. The consequence is, that the products of the fermentation which ensues escape into the air or are washed out into the ditch, and in either case are lost to the farmer. The remedy is either to plough the manure under as soon as made, i.e. as soon as the litter is used and soiled, or to gather it in heaps from day to day an made, placing it on a layer of absorbent earth, and covering it with a layer of earth in a ridge-form, as described in January, which shall shed the rain- and suck up all exhalations. Dr. Voelcker tells us indeed that it is much more by the washing of rain-water than by the escape of the gaseous products of fermentation that manure suffers loss, and that no better plan exists of applying dung to the land than spreading it over the surface as soon as made, whether it be ploughed under at once or not. When freshly made it contains but little matter capable of loss by exposure, or by washing, but F EB ] Farmyard dung. 123 this loss becomes possible and actual as it rots in heaps together. The inference as to top-dressing of recent manure during the ■winter months, to be ploughed under as the weather permits, before spring time, is one which ought to be fully tested in the field. The use of an absorbent and disinfectant substance which shall fix the volatile products of fermentation and at the same time hinder the fouling of the air of our stables and feeding-houses, would be almost done away with, if the practice should prevail of ploughing in or applying dung as soon as made ; nevertheless for a long time to come, indeed always as regards a considerable portion of the manure of the farm, dung will be rotted in heaps, and the means of retaining and fixing the products of its fermentation will be used. Earth covering the heap is an efficient strong box for the vapour of a rotting dung-heap. Charcoal, which has been highly spoken of for this use, is a good disinfectant ; but this is by oxidiz- ing, which means burning up the emanations which we wish to retain. To cover the dung-heap with charcoal would indeed remove all smell, but this it would do by destroying or converting into substances unavailable for plants the things we wish to use. Gypsum is good as a manure in itself, but comparatively inefficient as a fixer of ammonia, owing to its comparative insolubility. Chloride of zinc (Sir ~W. Burnett's disinfectant) is costly and poi- sonous. Sulphate of iron would be a good fixer of ammonia, owing to the sulphuric acid it supplies, but its iron would convert the phosphates into an insoluble and useless salt. Common salt has some powers as a fixer of ammonia, but these depend upon affinities so nearly balanced as to render them neither permanent nor long- lived. Sulphuric acid would indeed be a good fixer of ammonia, but it is entirely unfitted, by its corrosive properties, for use near animals. Mr. M'Dougall, of Manchester, suggests the alkaline or lime salts of carbolic acid, a product of the distillation of coal, as an efficient and harmless fixer of ammonia, and disinfectant, and there exist testimonials in its favour in the latter respect. The quantity of farm manure possible on a farm. — The fol- lowing data may assist an estimate. On Whitfield farm, Glouces- tershire (150 acres of grain crop, 30 acres of clover, and 60 acres of green crop), upwards of 2000 cubic yards of manure were made annually, or probably about 1200 or 1300 tons, and this would re- present one ton of straw as making about four tons of dung. This was when large quantities of green crops were grown, probably 1000 to 1200 tons of roots each year. Again, as so many separate facts bearing on this question, it may be added (a) that an ox fed on green food and hay and straw will yield about one ewt. of excre- ment, liquid and solid, daily. Mr. Haxton, in the ' Cyclopaedia of 124 Fences. [Feb. Agriculture," calculates that a stall-fed ox of full size will yield of Solid dung during — ■ tons cwt. qrs. lbs. 210 days 55 lbs a day 5 3 14 155 days 41 lbs. a day 2 16 27 Add litter 14 lbs. a day 2 5 2 14 Urine absorbed by litter 22|~ lbs. . . 3 13 1 8 Iu all, per annum 13 18 1 7 But besides this a lot of urine runs to waste, making altogether probably about twenty tons per ox, stall-fed, throughout the year. If the ox be box-fed ratber more litter is needed, and all the urine is absorbed by it, so that the quantity is not only greater, but its .quality is better. On this point Professor Way's figures* may be .quoted. He found box manure to contain 71 per cent, of water, and nitrogen equal to 2'37 percent, of ammonia, when yard manure, otherwise similarly made, contained nitrogen equal to only 1'7 per .cent, of ammonia. Box manure contained also '3 per cent., or one half more, of phosphoric acid, and 2 per cent, of potash and soda, or more than twice as much as in farmyard dung. b. The horse voids about 35 to 40 lbs. of dung daily. It loses more by perspiration, and is generally fed on drier food than the .ox, so that there is less urine and the dung is drier. Mr. Haxton calculates its annual yield at about 11 tons : — Much however of it is wasted on the roads when it is out at work, (c) Of pigs and sheep it may be estimated that eight or ten make as much manure .as a full-grown ox, consuming as they do about the same quantity .of food, (d) If 600 acres be cultivated on a six-field system, it may be supposed to yield per annum 600 tons of dry fodder and litter, and 2500 tons of green and succulent food ; and the produce .of manure may be estimated thus : — The winter food will keep 120 beasts or 1000 sheep, yielding 1600 tons of farm dung during the winter months. The summer stall feeding and the stable may be .expected to yield other 400 tons, or 2000 tons in all. How much this may be reduced in quantity and how much in quality by mis- management, Dr. Voelcker has shown in his illustrations of the superiority of winter top dressings, and of the application of fresh- made manure, or of box-feeding and manure-making under cover, .over the ordinary method of treading straw down in yards, and •" making" the dung in exposed and rapidly fermenting heaps." X.— FENCES. February is a good month for planting young quicks for hedges. The line of the fence should have been deeply trenched the previous * See Mr. Lawrence's paper, Eng. Ag. Soc. Journ. vol. xviii. Feb.] Fences. 125- autumn ; and if the ground be drained all that is now needed is to- lay the young plants in a straight trench cut in this tilled soil, about five or six inches apart, having previously cut off the head at about two or three inches above the surface of the ground, and also- pruned any extravagance or irregularity of growth in the roots. A row of railing on each side of the young fence is needed for its protection ; and this in some districts would be a costly affair. It is common, there- fore, to dig a ditch along one side of the intended fence, and throw the earth beyond, upon its other side ; there is thus a ditch on one side and a mound on the other for its protection. When materials for posts and rails are abundant, the natural position of the young plants in well and deeply tilled soil, undisturbed by a ditch or mound, is the best. A double row is recommended as preferable to a single one for an efficient fence ; the rows should be about ten inches apart, and the plants in each eight inches apart, placed opposite the inter- vals, in the other. Old Enclosures. — In various parts of the kingdom, farms that have been enclosed, perhaps for ages, are split into such a number of small fields, that the loss of land by hedges, ditches, and borders, is ruinous, and the evil so great, that a spirited tenant must deter- mine as soon as possible to throw several of such small fields into one, leaving the enclosures of such a size as suits the extent of the business, and of such a form as admits the operations of tillage ■without loss of time by the team perpetually turning. This is a business of considerable importance, and a judicious landlord should second the views of his tenant by removing the trees which stand in such condemned hedge-rows. "Woods. — This month, as well as the preceding, is a good season for felling underwood, in which work, and the converting of the product to the best profit, lies much judgment. In some counties hoop stuff pays best ; in some, hop poles are, of all other articles, the most profitable ; in others, faggot-wood of various sorts. In some situations copse-wood, loose or tied in faggots, is particularly valuable. In others, nothing in a wood pays so well as hurdles. Whatever answers best, the farmer should apply his wood to, and subject his management of it to such changes as a variation in demand may occasion. • Plant Osiers. — It is now a proper time to plant osiers. Such plantations pay well in low, spongy, boggy bottoms near a stream. The land should be formed by spade-work into beds, six, eight, or ten feet broad, by narrow ditches ; and if there is a power of keep- ing water in these cuts at pleasure by a sluice, it is in some seasons very advantageous to do so. February is also a month for cutting osiers. (See January.) Hop-grounds continue to give work inFebruaryas during January, in draining, grubbing, and trenching ; in cutting underwoods, &c, J26 March. [Mab, and ditching and planting in the coppices ; in throwing and sorting hop-poles, and in digging some of the free-working hop-grounds. On wet days some of the men may be employed in mixing up manures in preparation for application. This latter process is managed under cover, thus — with 600 bushels of ground bones may be mixed three times as many bushels of dry ashes ; and to this compost is added strong urine water from the tank, which is pumped into the mixture as required, until each portion is thoroughly saturated ; it absorbs about half the measure of water. It is then successively cast up into a large heap, interspersed with layers of gypsum, and the top covered over with common salt. It will soon become intensely hot in the interior ; and, of course, the bones will quickly decompose. It constitutes an excellent manure for turnips or for any kind of crop, hops among the number. The teams will be engaged during rough and frosty weather in carting hop-poles, dune, stones, wood, &c, and in fair weather in ploughing after turnips for the spring crops. Irrigation proceeds in February as in January until towards the end of the month, when the land is laid dry, and affords the earliest spring food that can anyhow be obtained. Grass lands for mowing or for grazing in the ensuing summer are as nearly as possible at rest. The ewe flock may be kept on the drier pastures still ; and the application of artificial dressing to the land, referred to in the month of March, may be commenced ; but all stock should now or very soon be sent out of the fields, which must next month be picked, bush-harrowed, and rolled, and shut up for some weeks before the spring growth commences. MARCH. The ordinary weather of March may be gathered from the figures of the meteorological table on the next page, which describe the temperature and rain-fall during this month at a number of English stations. March is one of the stormiest months of the- year, but almost as variable in its character from year to year as February. Sometimes wet, late, and tedious ; and at others early, dusty, and active. The ordinary operations of the farm during March direct the attention of the farmer especially to the subject of (1) seeds, and (2) artificial manure ; both of which he must purchase for use upon the farm. Sowing operations include the continuance of (3) larley sowing, the completion of (4) spring wheat, and also, if pos- .-tjO 1 CONCOW COCO OoS: nriHW S fc ^ i ifzi <0 » 9 »; a 3«- , 3 co g o S-S-1& 5 c u ea ,^ a o rf o £ O ca o -^ -^ -* N CO lO CO IN CO «5 Vi WWirj^MMCOWHN (N CO CO «CNCOCOI>.OOCOi--ir-l r-l O O OOOOOOOOOO tjCOCSNt-WOl -* •* r-l CD "* t}I WCOOSW-^HHfNNN lOOOOOOl r- 1 OO CO O O rHWiOOOOCOCOCOrH '.Art • ills fa s § iqonowh o o C0 lO «3 «5 WS "* O o OO O -1* o •>* as ioowooocchintii i— i^COtOCHOHCOClM lO lO IO l£J ■* ■* «3 «S -*J( lO IflONOCW l— i r— oo ira cs co W5 i-H CO o CO o o o CO r-l W IC5 O O O O i— llOOU] |>-r^.-^cOJ>,CD^-ltN'^T-< O <0 © O O O t» CON O S fl » £ ■*i4 1>. r- r- o ws ■ O « H i^ O ih co t-H i-H CN CN Oi "■* pratense repens II. III. IV. Inches. Inches. Inches. tO J i to J 1 0-4 I-l 2i 0-4 1 -li 2i o — I i — H 2 4-1 ij-if 4 o-i l-i 2i o-i i -ii 2i o-i li — 14 2i o-i l -H 2i o-i f-l 2 o-i I-l 2J o-i l -li 3i i-i ii — ia 34 o-i i-i 2 o-i i- i 1 o-i i a 14 o-i _L 1 4 •£ 14 o-i I-l 14 l-i 2 — 2.V 4i i-l 14-15 4 o-i I- 1 li o-i li — li 2 o-i i- 14 Mr. Sterling obtained these results by sowing the seed in finely- sifted dark loam, which was kept moist throughout the process of germination, to which is attributable the circumstance of many of the seeds germinating well, as is shown in Column II., even without a covering. The combination of such favourable circumstances of soil and moisture can, however, seldom be calculated on for field sowing, and a covering of mould, even for the smallest seeds, is 136 Choice of Seed. [Mab. therefore always desirable ; and the other columns show that many seeds must inevitably be lost from over depth of covering, unless the ground be in all cases carefully prepared and pulverized before sowing any of the grasses. * These seeds almost all belong to the grasses and clovers ; it is however hardly necessary to add, that no advantage is gained in spring by covering the larger seeds with a deep covering of earth. Beans, peas, wheat, oats, and barley, are none of them the better for having more than an inch of earth above them. Mangold wurzel, carrot, parsnip, and turnip seed, should not be covered by more than half an inch of soil. The choice of ssed hinges (1) on the character of the different varieties of each crop offered in the market, and for this the reader must refer to the description given of each ; and (2) on the locality •where the seed was grown ; though on this point we believe that un- due importance is generally placed. Let it, in the first place, be admitted that a healthily grown, thoroughly ripened seed is perfect of its kind, and, these conditions being fulfilled, it matters nothing whether it be grown on chalk, or clay, or sand. A " change" from one geological formation to an- other, or from one farm to another, is not, as some seem to think it. necessarily an advantage. Healthily grown and thoroughly ripened wheat is to be had in any county in the kingdom ; and if, having it, you have that which is perfect of its "kind," it is plain that you need not travel for a " change." The question, however, is — What of the character of a grain is involved in this term " kind ;" and the answer we presume to be — All that it inherited or can transmit. Now nothing is more certain in agricultural experience than that besides those characters of plants which botanists admit as the per- manent distinctions of species, there are other habits or features of greater or less permanence, which plants acquire by the constant treatment of the cultivator or the constant influence of habitat and climate, and which, though capable of alteration and ultimate extinc- tion by other treatment, are yet not altogether transient, but will re-appear in subsequent seasons in greater or less degree, according as the circumstances of the locality or season are favourable or other- wise. Thus, we doubt not that a "kind" distinguished for several years under good cultivation for extraordinary productiveness, will be more likely than one of inferior character in this respect to yield well even under inferior cultivation, xlnd the advice on this sub- ject which we should offer would be, simply to look out for seed of a sort which has been known for many years to yield most bushels per acre of good grain. If it can be had from your neighbour, then you will be saved the trouble of sending to either end of the island for it. There are, however, characters which grain from Sussex and from Aberdeen respectively are likely to bring with them in addition to M.\k.] Artificial Manures. 137 the quantity or quality of their produce ; and if a choice must be made between the two, it must hinge upon the relative value of those characteristics which the respective climates of those counties are likely to have encouraged, and, as it were, imprinted. Is hardi- ness and ability to withstand severity of winter and spring especially desired ? then seed from the northern county will probably be pre- ferred. Is earliness of ripening desired ? then, though this is pro- bably a less certain character than the other, yet it is more likely to be found in grain from Sussex than in that from Aberdeen ; and it is probable that the latter is generally in this country the most valu- able character of the two. The quantity of seed to be purchased for use upon the farm is to bo obtained by multiplyiug the following quantities per acre by the number of acres to be sown. Wheat, 1^ to 2 bushels ; barley, 2 to 3 bushels ; oats, 3 to 4 bushels ; beans, 1^ to 3 bushels ; peas, 2 to 3 bushels ; vetches, 2^ to 3 bushels. Sainfoin, 4 bushels (of the rough seed) ; turnips, 3 lbs. ; mangold wurzels, 6 to 8 lbs. ; carrots, 6 to 7 lbs. ; parsnips, 5 to 7 lbs. Mixed grass seeds, 40 to 50 lbs. But of these, and other crops, details will be given at their respective seed times. II.— AETIFICIAL MANTJKES. The use of auxiliary manures upon the farm is now almost universal. On the light soils of the chalk districts and elsewhere in England, it is the common practice to apply almost all the farm manure to the clover stubble before ploughing it up for wheat, to purchase superphosphate of lime for the turnip crop, and to consume large quantities of cake and corn by sheep folded on those turnips, thus manuring the land for the succeeding barley crop. In the north it is more common to break up the clover and grass for oats, to apply the dung of the farm to the green crops, turnips, potatoes, &c, and to purchase guano and other manures for dressings both to green crops and to the wheat. There seems a greater need for the use of ammoniacal manures in the case of turnips in the Scottish climate than exists in the south. Probably the best practice on the lighter soils of south and midland England would be to give barely half a dressing of dung in spring to all the land for turnips, along with three cwts. of superphosphate of lime per acre ; to give a full dressing of farm dung in autumn to the land for the mangold wurzel crop, along with two or three cwts. of guano and two or three cwts. of common salt per acre in spring ; to give a fair dressing of dung, in autumn if possible, to land intended for potatoes, along with two or three cwts. of guano as a top dressing in spriug at planting time ; to give a fair 138 Adulteration of Manures. [Mah. dressing of dung to the clover in autumn for the wheat crop ; to give a fair dressing of dung in autumn for the vetches, beans, and perhaps peas ; and to give, if anything, one cwt. of nitrate of soda now, or very soon, per acre to all the spring-corn requiring it. Barley after turnips fed on the land will need no such dressing. In the case of an eight-field rotation you would, according to this, need for every 200 acres— in 1, wheat; 2, turnips; 3, barley; 4, clover ; 5, wheat ; 6, mangold wurzel ; 7, oats ; 8, beans respectively — seventy-five cwts. of superphosphate, sixty cwts. of guano, and pro- bably twenty cwts. of nitrate of soda per annum. Tou would grow about 200 tons of straw, which might make, by the aid of compost additions, 1200 tons of dung — equal to twelve tons per acre for all your wheat, six tons per acre for the turnips, twelve tons for the mangold wurzel, and six tons for the beans ; and these quantities, supplemented by the purchases just named, would keep the soil in ample fertility. On the perfect fitness of these artificial manures to the growth of turnips in our southern English climate, take the following from Mr. Cubitt, Bacton Abbey, Norfolk : — " There is no doubt that the farmers are humbugged by artificial manures to the extent of some tens of thousands annually ; but for the last ten years I have used home-made superphosphate with bones dissolved on my own premises, and under my own inspection, and having tried various other manures, I have come to the conclusion that, as an artificial manure, there is nothing equal to the home- made superphosphate. I must, however, caution farmers as to how they use it. I have heard many farmers having good land say it is throwing money away to use artificial manures ; and the reason of this is that too much farm-yard manure is used with it. I can grow as good a body of Swedes with the artificial manure and sis or eight loads of farm-yard dung, as I can with that quantity of arti- ficial manure and three times the quantity of farm-yard dung. A very small quantity of farm-yard dung, with six bushels of dissolved bones, will grow a good body of turnips." It is the liability of our artificial manures to adulteration that is the great difficulty in the way of their extended use. The remedies are — 1st, To deal with men of well-known probity. 2nd, To send a sample of the manure purchased to a chemist for analysis, and ascertain by the table below the commercial value of the article. 3rd, The farmer may manufacture his own superphosphate, and this can easily be accomplished in the following maimer : — Procure a large shallow vat, in which place ground bones — boiled bones being the cheapest and best ; wet them to saturation with their own weight of boiling water, after which add one-third their own weight of brown sulphuric acid, which costs £ d. per lb. As the action of the acid on the bones goes on for some days, the mass should be JI.VK.] Valuation of Manures. 139 frequently stirred ; and when the work of solution ceases, the mass may be dried with fine dry mould. If it be done on the large scale, for the large shallow vat, there may be substituted a hard floor of clay, with a rim of ashes to mix with the superphosphate after it is made. The following table gives the valuation per ton of the several ingredients of a manure, as they are supplied from various sources in the market — according to the estimates of several of our best authorities on this subject : — Value per Ton of Way. Hodges. Nesbit. Anderson. Insoluble phosphates Soluble phosphates... £ s. d. 56 7 32 13 30 16 10 10 £ s. d. 56 7 25 20 10 10 & s. d. 60 8 24 1 "6 9 10 S, s. d. 56 7 28 20 10 These figures enable us to ascertain the real worth of any manure of which we have an analysis. If a guano, for instance, contains seventeen per cent, of am- monia, then, by multiplying the market price of ammonia per ton by seventeen, we get the value of 100 tons of the guano in question, so far as its ammonia is concerned. And pursuing the same plan with its other ingredients, we arrive at the whole price of the 100 tons of the manure in question, which it is easy to divide by 100, so as to ascertain the price per ton which we are justified in giving for it. An authentic analysis is thus sufficient guide to the price which ought to be given for any purchased fertiliser. When no analysis is given, a simple experiment sometimes is enough to determine the genuineness of the article. Perhaps the simplest test that can be applied to guano is that of weight. A bushel of good guano, filled in without pressure, should not exceed seventy-three lbs. in weight — it may vary from sixty-nine to seventy-three lbs., and the lighter the better; provided, on throwing it into water, none of it floats, for that would show an admixture of sawdust, If heavier than seventy- three lbs. per bushel, it has been adulterated with earth. Super- phosphate of lime is another manure'especially liable to adulteration, but a guaranteed analysis is in this case almost always offered with the purchase. When no analysis is given, properly attested samples sealed up in bottles should be taken ; and if a failing crop should lead you to suspect roguery, these may be analysed, and will enable you to obtain damages from the dealer or manufacturer in a court of law. 140 Manure for Wheat. [Mae. As to the use which is to be made of these fertilisers, it is to he observed generally that all soluble manures, such as common salt, sulphate of ammonia, nitrate of soda, are to be applied during the s«ason of growth ; while the less soluble manure, as guano, super- phosphate, &c, may be applied earlier in the season ; and bone dust, farm-yard dung, &c, still less immediately active, may be added in the autumn or during winter. The following memoranda indicate the usual quantities applied and the usual crops to which they are applied. Name of Manure. Applied to "Weight per Acre. Superphos. of lime... Com. Salt Soot Sulphate of ammonia Nitrate of Soda 1 to 3 cwt. 3 „ 5 „ 2 „ 4 „ 30 „ 40 bush. 1 „ licwt. 1 „ 14,. 10 „ 20 „ 6 ,, 8 - >i 12 „ 16 bush. Grain crops and M. wurz. Grain crops, potatoes, &c. Turnips, grass land, &o. .. Mr. Lawes has recently published his experience, which is larger than that of any other man, of the best use that can be made of artificial auxiliaries to the manures of the farm ; and we quote the following passages. a. On the availability of ammoniacal manure for cereal crops and leguminous crops :■ — The records of nearly twenty years of experiments at Eotham- sted, have not afforded a single instance in which the application of ammoniacal salts to a cereal crop has failed to give a greater or less increase of produce. This is the case even where there has been a very unusual exhaustion of mineral constituents ; and this effect of ammoniacal salts is quite consistent with that observed when such crops are cultivated and manured according to the ordinary course of practice. On the other hand, experiments continued for more than half that period with leguminous crops, such as clover and beans, as well as practical experience with such crops, show no such result on the direct application of ammoniacal manures. It is, in fact, bad practice to apply Peruvian guano, or ammoni- acal salts, to a bean or a clover crop ; and where dung is applied both to the wheat and bean crops, true economy would suggest that the rich oil-cake dung be employed for the wheat, and that which is poorer for the beans and clover. b. Manure for Wheat. — On the heavier descriptions of land, two to three cwts. per acre of Peruvian guano is the best manure for this crop. It should be sown broadcast before the seed, and harrowed Mar.] Manures for various Crops. 141 in. It is sometimes mixed with twice its weight of common salt, by which, as well as by ashes or other matters, a more equal distri- bution through the soil is attained. On lighter soils the best farm dung is the best manure for the wheat crop. c. Manure for Barley and Oats. — "When either of these crops fol- lows a root crop which has been partially or wholly removed from the land, a mixture of equal parts Peruvian guano, or nitrate of soda, or sulphate of ammonia, with superphosphate of lime, may be used with advantage. The selection of one or other of the three nitrogenous manures mentioned should depend in some measure upon the comparative cost of each at the time. About one cwt. of the guano, nitrate, or sulphate, and one cwt. of superphosphate of lime, will generally be sufficient for an acre. The manure should be sown before the seed, as recommended for wheat. "When one corn crop follows another, as oats after wheat, about twice as much of the artificial mixture should be used as under ordinary circum- stances. When corn crops require to be top-dressed late in the spring, nitrate of soda is the best manure to employ ; one to one and a half cwt. per acre being used. d. Manure for Meadow Hay. — To grass land mown for hay, from eight to ten tons of rotten dung should be applied once in about every four or five years, in the month of November. The artificial manures most suitable for grass land, are, Peruvian guano, salts of ammonia, and nitrate of soda. "When either of these manures is used alone, the following quantities may be applied : — Peruvian guano 2 to 2^ cwts. per acre, Salts of ammonia 1 „ 1^ „ Nitrate of soda 1 „ 1| „ One cwt. of nitrate of soda, mixed with one cwt. of superphosphate of lime, is also a very good manure. Or, a mixture of equal parts of Peruvian guano, ammonia salts, nitrate of soda, and superphos- phate of lime, applied at the rate of two cwts. per acre, is perhaps the most generally useful. In deciding upon the exact combination to be employed, some regard should be had to the relative cost of the several substances at the time, as it varies considerably from season to season. The best time to apply the artificial manures is from the end of January to the middle of Pebruary ; if the application is delayed much later than this, nitrate of soda is the best manure to employ. e. Manure for Mangold Wurzel. — This crop requires to be liberally manured. The best dung at command should be employed; ten, fifteen, or even twenty tons per acre, being spread after the land is drawn in ridges, and previous to their being split ; and two to three cwts. of Peruvian guano mixed with twice its weight of common salt, should be strained by hand on the top of the dung. Common 142 Barley Culture. [Mar. salt appears to act more beneficially as a manure for mangolds than for any other crop of the farm ; it also produces marked effects opon the growth of asparagus in our gardens. Both plants are in fact indigenous to the sea coast. f. Manure for Potatoes. — It is the general practice to dung heavily for potatoes. Although the crop might not be so large, it is pro- bable that if potatoes were taken after some other crop well dunged, instead of the dung being applied directly for their growth, they would be less liable to disease. Supposing this plan adopted, three to four cwts. per acre of an equal mixture of Peruvian guano and superphosphate of lime should be used for the potatoes. Or, in case of dung being employed, the best mode of application would be to plough it into the land in the autumn, the potatoes being set in the following spring. g. Manure for Turnips. — When Swedes, or common turnips, follow a corn crop which had been manured by farm-yard dung, the roots may be grown by artificial manures alone. From two and a half to three cwts. of superphosphate of lime should be drilled with the seed ; and in the case of Swedes (except when sown late, or if the land be considered in good condition) from two to three cwts. of Peruvian guano may be used in addition. If the preceding crop has not been manured by dung, seven to ten tons per acre should be applied ; two and a half cwts. of superphosphate of lime being drilled with the seed ; and if the dung used be poor, two cwts. of Peruvian guano may be strained over it in the drills. Or, where no manure drill is employed, the superphosphate of lime may be sown broad-cast after the dung is spread, either alone, or mixed with guano, as the case may require. These manures do not react inju- riously upon each other when mixed together ; but the guano is liable to be injurious to the young turnip plant if brought in close contact with it. Hence, when guano and superphosphate of lime are mixed together, and sown by the drill, two or three inches of soil should intervene between the manure and the seed. III.— BABLEY CULTUEE. This was pretty fully discussed last month. It remains, how- ever, to give illustrations of some of the leading varieties of this grain in Figs. 24 and 25. Drawings of the natural size are given of six of our principal sorts of barley. In Pig. 24 three full-sized ears are represented :—a, Annat barley; b, Chevalier barley; c, common English barley; all de- scribed at pages 105 and 106. In Fig. 25 are shown d, Pan or Sprat Battledore barley ; e, Vic- toria Bere ; /, six-rowed barley. Fan or Battledore barley is a short-strawed variety of no parti* MjVs.Iar.] Fig. 24. Annat. Chevalier. Common barley. 144 Varieties of Barley. [Mar. cular agricultural merit ; but noteworthy for tlie curious form and width of the ear. Fig. 25. Pan or Sprat. "Victoria bere. Sis-rowed. Victoria bere has a longer ear upon longer straw, and yields grain of a better quality than the common, Bere or Big, which is com- monly cultivated in late climates, in Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland. The six-rowed barley has a much shorter ear, and yields a coarser grain. March is the proper month for getting seed barley into the ground. Crops later sown may be good, but, if all circumstances Mar.] Barley after Turnips. 145 be equal, the March-sown will be superior to any at a later season. It is sown commonly after turnips, -which root will not last for feeding upon the average of seasons longer than the middle of this month. I am not here asserting that April is improper for sowing barley ; I know the contrary from experience ; but if soil and cir- cumstances are equal, a March sowing will exceed an April one, on an average of several years, by three or four bushels in the crop. March may, however, pass away without a ploughing season for wet lands in the whole month, and advice to sow barley in March must therefore always be under the proviso that the land is dry enough for ploughing. On clay, or other heavy soils which will not bear sheep, barley, if grown at all, should be sown after a scarifying, in the first dry sea- son, whether in February or March. In some clay countries, the farmers still bare-fallow their land, and lay it up in narrow ridges, well water-furrowed for the winter. In a hard frost they carry on their dung, and leave it in heaps till sowing time, when they spread before the ploughs. The same practice is adopted after beans, peas, vetches, potatoe, or carrot land : all which crops are taken up in autumn, and the land is ploughed after them into ridges and well water-furrowed, ready for spring sowing. In such cases the great point is, to have the soil, previous to the crop, in such good order, that no other spring tillage than the seed earth, or scarifying, may be necessary. Whatever rotation of crops be adopted, barley almost always fol- lows an ameliorating crop, and must generally be followed by clover. Barley after Turnips. — When it comes, as it generally does, after turnips, if they were not drawn and carted, or not eaten by sheep, in time enough to allow sowing with barley in February ; or if the farmer does not approve of sowing this grain early, by reason of the quality of his soil ; March may be the principal period of his barley-sowing. As the fields are cleared, much attention should be given to the state and temper of the surface. In this respect more attention is necessary now than in February, as the advanced state of the season has lessened the chance of frosts, which are more effective in giving friability than any other circumstance. If the scarifier works well, or is likely to work well, by the 20th, its use should preclude the plough ; but if, from the state of the surface, compared with that of the soil at the depth of five inches, it appears that a ploughing is really necessary, in such case the prudent farmer will, of course, give it. His grand object is to avoid turning down a surface which is in a friable state, and bringing up another which will harden, by north-east winds, into clods of brick, as they may then be called. He should keep in recollection, that if the last earth for the turnips turned down a manuring, it is better situated for safety against sun and wind, than if brought to the surface by 3 i 146 Spring Wheat. — Oats. [Mab.. a new ploughing ; that it lies where the barley-roots will find it ; and that the urine of the sheep sunk in the soil, is less liable to evaporation without than with ploughing. The quantity of seed barley to be sown per acre and the mode of committing it to the ground were referred to last month. As to dressings of artificial manures, more necessary in the later than in the earlier sown barley fields— and not necessary at all where turnips fed off by sheep have been the preceding crop— Mr. Lawes' expe- rience has been given in a preceding page. IV.— SPRING "WHEAT. March is the latest month proper for sowing wheat ; there is indeed a kind called April wheat, but though it may be sown in accordance with its name, it is better put earlier into the ground ; and it will generally be better policy to put barley into land fit for the sheep-fold, which is generally the only cause for delaying the seed-time till so late a time of year. Both Talavera and April wheat will be illustrated along with other sorts in one of the autumn months. The former is a pro- ductive kind, of good quality, remarkable for the distance between the florets and seeds upon the ear, which gives it a thin and half clothed appearance. The other is recognisable by its spreading awns and its red colour ; it yields a grain of fair quality, and is very ra- pidly growing in favour in all late cold districts. Towards the end of March young wheat may be rolled and hoed ; and top-dressings of manure, nitrate of soda, or guano, or sulphate of ammonia may be applied this month. On this subject remark has been made at page 140. V.— OATS. "We give the following illustrations of sorts commonly cultivated. The ears are drawn of half the natural size, and there is a floret beside each given of the full natural size : — A, "White Tartarian Oat ; B, Black do.; C, Naked Oat; D, Hopetoun Oat; E, Sandy Oat; E, Poland Black Oat ; G-, Potato Oat ; H, Barbachlaw Oat. These, and other specimens of plants drawn iu this book, have been obtained from the museum of Messrs. Lawson and Son, of Edinburgh. The specimen of Hopetoun Oat which has been drawn hardly does justice to the ordinary more vigorous growth of the variety. The Tartarian White Oat is a coarse thin grain, rarely reaching 40 lbs. a bushel, but yielding a very bulky crop of both straw and grain. It is grown a good deal in the southern counties, and in the chalk districts. It is very late of ripening, and therefore unfitted for late climates and poor soils. The Black Tartarian is shorter- strawed Mae.] Fig. 26. (A, B) White and Black Tartarian Oat. (C) D) Naked and Hopetonn Oat., l2 148 Oats. [Mak. than the white variety, much earlier in ripening, and fitted therefore for later districts and poorer soils. The Nalced Oat is a very prolific sort, more liable, however, to loss by wind at harvest time than other kinds ; and therefore not coming into favour, though it has long been known to English agriculture. Kg. 27. D) Sandy Oat. (F) Black Poland Oat. jiab.] Oats. 149 The Hopetoun Oat is one of many agricultural plants which are due to the energy and patient perseverance of Mr. Patrick Shirreff, of East Lothian. It is a tolerably early oat, with a large panicle, and hardly therefore properly represented in our drawing (D, Fig. 26). It yields a heavy grain and very long straw — its seed is dis Eg. 28. (G) Potato Oat. (H) Barbachlaw Oat. tinguished by a small ruddy mark on its front, and its straw ac- quires a reddish hue as it ripens. It is well adapted to lately re- 150 Oats. |3Luj. claimed land and the lighter class of soils, and has come largely into cultivation. The Sandy Oat (E, Kg. 27), of Aberdeenshire origin, has been in cultivation for the last twenty-five or thirty years. It has a smaller grain than some other kinds, hut yields well, and possessing a re- markably stiff straw is especially adapted to soft and peaty soils. The Poland Oat is a very short-strawed and very early variety, and as such better able than other sorts to meet the difficulties of late districts and rich soils. The black variety of this cat is repre- sented at P. Fig. 27. The Potato Oat (G-, Kg. 28) has long been in cultivation. It is rather a short-strawed sort, and yields the very best quality known to English agriculture. Its grain is short, and round, and white ;. the ear is somewhat compact. It is less adapted than some other sorts to the more clayey soils, and it is more liable on such soils to a disease called the tulip root, which is sufficiently described by its- name. Potato oats are liable to shed at harvest time, and should be cut before the straw has entirely lost its green colour. The Ba/rbacMaw Oat is a hardy and prolific sort, adapted for late- climates and moorish soils. It yields a coarse thin grain, but is very productive both of straw and seed. Besides the oats thus named and illustrated, many others are known to Scotch and English farmers. Among them we may enu- merate — the Angus Oats, the common Dun Oat, the Berlie and the Canadian Oat. The last-named has since 1861 been largely culti- vated in some of the southern counties, having acquired a high reputation in 1860 for the weight and quantity of its yield, not- withstanding the difficulties of an unusually wet season and harvest time. Eorty-six pounds per bushel is a common weight for the Canadian Oat. It is however a coarse variety. White oats should be sown now, in preference to any other season ; and, in the general conduct of them, the farmer should, as a general rule, avoid sowing them after other corn crops, by which they exhaust the land. They should receive the same preparation as barley. "What good reasons are to be offered, for sowing oats on land in such bad order that barley is not to be ventured in, I know not. The common argument is their hardiness, which will give a middling produce, about sufficient to pay expenses, and leave a trifling profit, when no other crop will do the like. ^ The question between barley and oats depends, first, on the rela- tive price. Oats may be expected to yield two quarters or more per acre more than barley ; it is therefore easy to calculate, at given prices, which grain will pay the farmer best ;' but it is not to be forgotten, that barley generally leaves the soil in much better ieart than oats leave it, the latter being a more exhausting crop. Mae.] Clover. 151 Oats on Lea. — It is very common husbandry to put in oat? on one ploughing of old grass, and on layers of shorter duration. The method is, to plough the land as early as possible, drill-press, if necessary, sow oats broadcast, and harrow them under. And in Scotland the almost universal practice is thus to take oats after grass or clover. In England wheat is the more common succession. But in very many cases it is better to put peas in on light land, and beans on stiff soils, and to follow these -with oats or wheat, according to circumstances. I have known oats which had produced inferior crops, followed by oats again the next year, and produce largely, which proved that they wanted tilth. Peas or beans will rather improve than exhaust land, when put in thus on layers ; whereas two crops of oats will scourge the land too much. Let it, however, be well remembered, that these observations are made (so far as they relate to old grass) on the supposition that the farmer will not, or is not allowed, to pare and burn, a method much superior, and which ought to be pursued in all cases where it is practicable. A reference to the ordinary cultivation of the oat crop is made at page 105. As to the quantity of seed required, two bushels per acre of the better kinds, as Potato and Poland Oats, will be as large a seeding as four bushels or even more of the lighter awny sorts — the Tartarian varieties, for instance. VI.— CLOVEE. There arc several methods of sowing clover seed. 1st. It may be sown broadcast and harrowed in at the time the barley is drilled ; a pair of light harrows at the same time following the drill-machine, to cover the clover seed. 2nd. It may be sown before the roller, when the barley is just above the ground. 3rd. It may be hand or horse-hoed in when the corn receives either of those operations, if the farmer is in the practice of giving them. Of these methods, the first is the surest for a crop, and the most to be recommended, notwithstanding the admitted evil which some- times takes place in a wet season, of the clover growing so luxuriantly as to damage the barley. The second succeeds well, if rain follows in due time, and would, perhaps generally succeed, if the farmer ventured to harrow it in, which he might safely do. In the third method it often succeeds, but it also often fails ; nor is it necessary, in many cases, to hoe the barley. In any case it is best sown with a handbarrow covering five yards in width ; and if this be set to sow one half of the quantity per acre that is wanted and made to cover the ground twice, the work will be more ncrfectly done. If grass seeds be sown with the clover then 152 Clover. [Mar. another sowing will be necessary with the same tool set for grass seeds. It is covered in by a light harrowing with either the bush or web harrow, or light-seed harrows of the common kind, and rolled. Of the seeds sown at this season we have — 1. Trefoil sown fourteen to sixteen lbs. per acre alone in some districts as one of the earliest foods for ewes and lambs in spring. It is ploughed up after i first folding, and a crop of turnips may be taken. 2. Bed clover or cow grass sown often by itself as affording a heavy first cut later in the summer for forage for the stalls or stable — coming in for this purpose after the trifolium incarnatum. 3. Various mixtures of clovers, as for instance, ten lbs. of red clover, four lbs. of white clover, four lbs. of trefoil. The red clover is a large seed, the white clover a much smaller one, so that four lbs. of it contain as many seeds as ten lbs. of the other ; the yellow blossomed trefoil is the largest seed of the three. This I have found to yield a first, second, and third cut during the summer — the latter cuts containing, however, more of the white and yellow clovers. The alsike clover is coming into use partly as a substitute for the white ; it is equally perennial, and has a larger habit of growth. In all moister and later climates grass seeds may be sown with the clovers. And the following table of quantities and kinds to be sown per acre is extracted from Lawson's Agrostographia : — ■ Common Eye-grass Common Bed Clover... Light and Medium Soils. Heavy Soils. 1 Tear's Hay. 1 Year's Hay and 1 Year's pasture. 1 Year' 8 Hay and 2 Years' pasture. 1 Year's Hay. 1 Year's Hay and 1 Year's pasture. 1 Year's Hay and 2 Years' pasture. lbs. 18 "s 2 lbs. 18 (3 "i 2 lbs. 18 3 3 4 2 lbs. 18 1 8 2 lbs. 18 1 6 ' i 2 lbs. 18 1 3 3 4 2 White Dutch Clover Yellow Clover 28 30 30 29 31 31 By substituting five lbs. of Italian for eight of common rye-grass in the above table, it will be improved. These seeds may be sown in two lots, as we have suggested, immediately after the bar- ley ; or you may delay it for three weeks, and let the young barley up, and then sow and hoe in : this affords an opportunity for hoeing and cleaning the land somewhat later in the season. This subject was lately discussed before the East Lothian Far- mers' Club ; and we add here the remarks of some of the speakers, descriptive of experience in that county. Mr. S. Shirreff, of Salt- coates, said:— "Before sowing out a field, it must be as clean as Mak.] Clover. 153 possible, and in very high condition. If it is intended for cutting, then give a larger proportion of red clover — say fourteen lbs. — a little yellow, and a mixture of rye-grass, Italian being preferred." He thought he had erred in giving too little Italian rye-grass. The following were the proportions in which he mixed his grass seeds : — For cutting — 14 lbs. red, 2 lbs. alsike, 2 lbs. yellow, 2 lbs. white, and 3 pecks rye-grass. For pasture — 8 lbs. white, 4 lbs. red, 2 lbs. yellow, 2 lbs. alsike, and 4 pecks rye-grass. Mr. Hope, of Fenton Barns, has been in the habit of sowing his young grass after two green crops, and he does so for the purpose of cleaning the land, and putting it in good condition. He finds that the young grass comes away better after potatoes than after turnips, and in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh the farmers are in the habit of sowing it after potatoes. The following is his mixture, which is calculated by the Scotch acre (about \\ imperial) : — For pasture, one year or two — 11 lbs. red clover, 4 lbs. white, 2 lbs. alsike, 2 lbs. yellow, 2 pecks Italian rye-grass, and 1 peck perennial. For cutting — 12 lbs. red clover, 2 lbs. white, 2 lbs. alsike, 2 lbs. yellow, and 1 peck perennial, or 2 pecks Italian. The 2 lbs. white might be omitted ; it does little good in cutting grass. Mr. Wilson, of Edington Mains, Berwickshire, uses for cutting- grass — Half a bushel of Italian rye-grass, and 14 lbs. red clover. For graz- ing, either one or more years — 1 bushel of Italian (or, instead, a half bushel perennial and a half bushel Italian), 8 lbs. trefoil, 4 lbs. white, 2 lbs. alsike, and lib. parsley. Mr. Wilson's experience is much in favour of Italian ; and he thinks less and less of common rye- grass as a pasture plant. Mr. Wilson has been successful in sowing grass crops for a good many years. His red clover he always obtains from the grower. He never sows any of his clover or grass seeds until about the third week of April, by which time the grain is usually well brairded. He is also very particular about the mode of covering in his grass seeds. When the surface is at all rough, he is in the habit of rolling it with a one-horse roller before sowing the seeds ; and he afterwards covers them in with a Cambridge roller, to which thorn bushes are attached. Mr. Usher, Stodrig, Kelso, uses the following per imperial acre : — For grazing — 12 lbs. yellow, 4 lbs. red, 4 lbs. white, and a half bushel rye-grass. He approves of yellow clover being sown thick. It keeps in the other clovers, and also feeds even better than white, if not allowed to become too luxuriant. In grazing for one year, he finds the stock, especially sheep, eat annual rye. grass much better than perennial. For cutting, he uses nothing but red clover and annual rye-grass. Mr. Stewart, Kirkchrist, Kirkcudbright, an excellent authority, uses the following mixtures per Scotch acre : — 154 Clover and Grasses. [ JI -«». For cutting — 2 bushels rye-grass, 3 lbs. Timothy grass, Gibs, red clover, and 3 lbs. yellow. On light, dry land, to be grazed two or more years — 2 bushels perennial rye-grass, 2 lbs. Italian, 2 lbs. Timothy, 4 lbs. white clover, 2 lbs. yellow clover, 2 lbs. cow grass, and 2 lbs. alsike clover. On drained land, to be grazed three years —2 bushels perennial, 2 lbs. Italian rye-grass, 3 lbs. Timothy, 3 lbs. each of the white and yellow clovers, 3 lbs. cow grass, and 1 or 2 lbs. alsike clover. The usual mixtures sown in Dumfriesshire, are as follows : — For one year's pasture — 8 lbs. red clover, 6 lbs. white clover, 2 lbs. yellow clover, 2 pecks rye-grass, and 2 pecks Italian grass. For two years' pasture — 8 lbs. red clover, 4 lbs. cow grass, 4 lbs. white clover, 2 lbs. alsike clover, 2 lbs. yellow clover, 2 pecks rye-grass, and 2 pecks Italian grass. For cutting or hay — 14 lbs. red clover, 2 lbs. white clover, 2 lbs. yellow clover, 2 pecks rye-grass, and 2 or 3 pecks Italian grass. Mr. Durie, Standingstane, at this meeting expressed astonishment,, as well he might, at the great diversity of practice that existed. Some sow upwards of two bushels of rye-grass, and some merely two pecks. They cannot all be right. Mr. Hope uses a very small proportion of rye-grass ; and Mr. Durie's experience is, that the quantity used had been diminishing of late years. His father used to sow about a bushel and a half; but he afterwards came down to one bushel, and now he never goes the length of a bushel. In sowing Italian grass, his experience has been that where much of it is used it has a tendency to keep the clover from growing ; and his practice now is never to sow more than two pecks. He never sows perennial grass, regarding it as a weed. If animals can get anything else they will never eat it. The first thing that convinced him of this was when his men had, unknown to him, sowed five acres of a field with annual instead of perennial grass. Next year, on the grass coming to pasture, he was much surprised to find that one portion of the field was eaten quite bare ; and, on making inquiry, he learned for the first time of the mistake that had been made. The cattle had eaten quite bare all that portion of the field sown with annual grass, and allowed the rest to go to seed. From that time he has never sowed perennial rye-grass, either for pasture or cutting. His proportion now is very nearly the follow- ing per acre of every kind of clover for grazing : — 4 lbs. each of red, white, yellow, and alsike. He would use a larger proportion of alsike, but for two reasons. In the first place it is late, and in the next place it is very dear ; but after it comes away, it makes ex- cellent pasturing grass. It is a great pity to see that the red clover is disappearing. He has almost given up growing it, for it never succeeded with him above once out of five times. If any- body tried the proportions of clover which he had indicated, and JIae.] Clover and Grasses. 155 added two peeks of Italian and one of annual grass, they would, if the land was in fair condition, secure a first-rate pasture. Mr. Douglas, Atlielstaneford, thought that two pecks of Italian rye-grass was quite enough, whether it was for the purpose of pro- tecting the slower growing plants, or of securing an early bite in spring. "When he attempted more Italian, he found, from its rapid growtli — if the clover plant was not very healthy — that it was very apt to overcome the clover, and destroy it, especially if it had been top-dressed. AVith regard to perennial grass, he never now sowed it—be did not believe in it. The annual was a better-growing grass, more succulent, and grew a heavier crop. It was not so wiry and hard as the perennial, and therefore he never sowed the latter. As to clover, there was a great difference of practice, arising, he supposed, from differences in soils and in situations. He knew one gentleman, a very successful grower of clover, who never sowed above six lbs. per Scotch acre ; and yet he said that he had always his surface well planted. His (Mr. Douglas's) mixture for all pur- poses was — 10 lbs. red clover, 4 lbs. white, 2 lbs. cow's grass, and 2 lbs. alsike. Two lbs. of alsike are sufficient of itself to plant an acre, as it is a small seed ; and he thought if any person used more he was using too much. The result of his experiments went to show that the alsike is quite equal to the red clover as pasture, while it is a very good substitute for green forage or hay. It is a free grower, and has the advantage of being new to the soil ; and, when land is clover sick, and throws out the plant in the winter and spring months, it enables the farmer to follow the regular rotation of cropping. He thought the six-break system was a great ad- vantage to the successful growth of clover compared with the four, as by extending the period of growing the plant, and having a greater alternation of cropping, there is much greater chance of the crop succeeding. "We give this discussion in some detail as describing good practice in the North. It must be added, that in the Southern counties Italian rye-grass, except under special culture, i.e., growing it on excessive manuring, acquires a wiry, benty habit, and does not yield that full, luxuriant herbage which it elsewhere exhibits. The unfortunate circumstance which attends clover, is its being extremely apt to fail in districts where it has been long a common article of cultivation. The land, to use the farmer's term, becomes sick of it. After harvest he has a fine plant, but by March or April, half, or perhaps more of it, is dead. This makes a new course of crops necessary. Instead of its occurring once in four years, as in the common Norfolk course, it becomes necessary to sow it only in the second round alternately, beans after barley in one course, and clc-ver after barley in the next. This has been found in a great measure to meet the evil. On light soils, too, it is well to tread the young 156 Sainfoin. LMae. seeds in autumn and manure them.* The evil has been variously explained ; by some on the score of too frequent an extraction from the soil of those substances needed by the plant as food — this, however, in the face of experience in the field and garden cannot be maintained ; by others, on the score of too great looseness in the soil which seems during winter to be fatal to the plant ; and, again, by the Eev. M. J. Berkeley, on the ground of the soil retaining within it, if the plant be taken at too short intervals, the germs of certain parasitic moulds which, if not suffered to die out, take the first opportunity of the recurrence of the crop to which they are fitted, for their destructive attack. — Fields of young clover and grass should be picked free of large stones and rolled some time during March. Trefoil is largely sown in some districts by itself, at the rate of sixteen or eighteen lbs. of seeds per acre, for the early sheep feed it affords. This is especially the custom in districts where the practice of fattening early lamb prevails. It, sown now, and rye sown in (September, are generally the best keep for sheep at hand towards the end of the following April. VII.— SAINFOIN". This is the principal season for sowing sainfoin, and if the reader has land that will produce it, he can apply it to no crop of its class equally profitable. Chalky soils and sands upon chalk are its favourite soils ; also loams, and clays, if not too stiff or too deep, ou limestone. It does well, too, on very dry sound gravels, but not if the under stratum be much mixed with clay. I have tried it without success on good dry turnip loams, but on every species of chalk and white marl its success is certain. The profit far exceeds that of any other similar use of such a soil. On poor sands in Norfolk and Suffolk, worth only 5s. an acre, the crop, for several years (after the first) has been from one ton to two tons and a half per acre, of excellent hay, and mown every year. "Whatever the price of hay may he, such a produce on such land is prodigious, with the additional circumstance of an aftergrass extremely valuable for weaning and keeping lambs. I know not a more lamentable circumstance than to scs such poor soils yielding a beggarly product in corn, other grass, and turnips, with not one acre of sainfoin, where there ought to be an hundred. Sainfoin, on extremely favourable soils, will get the better of weeds, but it is always right to sow it with barley after turnips ; four bushels an acre of the rough seed broad-cast, but three are enough drilled. If with drilled barley, the best way is to drill the com first, and then the sainfoin across the former drills. * Seo Lawrence's " Handyboolc for Farmers." Longmans. ^-•> ! J Vetches. — Potatoes. 157 VIII.— VETCHES. If the weather in February did not allow sowing spring tares, or at least all the crop, the work must not be delayed longer than March, otherwise the crop will suffer. The best way is to plough the land flat, or in broad lands, and harrow in the seed : the soil should be dry before the ploughs go on it. Sowing on a stale furrow is much superior to a fresh ploughing. If the land was ploughed before the Christmas frosts, and the weather in Eebruary has been favourable to the vegetation of weeds, some may have appeared, but the scarifiers or seufflers will destroy them, and working only in the dry pulverized surface will pre- pare for the seed much better than ploughing. Let it be remem- bered, that the necessity of a succession of vetch crops (which may be continued through all the spring) depends on the farmer's being not duly provided with mangold wurzel, rye, clover, and perhaps lucern, or other crops applicable to soiling. If he has such crops, vetches are proportionably unnecessary. IX.— POTATOES. The following remarks contributed to another publication may be repeated here : — • " The cultivation of this crop increases, notwithstanding the risks to which it is liable. The past autumn (1860), all over the South of England, has been most disastrous for the potato crop ; but the great success which has attended its growth elsewhere, is too great an encouragement to proceed with its cultivation to be resisted. The extent of the crop now is probably about 300,000 or more acre3 in England, 160,000 acres in Scotland, and 1,000,000 acres in Ireland. In Scotland we hear of eight to twelve tons per acre having been obtained, and sold at 51. per ton — the disease having had hardly any influence in the North. In Ireland it was rather more severe than it had latterly been, while all over Southern and Midland England, the season of 1860 was very bad indeed. It has been rcommended rather to avoid the application of rich manures, and so to discourage luxuriant growth, under the feeling that the plant was thus made the more liable to disease, and that it was better to have but half a crop of sound potatoes, than to have a heavy bulky crop with the rot in them. The disease is however so far capricious and dependent on the weather, that our recommendation rather is to try for as large a crop as possible ; and, using whatever precaution against the disease may lie in your power, to accept the result, whatever it may be, along with a heavy crop, which you are sure to have if you choose a prolific sort, and grow it in a rich soil, liberally manured." Early planting, by which you obtain maturity before the time 158 Potatoes. [Mah. when the attack of the disease is usually made, is to be recommended. And the last week in March or early in April is as good a time as you can choose. If cultivated and manured in autumn the planting of the sets alone is needed now. Perhaps the best plan would he in that case, simply to plough the land over and plant the sets a foot apart in every third furrow. "When the land has been thoroughly tilled and manured before winter, and left in ridgelets twenty-sis inches wide, the intervals in these ridgelets may now be horse-hoed and the sets planted and covered by splitting the ridges with the plough. When the cultivation has been done since winter, you must open up the land as just described in drills about twenty-six inches wide with the double mould-board plough, spread the dung in them, plant the sets on it, and cover up all by splitting these drills again. If potatoes follow a manured green crop, then two cwts. of guano may be sown broadcast over all per acre before covering up the sets — no other manure being used. Even, however, where farm manure is used abundantly, guano will sometimes prove a profitable addition. The following, for instance, is the account given by Mr. Simpson, of Teavig, Inverness of his method, which results in good crops : — " The field on which this experiment was tried is a clay loam, drained and in fair condition. It bore oats in 1857, was ploughed with a deep furrow that autumn, cross-ploughed and broken down in spring 1858,. dunged in the drills (twenty-eight inches wide) with twenty loads good farmyard manure per acre, and planted the second week of April with potatoes of the Dalmahoy variety. It did not wholly escape the attack of disease, but, in consequence of the earliness of that variety (it comes in at least three weeks earlier than the Prince Eegent, to which in colour, shape, and quality, it bears otherwise a strong resemblance), the tubers were little, if at all affected ; not above eight per cent, of the gross produce being diseased. They were lifted the first week of September ; and the quantities below are those of sound potatoes gathered and stored, viz. : — Tons cwt. lbs. "Where farmyard alone was used, per imp. acre .6 5 45 Together with farmyard manure — where sown in the drills (at the cost of 24s. per acre), 1 cwt. Peruvian guano aud 3 bushels dissolved bones, per imperial acre 7 9 88 Drills with farmyard manure alone — where top- dressed on June 21st, with If cwt. Peruvian guano (at the cost of 24*. lid. per acre) . . 7 13 30 Showing in the one case an extra production of 24 cwt. at the cost of 24s. ; in the other an extra production of 27 cwt. at the Mae.] Sorts of Potatoes. 159 cost of 21.?. l\d. This is a cheap purchase-money for potatoes, ■without talcing into consideration the benefit the subsequent wheat crop will undoubtedly receive from the remains of the artificial manure stored up for its use in that unfailing bank the soil. Of the certainty of such benefit being derived, we think no one can doubt who has read the very interesting series of experiments as to the effect on the second crop, resulting from the application of guano and other fertilizers, communicated to the Highland and Agri- cultural Society by Mr. Ferguson, of Coupar Angus, and published (July, 1858) in that Society's Journal. "We would remark further in regard to potato planting that we shall in future choose a loamy in preference to a gravelly soil for them. "We tried two fields, one clay loam, as described in the above experiment ; the other sharp gravel, a first-rate turnip and barley soil, and maiden to potatoes for at least twenty-five years. The crop on the gravel was nearly two tons per acre behind that on the clay-mould field, though in re- spect to manuring and preparation it was rather the best attended to of the two. "We purpose planting our whole crop of Dalmakoys this season in the latter end of March, shall top-dress them with Peruvian guano two cwt. per acre in early May, and anticipate having them sound and safe in their winter pits by the first week of August." In the choice of a potato there is now ample scope. Next month a plate will be given representing in outline some of the principal sorts ; meanwhile it may suffice to name the various round white potatoes called Segents, of which probably by much the largest acreage in potatoes now consists — the Fluke, a large flat kidney recently introduced, and acquiring rapid popularity — the Axbridge kidney potato, of excellent quality, and retaining its quality till late in the year — Stratton's kidney, a prolific and early kind — Soden's early Oxford, &c. Reference will be made to the different kinds in cultivation next month ; meanwhile it is . necessary that having chosen your kind, in which you will be guided by the expe- rience of your neighbours if your own is not sufficient, and by the prevalent choice in the market, that you should put them into the ground as soon as possible after the middle of March, planting middle-sized whole potatoes as sets, which should have been dried and greened the previous autumn in the sun, kept in pits during winter, moved as soon as the severity of the weather was over, and kept (safe from frost) on floors, not more than two thick if pos- sible, and moved, if necessary, so as to hinder any sprouting, or any breaking of the sprout uutil they are planted. In sorting sets for planting, it is well rather to choose the larger of the middle size than the smaller, and great crops have been raised when the dis- tance between large sets in well-tilled land has been as much as even two feet from set to set in the row. 160 Kohl Rabi. [Mar. The preparation of land for Carrots and Mangold Wurzel occupies attention towards the end of March. The best seedtime for both crops is at the end of April ; but if any ploughing needs to be done for either crop, the earlier it is done the better, provided the land be in fit condition for it. The best method of cultivation in the case of both crops is to depend upon autumn tilth and autumn manuring, so that the only thing needed in the case of carrots now is to scarify and harrow the land, and in the case of mangolds to horse-hoe between the ridgelets in which the manure has been lying, and then ridge up again with the double mould- board plough. In either case two or three cwts. per acre of guano and a couple of cwts. of superphosphate — with four cwts. of com- mon salt per acre in addition for mangolds — may be sown broad- cast before the cultivation, which will thus mingle it all with the soil. Land for cabbages treated in autumn as for mangolds may during March and April be scarified and harrowed, and made ready to re- ceive the young plants which will then come early (August) into use. For the main crop a seed bed should have been prepared last month, or may be prepared at once (see p. 108). For Kohl Rabi land should be now prepared in drills twenty-six inches wide, as for mangolds or potatoes, having a heavy dressing of manure in the drills, and every tenth or twelfth drill in the field being sown now as thick as if with turnip seed, will at the same time provide plants for the whole intervening space, to be trans- planted towards the middle of May. A very good account of the crop and its cultivation was given in Vol. XX. of the English Agricultural Society's Journal, by Messrs. Lawson, of Edinburgh ; and Messrs. Sutton, of Reading, give the following details : — " The principal sorts are the large green and large purple Kohl Eabi. The cultivation may be described as nearly resembling that of the turnip — the principal difference being in its earlier seed- time. The land receiving as much autumn cultivation as possible, may be ribbed up and well dunged in the drills, the dung being covered by the splitting of these drills before winter. If guano (two or three cwt.) and superphosphate (also two or three cwt. per acre) be spread broadcast over this land in March, and the intervals between the drills be then horse-hoed, and the ridgelets moulded up again by the double mould-board plough, it will then be ready for the seed. Of this, three or four pounds per acre may be drilled in the rows in April or March. The rows in which the dung was placed should be at least two feet apart, and the plants on becoming large enough are to be singled out from twelve to fourteen inches apart. The crop will in favourable seasons, on good adhesive loams, thus richly manured and well cultivated, reach twenty to thirty tons per acre. It is all above the ground, and it is thus ad- Mar -1 Kohl Rabi. 161 mirably adapted for folding sheep upon it. The seed has hitherto been costly, and therefore it has been more common to grow plants in a seed bed! Half a pound of seed on about two perches of land will furnish ample plants for an acre. The bed is prepared and sowed in March, and the land for the main crop is prepared either in drills as described, or on the flat, the manure being then ploughed in broadcast — and the plants will be ready to transplant in May. If there be a succession of sowings at monthly intervals, as in March, April, May, on successive seed-beds, the plants will be ready for transferring in May, June, and July respectively, and the crop will be ready for consumption in October, and on through winter. The plants may be set out, if on the flat, in rows two feet apart, to allow of the horse-hoe being used between them, and they should be about fifteen to eighteen inches apart in the rows. It is rather more costly to put the crop in by the drilling machine, be- cause so much more seed is used per acre, which is scarce and dear at present. This, however, will no doubt cheapen as the crop comes more largely into use, and the drilling of the crop where it is to grow will probably ultimately be the usual plan of cultivation." In the first editions of this work the plant was referred to under the name of Reynolds' Cabbage Turnip ; and Mr. Reynolds' expe- rience regarding it was thus described by himself: — " At this time (April 29) there is no less than thirty-five tons per acre. I pitched a fold in the form of an oblong, in two divi- sions, and placed therein 387 sheep, April 2. The crop has kept them exceeding well, without any fodder, or even any other provi- sion (save only the turning them into a rough pasture a few hours in the middle of the day, for by so doing they return fresh to the roots in the afternoon), and it will maintain them, I am confident, forty days. I placed those designed for fattening in the front, and the store sheep in the rear. The plants are drawn up with a three- pronged hoe. The fold is removed daily, for those in front to have fresh food ; and those in the rear eat the remains of what was left the day before. Thus the whole is spent without the least loss, and the land is enriched at the same time. This I say, by experience gained last year, for my barley crop, on land in the same state, turned out very good ; both in quantity and quality inferior to none of my other growth (which was upwards of eighty acres) ; the pro- duct full five quarters per acre, sown the 12th of May. Eight milch cows have been fed with these roots for this month past, and are very fond of them ; and I have found great saving in my hay since they began them. Both the milk and butter proved very good, and a considerable increase in both kinds. I also found that hogs and pigs like them extremely well. Sows give plenty of milk when fed with these roots. Nothing that I can find out is more beneficial for spring food, especially in hard weather. These roots 3 M 162 Hoeing Operations. are proof against frost ; whereas turnips nave been but of little ser- vice in general this spring, the frost having destroyed many of them long ago. But these vegetables are now in a fine flourishing state, quite sound and good ; well tasted top and bottom : better food cannot be desired for horned cattle and sheep. This is certain, my sheep are now thriving beyond all expectation." Mr. Eeynolds' experience has been of late years very largely confirmed ; but it is doubtful if the Kohl Eabi is likely to come so generally into cultivation, now that the merits of the mangold wurzel as a heavy crop and good spring food are everywhere known. The land for Turnips I suppose to have been ploughed from stubble at Michaelmas, and cultivated then. In this month it should receive the second earth, that it may, by harrowing well, or by an- other stirring in April, if the land is stubborn, be made so fine as to ensure the growth of all annual weeds in May. A succeeding ploughing turns them in, and quite destroys them. These " earths," however, are as well or better given them by stirring with the culti- vator, than by turning over a furrow slice with the plough so early in the season, especially if the land be at all of an adhesive nature. The various scarifiers and cultivators now made will do their work to any depth the farmer may wish, and this tillage, keeping the surface that has been pulverized by frost unburied, is much more favour- able to the growth of weeds than turning it down by ploughing. The work also is done much more rapidly, which, at so busy a season, is an object of great consequence. X.— HOEING OPEKATIONS. These should be carried on in the fields of young wheat, and also as soon as possible among the early-sown peas, and where parsnips have been sown. An early hoeing is efficient in various ways. It kills the plants more easily than when they have covered the ground, and it does this before any seeds have been ripened, which cannot be said of all hoeings, for those done later in the season often amount to a most efficient seeding of the land for a larger crop of weeds. Professor Buckman's examination of crop seeds for those of weeds has been already referred to (pp. 128-29). There are many ways by which weeds find their place in our fields ; they are directly sown with the crop ; they are also distributed by the dung-heaps j they scatter from nurseries by the road-sides ; and they are actually sown by the very process of hoeing. The three last methods point to early industry in weed-destruction as our only remedy. Professor Buckman has thus referred to these modes of weed-propagation in the Agricultural Gazette : — Mak.] Weeds. 163 The manure heap a nursery for weeds. — All sorts of seeded plants are unhesitatingly mixed with manure, under the impression that as the leaves and stems of weeds decay, so must the seeds also ; but let any one examine the plants that grow on the top of an ex- posed manure heap, and he will see weeds seeding in sufficient quantity to stock his farm, and if but a few plants seed in this po- sition, how regularly they become sown when the manure is spread. In no other way can we account for the frequent introduction into turnip fields of such plants as Anthemis, stinking Chamomile, Chenopodiim, " Pat hen" of some countries, Stellaria media, Chick- weed, Gapsella bursa pasioris, Shepherd's Purse, and others of a like kind, which are almost wholly confined to manure tillage. The farmyard is again a source from whence weeds are sent to the muck heap, in refuse from threshing, which is often thrown out under the impression that fowls will eat these useless seeds ; and though it is true that they do in reality destroy some, yet not one- half are picked up by them, and of those that are so, only a small portion becomes destroyed in the process of digestion. Some few years since we commenced the growth of flax, and our first crop introduced to the field a large crop of Sinapis nigra, black mustard, a plant to which it was before a stranger — Sinapis arven- sis, or charlock, being the previous mustard weed. The seed of this flax was afterwards sown in another part of the farm, thus introducing the black mustard in a new place in an aggravated degree. Afterwards some of the linseed was threshed at the farm buildings, and in various ways its weeds got to a manure heap which was traced to a field of beans of which they were seen to occupy a large strip in the middle, the boundary lines circumscribing the growth of black mustard ; and this is now the general charlock of the farm, it having nearly expelled the former common Sinapis arvensis, owing to the greater fecundity of the former — Sinapis arvensis, charlock, yielding generally 4000 seeds to a plant. „ nigra, black mustard „ 8000 „ „ Waste places weed nurseries. — Fields in their proximity are overrun with their peculiar species in spite of the most careful farming. If we have thistles in a wild hedgerow or neglected corner, we shall never be free from them in our fields. We cannot have coltsfoot or dandelion by the roadside without these weeds causing us the greatest trouble both in adjoining and in far-off fields. It has more than once been attempted, both for England and Ireland, to get a clause introduced in local acts of Parliament making weeding compulsory in such situations, yet it has remained for our colonists in Melbourne to be the first to make a state law compelling, under penalty, the eradication of thistles. M 2 164 Paring and Burning. [Mae. From the regularity with which weeds are sown from all these sources, it is no wonder that so many men have come to look upon them as a necessity. Let, however, more correct knowledge be- come general as regards the nature and habits of weeds, and pro- cesses of weed destruction be devised in accordance therewith, and we feel quite sure that our enemies will be kept in abeyance. Early hoeing of weeds is necessary to this end, for that weeds are often multiplied by the very processes employed to get rid of them there can be but little doubt. This may be done, either by subdivision of creeping forms, such as coltsfoot and couch, or by sowing seeded weeds in hoeing. A few seasons back we had a dirty piece of heans containing, amongst other weeds, three circular patches of coltsfoot ; this was ploughed and scuffled, and the nest summer coltsfoot was tolerably evenly spread over its whole ex- tent. The creeping root of couch is in this way cut into bits by the plough, and though much be picked off the surface, enough of it usually is buried in some instances to increase the evil, and in all to ensure its continuance. As regards sowing weeds by hoeing, it may be remarked that it is too much the practice to treat all weeds alike, and so attack them all at once in a regulation time of hoeing, and thus as some will be in seed while others are progressing to that point, though we may destroy the latter, yet at the same time we sow the former. It cannot be too strongly urged that as different soils and districts present weeds of different species which do not all arrive at their most mischievous point of growth at the same period, so the only possible way in which to effect the destruction of all is to kill them as soon as they are fully formed, and before they bloom. During March, therefore, the hoe should be at work in dry weather among young wheats. Patches of coltsfoot should be carefully forked out, and no bloom allowed to seed. XL— PARING- AND BURNING. This is one of the occasional works of early spring. There is no better way of breaking up old sward, especially on adhesive soils. And even on lighter soils, if there be a large extent of grass land to be converted into arable, it is best, after feeding the grass hard down the previous autumn, to break up at least one-half of it by paring and burning. If one-half be ploughed under before winter, it will yield a large crop of oats, provided it be tolerably free from wireworm ; and if the other half be pared and burned, the ashes spread will ensure a capital crop of turnips ; and thus at starting you have half corn and half cattle food, and can continue the system you have begun. The paring (breast ploughing) will cost from 15*. to 20s., accord- Mab.] Paring and Burning. 165 ing to the character of the sward ; but it may very well be done, as by Snowdon's paring plough, by horses. The turf is harrowed over roughly, and tiled by hand to dry. Fires are lighted every eight or ten yards, and a heap begun at each, and covered over daily, or rather nightly, as they need. The burning will cost 12s. to 15s. per acre ; and the ashes may be spread for 3s. They should be ploughed under with as shallow a furrow as possible, rolled, and after rain, harrowed, and then cross-ploughed at a rather greater depth. The turnip seed being sown in rows upon the flat, will grow luxuriantly with no other manure. But the burning of the soil of arable land is also carried on in early spring and in the autumn with good effect, especially on cal- careous clays. It is adopted for three distinct purposes. It is used for the purpose of destroying an excess of vegetable matter in the soil, being however then confined to comparatively limited districts ■ — those of fens and bogs — and even there it is dying out as its object becomes attained, so that in many districts where the peat was six feet thick, the plough now takes hold of the clayey bed on which it rests. It is adopted, secondly, for the purpose of bringing a turf quickly into tilth, and there its object is not so much to dis- sipate vegetable matter as merely to destroy its fibrous structure, charring rather than burning being thus the object aimed at. It is employed, thirdly, for the purpose of exposing clays and calcareous soils to just such heat as shall produce certain mechanical and chemical effects that are desired. The two first objects named are so definite, that it will suffice merely to describe the processes by which they are effected. In the case of peaty soils, a paring plough followed by harrows cuts off a certain layer of the peaty earth, which is then torn to pieces and exposed till dry, and when gathered into heaps and set fire to, will soon leave nothing but its ashes, which are spread at once over the land. Peat ashes are burnt for 2s. to 2s. 4?d. per cubic yard. The second case supposed, that of charring turf as a step in the process of converting it to tilth, has been already described. The burning is done in heaps at greater or smaller intervals, according to the anticipated ease or difficulty of the process, a little nucleus of straw being used to every heap, and the heap is laid around so closely as to hinder the process from going on too rapidly. The object should be to obtain black ashes, avoiding that complete dissipation of the vegetable matter which is aimed at in the case of peat. The most important practice under this head is that, however, of burning clay, and especially I would say calcareous clay, as a piece of periodical management in arable culture. Dr.Voelcker, of Ciren- cester, who has very carefully investigated the practice of burning clays, attributes its fertilizing influence to the chemical as well as to the mechanical results which it effects ; and the failures of the prac- 166 Stifle Burning. [Mar. tice are, in like manner, due to injuries under both of those heads- Clays may be burnt so as very considerably to loosen their texture, render them more friable, and easily reduced to tilth ; or they may be burnt till they are literally bricks. They may be burnt till they shall furnish a smaller quantity of soluble matter than they did in their natural state to the influence of the rain ; or they may be burnt at a lower temperature, and it will be found that they have thus become capable of yielding to the water passing through them much larger quantities of soluble matter, chiefly alkaline substances, espe- cially useful for root crops, which contain them in large quantity. Probably the best way of burning clays for this purpose is that adopted on the calcareous clays of Gloucestershire, where stifle burning, as it is called, is carried on very generally ; chiefly as a preparation for the turnip crop, for which it is especially suited, both on chemical and mechanical grounds, and it is done in the following manner : — The land is ribbed with the plough and worked with the drag to move sufficient earth for burning, and when dug, what rubbish it contains is raked into heaps and set fire to. A few of the large clods being placed round the little heap of burning matter, and smaller clods around them, until at length the fine earth is placed over all, and the heaps being watched, more earth is sho- velled on wherever the fire appears to be coming through. A skilful workman is thus able by means of a very small quantity of vegetable matter in the middle to char a very considerable quantity of earth, which thus becomes a very valuable dressing for the land. The following letter, from a Cotswold farmer, describes the pro- cess : — " Stifle burning obtains much in this neighbourhood, chiefly for the production of turnips ; the process is this : — Generally after a corn crop, or a new or old clover lea, the land is ploughed thin, and after sufficient harrowing and rolling to reduce the clods to a mode- rate size, the light weedy part is raked into small heaps, at proper distances ; the loose surface clod and earth is then pushed with the inverted rake in a ring round the bottom of each heap, which is then lighted with a wisp of straw before placed in the heap. After a little time all the cloddy ring of earth is spread evenly over the fire, with an iron or light wooden shovel, and made firm, which stifles the smoke, and diffuses the heat through the whole mass, requiring only a little proper attention to reduce nearly all the heap to ashes. In a few days, when required, the ashes are evenly spread and ploughed in. The heaping, burning, and spreading the ashes are generally done by the piece, costing about 12s. per acre; and it usually takes besides, about eighteen cwt. of wheat straw or stubble per acre. The quantity of ashes it is difficult to estimate ; but, in an in- stance known to me, in which a neighbour stifle-burned a clover lea from which a crop of hay was just cleared, and it had been Mak.] Clay Burning. 167 then ploughed thin, on carefully measuring the ashes the average quantity per acre was 4200 bushels ; the land was rather a heavy, dead loam, with marl subsoil. The result was a fine crop of turnips, and good corn following ; and at the end of the course, when turnips again, the part of the field thus burnt had better roots than the other part. We find the general result of stifle-burning alone, or as an auxiliary to farm-yard or artificial manure, to be the production of good root crops, leaving the land in a clean, friable state for corn, and improved condition for young seeds. One objec- tion to stifle burning is that, requiring fine, dry, warm weather for the process, the hands may be otherwise employed at other important work, according to the period of the year." It is, however, a common practice in many clay districts to burn large quantities of clay in heaps by means of faggots, or even coal, and apply the ashes to the land. Mr. Beaumont describes his prac- tice on a farm of Lord Mansfield, which was a poor clay, at a rent reduced by the poverty and consequent incapacity of its tenants to 10s. per acre when he took it in hand, and his first step was to burn enormous quantities of this clay soil. He tells us that in 1853 he put 10,000 cubic yards on 100 acres of land with an extraor- dinary result. His straw was quadrupled in bulk, and the grain doubled in value ; an excellent turnip crop was attained. A large herd of cattle was kept during the winter in the fold-yard, and a famous heap of manure resulted for use in the following spring. After an- other year's experience, during which nearly as much burnt earth again has been put on, the valuation for grain crops has been again raised from 700Z. to 1200Z., and the stock of cattle has been in- creased. Mr. Beaumont put the cost of the process at 6d. per cubic yard of the clay measured after burning ; filling, spreading, and applying 2d. ; fuel, Ac, Id. ; so that il. per acre covered the cost of putting on 100 cubic yards. Mr. Pusey gives us his experience on clay land in Berkshire. He put on eighty yards of burnt clay per acre previous to sowing wheat, and found that it raised the produce from thirty-seven bushels to forty-five bushels per acre. Mr. Francis Page, of Baldock, on a heavy clay land farm in Cam- bridgeshire, burns all the borders and headlands of his fields with the help of turf and faggots during summer-fallow time, burning very slowly in heaps of from fifty to one hundred yards each, at the cost of Qd. or 7d. per yard ; and by applying forty or fifty yards per acre he has raised the average of his wheat crop from twenty-five to thirty-five bushels per acre. In Essex the practice of burning is more generally confined to the clods of the surface, which are gathered together in heaps at intervals of eight or twelve yards apart, and burnt with stubble, a waggon-load per acre being used for this purpose at a cost of 25s. 168 Dung Heaps. [Mae. per acre, somewhat after the fashion of stifle -burning, and repeated every four or six years with excellent effect, both on straw crops and on green crops. But perhaps the most remarkable instance of the improvement of cold and heavy soils by burning is that on Chadbury Farm, Eve- sham, in Gloucestershire, where Mr. Randall has, at a cost of from 21. to 4?. per acre, put on one hundred cubic yards of burnt clay, raising his produce so that in some instances the wheat crop was worth more than the fee simple of the land in its former state. These instances, then, may suffice to prove that on the stiff clay soils of some English districts the practice of burning has been at- tended with remarkable fertilizing influence ; the soil is found to work more easily, and the plants of grain crops and of green crops grow more luxuriantly and yield more abundantly. Dung heaps should now be turned and commingled. Those in- tended for the fields where carrots are to be sown should be the first. This operation will cost Id. per cubic yard, measured before turning. Six inches of the soil on which the heap lies should be thrown up with it. Dung heaps, too, will still be forming in fields for turnips, &c, being carried out from the yards whenever time and weather permit. And among other occasional employment during March, there will be the threshing of grain for the market, or for the supply of straw, and the completion of all work connected with fences and roads. Stones should be picked off any fields, whether in grass or corn, over which either scythe or reaping machine is to go this year. In this work, no stones are to be taken but such as would impede the scythe. It has been often remarked, that too much stone picking has done a very sensible mischief. Mr, Macro, of Suffolk, ascertained it experimentally. " Having often thought that picking the stones off my turnip lands did more hurt than good, I tried an experiment last spring by gathering up all the stones of one square rod, after the turnips were folded off, and lay- ing them equally over another square rod by the side of it, then sowed them with barley, and marked them out, and at harvest time collected them separately, as likewise another square rod by the side of them, which had only the natural quantity of stones. Qrts. Pints. Qrs. B. P. Produce from the rod that had the double ) „ , ( ) . „ „ quantity of stones \ 6 1 j or, per acre, J 4 2 Ditto from that where the stones were ga- ) - A I ,.„ ) „ „ n theredoff ... \ 6 ° j ditto, j 3 6 Ditto, from that in its natural state ... 6 0£ ditto, 3 7 1" Hop-garden. — Throwing and sorting hop-poles is concluded this month. Young hops may be planted, the ground for which, where not trenched, had been previously subsoiled; and then holes, about twenty inches square, are dug for the reception of the plants. Mab.] Live Stock. 169 The hop-grounds are now becoming quite animated from the num- ber of men employed in digging, as a preparation for the cutting or pruning process, which is usually performed during the month of March. This process consists in cutting off the shoots which sprung from the crown of the plant last spring, and were afterwards tied to the poles. The crown of the plant is thus left about nine inches below the surface, standing, as it were, in a small basin, and is pruned into a convex shape. The clearing away of the earth is done by men, and the shoots are cut off with sharp knives by women. The poling commences towards the end of this month. The hop- poles vary from ten to twenty feet in length ; and each hop-hill is provided with two, three, or four, according to circumstances. It is impossible to lay down any precise rule either as regards the number or length of poles required ; both depend upon the quality of the soil, and variety of the hop. This part of the cultivation, in fact, demands the exercise of a good deal of experienced skill, if pro- perly done. Besides the above work, labourers are employed in bedding out cuttings to form plants for the next year. XII.— THE LIVE STOCK. Horses are to receive during March their full allowance of food. Two bushels of oats and half a bushel of beans per week, together with hay, probably one and a half cwts. per week, or mixed chaff of hay and oat straw. An allowance of carrots, about thirty lbs. daily, is also a wholesome provender. Their labour during March and April is as heavy as at any time of the year, and they should be fed accordingly. Feeding Cattle are sold as they fatten and become ready for the market. The treatment of the previous months is continued, becoming if anything more liberal of rich food as the animal ripens for the butcher. Breeding Cattle now occupy the attention of the farmer ; more calves drop in March than in any other month. "We abstract a very instructive paper, by a " Practical Parmer," on the cow at calving time from the Mark Lane Express : — " As the time of calving approaches (which every breeder may ascertain by recording the date of bulling, and counting on about forty or forty-one weeks, or 280 days, as the period of gestation), she should be separated from the herd — in cold weather to a warm, clean, and well-ventilated hovel, or barn, where she should be con- stantly watched, and well but not profusely fed. As 'labour' comes on, she should not be disturbed, but for a time left to her own natural efforts. When in the judgment of the herdsman the calf is sufficiently advanced to be felt, he should gently insert his hand in the uterus, to ascertain that the presentation is right, i.e., 1 70 Calving. [Mae. that the two fore feet and the nose of the calf can be felt ; if so, she may be left a reasonable time to deliver herself, but he may occa- sionally assist a little. Should the labour be somewhat protracted, he must then summon assistance, and take the calf away, otherwise the strong continuous paining of the cow will frequently kill the calf ere it is born. The common course pursued in taking away a calf is to cause the cow to stand up, and then to draw a little forward the feet, and fasten around the legs and above the first joints a cord of sufficient strength and such pliability as not to bruise the legs. The hand or fingers should then be inserted, so as to place the head or nose right, i.e., just upon, or rather slightly between the legs. The assistants may then gently draw the legs forward, bearing the cord downwards ; the herdsman meanwhile endeavouring to push gently back any portion of the uterus brought prominent by the head, and aid by gentle means as he best can the delivery. As soon as the calf is brought forth its nostrils should be immediately cleansed from adhering mucus, the mouth opened, and when it has breathed freely it may be rubbed carefully with a wisp and then presented to the mother, who will at once lick it freely with her tongue, which acts as both brush and currycomb most advantage- ously. In a few minutes it should be lifted up, supported, and enticed to suck. If it sucks freely, very little danger is to be apprehended, and the dam and calf may be safely left together. "Warm water should be given to the cow, and her food should be of a mild and nutritious character, avoiding cold roots or the like. The calf should be left with the dam at least three days, in order that it may draw its food at first naturally, and as it requires it. By this time the first milk or biestings, acting as a gentle purge, will have passed through its bowels, cleansing them of all mucus ; it may then be safely removed to the calf-house to be brought up by hand if required. In cases of wrong presentation it is best to send for the veterinary surgeon. " The discharge of the afterbirth is not of any great moment. Generally, this ' cleansing ' comes away, without much effort on the part of the cow, in a few hours. It may be left to its natural chance for several days. " When the cow has had a protracted and difficult calving time, she will require careful treatment. In common natural cases she will soon be all right ; but in difficult cases brushing of the belly and loins with a wisp is serviceable — gentle walking exercise for a short time in fine weather is useful. Gruels and cordial drinks should also occasionally be given. The latter might consist of a quart of ale mixed with sugar or treacle, and diluted with water, to be given warm. She must have her warm water mixed with a little meal, as above stated. Should fever intervene, it is best to send for the veterinary surgeon, and commit the case to his care. Mas-] Lambing. 171 " Cows after calving should be carefully fed with nutritious food, in small quantities often repeated ; and it is certainly best to give cooked or boiled food, as it prevents more generally indigestion and flatulent colic. At all events, sweet and easily digested food should be given, or material injury may arise. Should the udder swell from excess of milk, or the incapacity of the calf to draw it all away, frequent milking is requisite, and it should be hand-rubbed well, with frequent washings of warm water and soft soap, or with warm bran water. The teats occasionally become sore : the same applications should be resorted to, and, in addition, a little lard, olive oil, or even cream, should be gently rubbed on, particularly in cases of pustules arising, or scab." Fatting Sheep in fold or yard continue to receive the treatment already described. They may now be shorn as they become fat, and they are thus sold naked to the butcher. The Ewe flock needs constant care this month, which is in most districts the chief lambing season. We again quote from the " Practical Farmer" : — " It is requisite to provide suitable lambing paddocks or pens for the lambiug season, to which the ewes can be taken every night. In them, and also about the pasture field, or adjoining fields, shelter pens should be constructed, iuto which a ewe about to lamb, or immediately after she has lambed, should be put, if the weather is unfavourable. These pens are made with straw-wattled hurdles ; five hurdles making a double pen, three being set down parallel with each other, and so near that the two other hurdles form the back and front. As the season draws nigh every preparation is made, and the allowance of food is increased. The ewes being heavy with lamb, require additional support. When their " time is up," my ewes are constantly watched for a few days upon the pas- tures where they have been wintered. As soon as the lambs begin to fall, they are collected into a roomy field, provided as above, in the corner of which, adjoining the shepherd's house, are the lamb- ing paddocks, into which they are driven every dark and unfavour- able night. In fine open moonlight nights they are sometimes left out, as it is desirable that the paddocks or lambing pens should be freed from taint, i.e., be sweetened occasionally. Tainted straw or gangrenous droppings are sometimes fatal to ewes if they come in contact with the wounded uterus. On the large farms upon the Downs and Wolds, and in many other parts of the country, ewes are generally, if not universally, lambed while on turnips. In such cases lambing yards, or pens of sufficient capacity, should be pro- vided, with a temporary house for the shepherd. It is constant and untiring attention that is required. It is only in special cases that the shepherd's skill and experience are brought into requisition. " The ewe about to lamb must be examined by the shepherd to 172 Moorland Farm. [Mak. ascertain that all is right. This being found correct (i.e., the nose and fore-feet in front, and ready to come forth), she should be left awhile to her own efforts. Should her pains be protracted, the shepherd must lend assistance, or the lamb will be dead ere it is brought forth. The ewe should be gently laid upon her side : the shepherd should then draw one foot forward after the other, and then by a steady pull draw the lamb away. If the lamb is wrongly presented, then comes the difficulty and danger : the shepherd has to push it back most frequently into the lamb-pouch, there turn it, and by the ewe's pains, and his guidance and help, it is often brought away without much damage. The ewe, in all cases of severe labour, should have a small tablespoonful of laudanum ad- ministered, to keep her from paining till the parts become easier, followed in a day or two by a small dose of Epsom salts, and warm cordial drinks or gruel, and suitable food, such as hay, chaff, and sliced turnips or carrots. " The lamb should be cleared of all adhesion around the nostrils as soon as it is born, and very soon afterwards suckled. The ewe's udder should be cleared of wool, to prevent its being drawn in by the lamb. The castration should take place about fourteen days after birth, on a mild, damp morning. As the ewes lamb they should be drafted off to other pastures, and the lambs ought there to have access to a fenced enclosure, where they can enjoy a ration of corn and cake to themselves." Fatting lambs with their mothers are still folded in the turnip field, receiving cut turnips, or cut mangolds or carrots in troughs (see p. 53), and they should, have also as much pease and oilcake as they will eat. Some of the forward ones dropped at Christmas time are now ready for the butcher, and generally make a profitable re- turn for their keep. Lammermoor Farm. — The following is the report for March from the moorland farm already named (page 112) : — • " Cheviot ewes are now getting turnips when there is abundance of them. Some are netted close on ; others during a part of the day, having a run off during the night ; while others have some carted out to their grazing-ground, at the rate of a cart-load to 130 sheep. A few of the leanest of the black-faces are already on turnips, and some more of them will be put on next week. This treatment will be continued till the lambing begins, which will be in about five weeks. Besides the immediate benefit which the sheep derive from the turnips, the pastures will be cleaned and freshened when they return to them, and better enable them to maintain the improved condition they have received from the turnips. " Spring has hardly yet affected any of the common grasses, ex- cept the Moss or Hair's-tail cotton Grass, the earliest and hardiest Mae.] Poultry. 173 of our hill plants, which begins to put out its flower-stems with the first fresh weather in February. It grows most abundantly on spongy, peaty soil. Wherever this valuable plant abounds, sheep not only thrive better, but grow more wool, than those in pastures where it is wanting, even though they get turnips during the spring months. Shepherds are hired at this time for another year. The following are common wages for the district : Thirty ewes, ten ewe hoggs, a cow's keep ; sixty-four stones (imp.) of oatmeal, six bushels of barley, and 57s. in lieu of potatoes. The shepherd ma- nufactures his own peats and hay, the master carting them home ; he also furnishes a worker for six weeks as house-rent, or keeps a worker from Whitsunday to Martinmas, at Wd. per day. Swine receive the same treatment as already specified, in previous months. March is a good month on dairy farms for the farrowing of the sow, as the waste of the dairy becomes more plentiful, and there is no better provision or assistance for the young pigs than whey and butter-milk. The treatment of fatting hogs has been al- ready described. Poultry will now require constant attention. It is useful t& keep Cochin hens, to give a supply of eggs through the winter, and to be ready when the Dorkings or other kinds lay eggs for them to sit on. The Cochins are the best layers in winter, and the best sitters and nurses to rear the young ones. The Dorkings and the Game Fowls are perhaps the best for hardy farm-yard rearing. A good food for chickens, the first week or two after hatching, is grated bread with broken hard-boiled eggs. Feed often with this ; also cut up all the scraps of meat, fat, potatoes, and bread, left at dinner, in very fine bits and give a good meal of this mixture daily ; gradually give refuse small grain, wheat or hempseed, and potatoes and dry meal ("thirds" or sharps) mixed, as the young ones grow larger. Keep the coops very clean, and place clean water always near them. A Rouen drake and Aylesbury ducks supply the best eggs for young ducks for feeding purposes. The young ones are best reared by a hen. They should be fed on meal in a paste, given frequently ; and as they grow older, some raw liver, mixed with the meal, is good for them once a day. Turkeys require great care in rearing. Grated bread and hard- boiled eggs, with a little curd from the dairy, with chives or young onions chopped fine, is the best food at first. Porridge of oatmeal, with bread, milk, and boiled nettles, make a good change of diet for young turkeys ; give also grain of any sort, as they can take it. Let them have a wide range over fields, if convenient, when they are quite strong to follow the mother. The best kind of geese for a farm are the large White or Emb- den Geese. They attain a great weight. They need access to a pond; and if the young are left entirely to the mother's care, on a 174 The Dairy. [Mab. grass plot, or in a field, and let go to their own house at night, they can be reared quite as successfully, even from hatching time, as if cooped and more tenderly fed. XIII.— THE DAIET. The following paragraph is from the pen of a Gloucestershire dairywoman, and was published in the Agricultural Gazette of 1856 :— The general operations of the dairy in the month of March must of course materially depend upon the time of the coming in of the cows, which, however, usually commences in this month. A great proportion of the milk is required the first fortnight as food for the calves, even if they are not intended to be fattened. If they are, of course it must be continued till they are sold to the butcher. Cheese-making. — The milk thus early in the season is not con- sidered of importance as regards cheese-making, as if new milk be used for that purpose, it causes fermentation, and this renders the cheese of very inferior quality, and often of very little value ; there- fore the appropriation of the milk to the purpose of butter-making is much the most advantageous use to be made of it. Indepen- dently of the inferior quality of the cheese that is made from the early milk, another objection to using it is the uncertainty of the quantity brought into the dairy after the calves have had their por- tion, which renders the supply too irregular for making cheese with advantage. On every account, therefore, it is considered most de- sirable to use the milk entirely for butter. Sometimes when the dairy is very early, persons are induced to begin cheese-making to- wards the end of this month, but in that case only for family pur- poses, when at least half the cream is taken from it, and even then it is very subject to heave. To prevent this many plans have been adopted ; one of simple character has, however, been tried with much success. After the rennet is put into the milk, add a little of the sour whey which is going to be taken from the dairy, about a pint to forty or fifty gallons will be sufficient. Butter-making. — The new milk after the cows have calved should not be brought into the dairy to be set up for butter under three days ; if not all taken by the calves it is useless excepting for the pigs ; after the third day it may be set up to produce cream, and it has been found, that by skimming the milk every twelve hours the flavour of the butter is better than when it is left on the milk twenty-four hours, which is a plan many persons adopt, with the idea that they obtain a greater proportion of butter from one thick than from two thin skimmings. If the milk should yield a trifle more in quantity, which is doubtful, the difference is not equal to the improved quality of the butter if the cream has not been Mab-] Butter-making. 175 allowed to remain on the milk more than twelve hours ; this expe- riment has been tried on succeeding weeks, when the butter has proved decidedly better by the mode of management here recom- mended. The cream should be kept in tin vessels suited to the convenience of changing it, which should be done every day, and a flat piece of wood or slice should be kept in the tins, which the dairymaid should use whenever she has an opportunity by stirring it frequently ; this prevents a skin from rising, which is a disadvantage to the butter. The cream should be churned twice a-week ; when the butter is taken from the churn, a clean cloth that ha3 been scalded and afterwards left to lie in cold water should be used to beat it with ; this will absorb all the buttermilk if wrung dry and the beating repeated three or four times ; after this a quantity, according to taste, of fine salt should be added, and worked in with the hands, when it will be ready for making up into any form required, without the use of water. The process of washing it is by some persons thought quite necessary for making good butter, and it is said that the milk cannot be properly extracted from it with- out using a quantity of water ; but if the experiment be tried after the mode of making above recommended, it will be found that no butter-milk whatever remains in it. It has been ascertained, from many years' experience, that butter made without the application of water retains its sweetness a longer time than when water is used, and it does not appear at all unreasonable that this should be the case, when we recollect that the washing of meat prevents its keeping as long as it would do if no water were applied to it. Some persons have an objection to salt, and there is a method of making butter without it, by keeping the small pats or prints, as they are sometimes called, in strong salt and water after they are made ; the butter is very delicate thus prepared, but is never sold in the market, and can only be procured by bespeaking it at a dairy. ■Weaning calves. — When calves are intended for weaning, which is usually done this month, or as early as convenient in the season, they should be selected from the best and oldest cows, experience proving to the farmer that a heifer's first and second calf are not so strong and likely to thrive well as those from cows of tried consti- tution. See pages 47 and 111. Much patience and care is re- quired by the attendant to induce them to drink well without suck- ing it from the fingers, and great loss is often occasioned by neglect, and letting them remain to be driven by hunger to take the milk. The stomach of a calf being very delicate, it is most easily affected by any change, and scouring soon follows a little fasting aggravated by the irritation and fear of losing its mother, which often retards the growth of young calves for several weeks, if it does not cost their lives. A little patient teaching, and the ob- servation of their natural habits and instincts are quite necessary 176 Farm Accounts. [Mas. in those having the charge of young animals, which of course need to be taught a process even of feeding when it is unnatural to them. When they can drink well, one quart of best or new milk will be sufficient, added to which they should get half a pint of good oatmeal ; or the same quantity of linseed has been found equally nourishing and sufficient to keep them in good growing condition. Both the meal and linseed may be prepared in the same way, viz., thus, take for each calf half a pint of oatmeal or linseed, mix it in a little cold water, and then add sufficient quite boiling to make the allowance for each calf two quarts of liquid ; keep it in a covered vessel till required to be given. The morning's meal should be prepared the night before, as it should stand for some hours, and that given at night should be made in the morning, and if made in large quantities it retains some heat ; a little more boiling water may be added to give it the warmth of new milk, one quart of which should be given with two quarts of this liquid to each calf. The milking cows should now get the best food provided for them, with access to good water ; the comfort of shelter, and every- thing tending to secure their good condition, surely tending to greater produce of milk. Roots and good hay can generally be supplied on every farm, and any disagreeable taste in the butter from the food of the cattle can be prevented by putting about a dessert spoonful of saltpetre, finely powdered, to about three quarts of the cream immediately it is taken off the milk, placing it in a tin vessel to stand in boiling water, and constantly stirring the cream while it is heating and until it cools again ; about half an hour is sufficient for the whole process. About a teaspoonful of common salt, and half the quantity of saltpetre have proved also of use in preventing any disagreeable flavour in butter occasioned by the food of the cattle, being put into the proportion of two gallons of milk, when it is brought in warm from the cow and placed in pans, or any vessel provided to receive it, to stand in till the cream is skimmed from it. XIV.— FARM ACCOUNTS. This subject will engage our attention at Michaelmas, which is more generally the time for closing the books for the year, as it is also more generally the time of entry to a farm. It may, however, be well at once to call attention to the importance of keeping a good labour book, both as distributing among the accounts to which it all belongs the sum paid during the year as wages on the farm, and as incidentally supplying a list of dates of the several opera- tions performed during the year, to which instructive reference may be often made when an explanation is desired of results observed in the field. Account-keeping is of course based upon an exact record kept of payments and receipts. From the day-book in which Mae.] Farm Accounts. ]77 these are day by day recorded, the items are transferred to the ac- counts in the ledger to which they severally belong ; and on com- paring the total receipts and payments under each at the close of the year, it will be found what profit or loss has occurred under each ; the payment columns including the valuation under each head of stock or cultivation to which the tenant enters, as by pay- ment, at the beginning of the year ; and the columns of receipts, including the similar valuation of stock and cultivation at the close of the year, of which sale is, as it were, made to the tenant (your- self or another) during the ensuing year. But of wages, which are paid in so many different small sums, it is difficult to make the same allotment of your payments to the accounts indebted by them, as where actual and definite purchases or sales are made. And a good labour-book is therefor^ a necessary part of any good 'system of farm book-keeping. The following is a description of our labour- book, which we have used for many years : — Every folio (i.e., the double page seen on opening the book) contains, beginning from your left, successive columns — 1. for the weekly wage given to each ; 2. for the name of the labourer — man, woman, or child ; 3. six small columns (in which a single letter, a, b, or o may be written) for the days of the week ; 4. a succession of money columns, a, b, c, &c, as many as may be needed, there being one for every ac- count opened in the ledger ; 5. a money column headed as " total ;" and 6. a column for " observations." If payment be made fort- nightly, instead of six daily columns (under 3) there should be twelve for the days of the fortnight ; but otherwise the book is drawn up the same. Every evening, in the column (3) of the day you enter the letters a, b, c, &c, of the account for which each labourer has been working, and if he has been working half a day apiece for any two, an entry of the two letters proper for them may easily be made. On pay-day you can see how many days each labourer has been working during the week or fortnight since last pay ; and after payment, your daily record enables you to distribute amoug the columns of the several accounts the wages you have paid to each man, woman, or child, in the proportion in which these accounts have been severally indebted. And on adding up these money columns you learn the sums to be placed among the payments under the several accounts in the day-book for that week's or fortnight's wages. Such a labour-book greatly facilitates the work of keeping accurate accounts. A more detailed reference to this subject, with descriptions of the other books concerned, will be given in September. XV.— LADT-DAY ENTEIES. In the case of spring entry to a farm, the outgoing tenant usually reaps the crops he has sown, giving up to his successor only 3 N 178 Lady -day Entries. [Mas. the land in clover and grass, and the fallow land to be prepared for green crops. The outgoing tenant retains the corn-growing part of the farm ; and reaps, threshes, and sells the crop he has sown. The valuation between him and his successor includes whatever stock and implements it may be mutually agreed upon to leave — together with whatever cultivation has been done on last year's stubble for the fallow crops of the coming year, and the seed and labour connected with the young grasses and clover given up, as well as whatever the custom of the country allows for straw and manure upon the farm. The turnips and other green crops of last year's growth have been fed upon the land during the winter, and those fields have been already sown with barley, or oats, or spring wheat by the outgoing tenant, who will reap the advantage of the sheepfold on the crops he reaps. But sometimes one tenant succeeds another at this season of the year, taking entirely to his whole interest in the land ; and when the custom of the country requires payment for straw and manure, nearly the whole of the incoming tenant's capital will thus be at once invested in a single payment, according to the valuation be- tween him and his predecessor. Such a valuation will include — (1) working cattle, harness, and implements ; (2) live stock — cattle, sheep, and swine ; (3) the labour and cultivation of fallows, and the same with the seed of growiDg corn and clover ; (4) such a portion of the labour, and cultivation, and manure of the fallow and green crop of the previous year as may be supposed to be still in the soil for the benefit of the young grain crop ; (5) the unconsumed portion of the outgoing tenant's roots and straw ; and (6) any grain still unthreshed in rick or barn. It is plain if this last item be in sufficient quantity to pay for the labour up till the autumn, and for the first half-year's rent then due, that the valuation on entry will in the case of a fully-stocked farm at once take up all the capital needed for the proper working of the farm. Such a case is, however, very rare ; and Lady-day entries are ge- nerally confined to cases in which the outgoing tenant disposes of all his interest in the farm in the usual way, leaving for valuation only those items of which the custom of the country forbids his removal from the land, or for which it gives him a claim upon his successor. Are] Crop Rotations. 179 APRIL. The ordinary weather of April will be gathered from the meteorological table on next page, compiled by Mr. Lowe, of Nottinghamshire, in which the temperature and rainfall for a number of years at different stations in England are specified. The ordinary operations of the farm during April direct attention to the subjects of (1) crop rotations ; (2) steam cultiva- tion ; (3) grass seeds and sowing ; (4) grain crops, the sowing of the latest sown, and the cultivation of the earliest sown among them ; (5) flax culture. (6) Green crop cultivation, more especially that of carrots and mangold wurzel, will engage attention, and potato planting should be finished ; (7) Lucerne, vetches, and sainfoin may be sown ; (8) the live stock of the farm of course .continue to occupy attention. I.— CBOP EOTATIONS. Our List of Crops. — Perhaps the first consideration which strikes one, on a survey of this question, is the fact that notwith- standing the large number of plants which are the subjects of Bri- tish agriculture, there is room given in our ordinary rotations for the cultivation of so very few. Probably there is no single rotation of crops which rules so large an extent of land in this country as the Norfolk or four-course system. It prevails all over the south- ern, the eastern, and the midland counties of England. 1, wheat ; 2, turnips ; 3, barley ; 4, clover and grass seeds : — These are the four plants and crops to which almost exclusively, I may say, ge- nerations of farmers over a very large proportion of England have confined their attention. Nothing of course can be simpler than the management of a farm on such a plan. Even when conducted on the most liberal and energetic system nothing can be simpler. Now, just contrast such a practice with the fact that we have in •our libraries a large volume entirely taken up with short descrip- tions of the plants that English farmers may cultivate. Mr. Law- son's Agriculturists Manual indicates that there is a very large scope indeed given to the farmer in the selection of his crops, and the list of wheat, barley, turnips, clover, in which alone many a large farmer in the south and east of England is interested, widens out into a catalogue of many pages length. Messrs. Lawson ar- range the plants of English agriculture under five classes : — I. Plants cultivated for their farinaceous seeds ; II. Those cultivated for their herbage and forage ; III. Those cultivated for their roots ; H % ^ 2 u a ga; aaas- a S'H'a co p o W3 CO CD *~i CN CM . I> ©1 u a ™ ' m K h ! dog £ £ — OtHNONOH *■* CD CO CO OS 00 N© H ON WilipcON 2 4t* ^ eb era cb co co co co -* co 4ji cococo^4*»o-4}(cpi©osco'>«osco £ ck N CM rH i-H CM »-( A* r-i CO j-H i-H AljHr-ij-i^-'r-I'MjHiHrH i *3 2 si J 2 .9 *a g g ea O rf 3*3 > 0*M .<|5 o O OOOOOtM CO 0«5 CO HOCOOOWCOCOOO a id . w »OOCM O°0N O "r^W3 O O O (M1*1NOO"ON"ON»Q CNiO^O-sHO °0 *N At O CM -£> C0^01(N(NM-4jfOJCiM ■^ CO CO ^ CO CO CO COCO CO CO CO COCOCMCOCOCOCOCOCOCO i^aa- O O O O O Ol O OO o ic woooom©Hc6o io o a o ^ w o *a o -* o o osursoooorHicscoos os wi cm w ~* co oi -**m »o co 01 iioocuMOOHHoq s 3 a £ ■** rH CM CM t* CD OJH W «D H OD O CO 1^- »-H ItO^ONONHMIM .. rt © ffl ^ 5 ft~3 t— *C) i-f CO CO »t"S J>- W5C0 »f3 CO CO OW^O^CDOWON OD i-H CO CM CI ca ftb o g 3 «DHCOO"Oir3 J>- CD ^ IC5 J>- CO H CO "D CD H 1CJNNCT © 4* 4*i J>- 3fHW (-" ^ C R§S Is :«! fc e8 : co ; re. S '^K : - (=3 ; OT;/} B •«?(*! 2 ^ C0 03 Eh co 3 CT3 S.fi bp« eg 9 fc :q (.- s ■ 15 a a b js QJ fed) rt 2 > 5 JS K S u x owi^^^So t^ o Am.] List of Crops. 181 IV. Plants cultivated for their uses in domestic economy and the arts; and V. Those cultivated for their timber. The first class consists of two divisions, viz., cereal grains and leguminous plants, besides buckwheat and some few other things which belong to neither. The second includes gramineous and leguminous and cruciferous herbage and forage plants. The third includes tuberous-rooted plants and fleshy-rooted plants. The fourth class contains plants yielding fibre, oil, dyes respec- tively, besides certain other principles and extracts of use in certain manufactures. The fifth class includes the whole subject of arboriculture. Our cereal grains include wheat, barley, oats, rye, canary grass. Our leguminous grains include beans, peas, and vetches. The agricultural grasses are a class of at least ten or twelve desirable plants ; our leguminous forage plants include clover, vetches, sain- foin, Lucerne, gorse ; and our cruciferous forage plants include the cabbage, mustard, rape. The potato is almost the only valuable tuberous-rooted plant we grow, but plants with thick fleshy " roots" include the turnip, mangold wurzel, carrot, and parsnip. And the fourth class of plants yielding fibre, oil, dye, &c, include flas, hemp, rape, mustard, madder, teazel, hop, and others. The fifth class need not be here referred to, because timber-bearing plants are not the subject of ordinary farm management, although on the great scale their natural history does illustrate the theory of crop rotations. Here, then, is a multitude of plants, in the presence of which our four, five, and sis years' courses of cropping certainly seem ludicrously disproportioned. It is, however, the fact, that notwith- standing the number of plants that have been named, there are only a few of them which occupy large tracts of land in this country. The returns for 1868 of the agricultural statistics of all the counties in England enables a report of the cropping of all the arable land of the country ; and in accordance with that report it appears that of the 230 plots of 100,000 acres each, of which English arable land consists, 34 are in wheat, 17f are in barley, 14f are in oats, 8 are in beans or peas, 16 are in turnips, 3£ are in potatoes, 2§ are in vetches &c, 2| in mangold wurzel, \ are in rye, 120 are in clover and grass, and 8 are in bare fallow, while there is not half a one in flax, hemp, and hops together, nor one in all other crops put together. This shows that though our ordinary rotations give scope for but few of our cultivated plants, yet these few do really supply the main wants of the country. The same is true of Scottish agriculture ; for in 1868, of forty- 182 Succession of Crops. [Am, four such plots of 100,000 acres each, 1 \ were in wheat, 2 } in barley, 10 in oats, \ in beans and peas, 4f in turnips, If in potatoes, 22§ iu grass, and not one-half in all the other crops put together. The inference is, that a very simple rotation does after all meet all the demands which on the whole are made upon English and Scottish agriculture. And the fact is, that it has not been out of the de-- mands of commerce that any deviation has been made in practice from our ordinary simple four, or five, or six field rotations. It has been out of the difficulties which the soil itself and the experience of its cultivators have presented in the way of so frequent a recur- rence of the same crop on the same land. And this brings us to the second point to which the attention of the student of this subject is naturally directed. The first probably is the comparatively large scope which English agriculture possesses, and the limited use that our crop rotations make of it. The next expresses itself in the question — "Whence the need of such crops as are cultivated succeeding one another? The Succession of Crops. — If clay land be best for wheat and beans, and moist sandy land be fit for oats, and gravelly soil for barley — if turnip soils are for the most part a tolerably distinct class— why not devote land permanently to the growth of the crop for which it is thus the best adapted — growing wheat and beans permanently on stiff soils, barley and turnips on light soils, and so on. "Whence the need of taking the several crops one after another? In the first place every farmer must grow a number of crops whether he has a variety of soil upon his farm or not, (a) because the relation in which he stands to his labourers requires that a pretty even quantity of employment be provided all the year through. If one or two crops only be cultivated this will not be the case — the labour will be accumulated at one or two parts of the j'ear, and so men will either be idle during long intervals or will at any rate be unable to find constant employment on the same farm, which it is for the interest of all parties they should. Then again (J) not only must we grow a number of crops on account of our labourers, but we must grow a number on each farm because of our live stock — not only are employment and wages wanted every month in the year, but food for cattle is wanted every month in the year, and for this reason, therefore, as a general rule,- a variety of crops is needed on the farm. But why must these crops be taken after one another ? To this question there are several answers. Thus, first, any one plant when grown successively and repeatedly on the same plot of ground does under ordinary circumstances and according to ordinary experience degenerate and dwindle. The wheat plant will, if it come to a ripe maturity at all, do so in a stunted form ; but it will probably, more or less, die before it arrives at maturity, and I have seen as the Apb.] Rotation of Crops. 183 result obviously of this one cause many acres -unhealthily white long before harvest time. The turnip will, even if taken so seldom as once in every four years, in the course of time no longer bear so quick a succession, and it acquires a diseased and stunted and forked growth. The clover plant is another illustration of the same truth — the so-called clover sickness being consequent upon the frequent recurrence of the clover crop upon the ground. The improvement of grass lands with their age, though an apparent, is not a real exception to the rule of these instances. Different species and even different classes of plants grow together on the same land there, and so one at any rate of the conditions provided by a rotation of crops, viz., the demand upon the soil being varied by the cultivation of a variety of crops, is secured. But besides plants degenerating as a general rule if taken re- peatedly from the same ground, it is found that crops succeed better when taken in a certain order after one another. Thus wheat grows better after beans than after oats or barley, and a suc- cession in which grain crops and green crops alternate is found in general practice more productive than one in which grain crops follow one another. This experience of the productiveness of the crops we cultivate is one of the reasons for a rotation in the place of a succession of crops. The explanation of this experience is a point on which the attention of scientific men has been more bestowed, probably, than on any other point in the whole range of farm practice. There are three principal theories which are each of them founded more or less fairly on observed facts, by which the need of a rotation of crops is explained. (1) There is the theory founded on the fact that plants during growth excrete certain juices from their roots which are thus returned to the soil. De Candolle entertained the idea that a crop might render the land on which it grew unsuitable to itself by over- loading it with this excreted matter, and that though the soil was thus rendered unsuitable for the crop in question, yet it was not in this way unfitted for the growth of any other. The excrementitious matter of one plant might indeed be real nutriment to another, and thus was explained not only how wheat after wheat would not pros- per, but also how wheat succeeded better after beans than after some other crops, as oats, or barley, or even turnips or potatoes. This theory, though consistent with the actual experience of the farmer, has fallen into disrepute. It is now believed that the organic juices excreted by the growing plant cannot remain unal- tered through months of exposure in a soil to be in force when the young plant again comes to be drawing its nourishment from the soil in question. (2) There is the theory of exhaustion. It is known that the mineral part of a plant does not correspond in composition with 184 Rotation of Crops. [A™- that of the mineral matter in solution within a soil, and by repeating the plant therefore on the same land it is obvious that certain ingredients in the soil will be exhausted sooner than others — faster, indeed, than the natural process of disintegration will sup* ply them from the more permanent part of the soil. Wheat taken repeatedly from the land, straw and all, would rob it rapidly of its soluble silica ; turnips would rob it rapidly of its potash. But if these crops be taken in succession the soil will have a longer time in which to accumulate and present for use the necessary ingredients when the crop requiring them as food shall come round again. It certainly is the case that some plants, such as wheat, oats, and barley, are characterized by the large quantity of soluble silica which they remove from the land ; and others, such as peas and tares, by the considerable quantity of lime ; and others, such as turnips and mangolds, by the large quantity of potash they remove ; and so in contradistinction to the excretory theory which accounts for failure on the ground of the presence of poisonous substances, the theory of exhaustion is stated as follows : — " In so far as chemical principles are concerned, the true general reason why a second or third crop of the same kind will not grow well is — not that the soil contains too much of any, but that it con- tains too little of one or more kinds of matter. If after a skilful manuring turnips grow luxuriantly, it is because the soil has been enriched with all that that crop requires. If a healthy barley crop follow the turnips it is because the soil still contains all the food of this new plant. If clover thrive after this it is because it actually requires certain kinds of nourishment which neither of the former crops has exhausted. If again luxuriant wheat succeeds it is because the soil abounds still in all that the wheat crop needs — the failing vegetable and other matters of the surface being increased and renewed by the decaying roots of the preceding crop of clover. And if now turnips refuse to give again a fair return it is because you have not added to the soil a fresh supply of that manure with- out which they cannot thrive. Add the manure and the same rota- tion of crops may again ensue." This is the theory by which exhaustion is made the explanation of crop rotation. And it does receive some countenance from the researches of the chemist into the composition of plants. And if the composition of our ordinary crops per acre, so far as mineral ingredients are concerned, does not fully tally with this theory, the turnip and mangold crop, which are restorative crops in practice, being under this theory in reality more exhaustive of the land than a wheat crop or a barley crop, which are in practice the exhaustive crops pay excellence, yet it must be remembered that these green crops are not sold off the land in ordinary farm practice, and that the straw of our corn crops and the hay of our grass crops are also -A* 8 -] Rotation of Crops. 185 returned to the land through, the means of the animals fed upon them. (3) Nevertheless the theory now most generally held is a differ- ent one yet. In the first the soil is supposed to require a succession of crops because each poisons the ground for itself; in the second because each exhausts the ground for itself; and in the third because in the system under which green crops alternate with grain ■crops, the former by their consumption on the land accumulate there the nitrogenous matter which by the manner of their growth they Tiave absorbed from the air. This theory supposes that " the beneficial effects of rotation, in increasing the production of saleable produce (so far as they are chemical), are not explained by the fact of one plant taking from the soil more of the different mineral constituents than another, but depend on the property of the so-called green or fallow crops of bringing, or conserving, upon the farm more substances rich m nitrogen than is yielded to them in manure ; whilst the crops to which they are subservient are both largely exported from the farm, and yield in their increase considerably less nitrogen than is given to them in manure." This last is the theory to which Mr. Lawes' researches have led him. It modifies the theory of exhaustion, and renders it perfectly consistent with the facts of every farmer's experience. It is the prevalent opinion that rotations have a necessary rela- tion to fertility : thus, certain rules on the subject are made impe- rative in most leases. It is well known, however, that rotations have no necessary relation to fertility at all, for there is many a worked-out farm cultivated by a man who keeps to the letter of his lease ; and all, therefore, that can be said for a rotation is, that a man bound to it cannot rob his land so rapidly as he could by re- peating the same crops year after year. Fertility can be ensured, and will be ensured, wherever intelligent men see it to be their in- terest to grow large crops. It can be done, even though they are hampered by being bound down to certain rotations ; but, in such cases, rotations are generally a hindrance instead of an advantage. Farmers, however, sometimes act under the influence, not of their interest in the long run, but of their immediate necessities. A rotation, unadvisable if the cultivation could be ensured as being always in the hands of a wealthy and intelligent tenantry, may thus be properly insisted on. Let us, however, confine ourselves at pre- sent to a discussion of one or two of the more common rotations of cropping adopted in this country. Among them is the Norfolk, or four course — 1, wheat ; 2, turnips ; 3, barley ; 4, clover. It is adapted especially for a light soil. It is prevalent in the east and south of England, and in many of the midland counties. The 186 The Norfolk Rotation. [Apb. whole of a recent discussion on rotation of crops before the London Farmers' Club hinged on the. faults of this one system, as if almost no other were in existence ; and if any further proof of its general adoption were wanted, we may mention that the agricultural statis- tics of Norfolk, 1868, put the crops thus :— Wheat, 205,867 acres ; barley, 182,697 ; turnips and mangold wurzel, 178,943 ; clover, 155,122. In Hampshire, again, wheat was 117,852 acres ; barley and oats, 132,506 ; turnips, 99,668 ; clover, 104,538 ; thus proving the almost universality of this quartering of the arable land among these four crops. Its faults are many : — Turnips ultimately fail, become diseased, attacked by finger-and-toe, and so on, if taken so often from the land. And if they succeed, then the practice of folding sheep upon them induces such an extremely luxuriant growth in the succeeding crop of barley, that in good turnip years a good malting sample of barley is impossible. And lastly, clover cannot be had once in four years : the clover sickness seems to be an unavoidable thing under these circumstances. Whatever be the liberality of the treatment, indeed, under the four-course system of cropping, we have continual failures both in the turnip and in the clover crop. The remedies are to lay only half the barley down with clover seed, and plough the stubble of the other half up for winter beans, taking wheat after beans on that half, and thus converting the four fields into eight, which will then be cropped in succession, thus : — 1, wheat ; 2, turnips ; 3, barley ; 4, clover ; 5, wheat ; 6, turnips ; 7, barley or wheat ; 8, beans. It is, however, found that by feeding upon the land the large bulk of food for sheep which is provided by the Norfolk rotation, the barley is too strawy, and is often laid, and produces a coarse sample ; and the further alteration of the rotation, which departs still more widely from the principle of the four-field system, is to take wheat or oats first after roots, and follow that by barley, to be followed by clover and beans or wheat. Tou thus get a heavy crop of oats or wheat, and the barley still finds enough to live upon in the land, and is a much better sample. Of course, the modifica- tion of the altered rotation by substituting mangold wurzel for one of the crops of turnips will very generally obtain in England ; thus further altering the four-field into an eight-field course of cropping, or when the Norfolk system is made a five-field course, making it a nine years' course of cropping. The modification of the Norfolk course of cropping by taking a crop of wheat or oats between the turnips and the barley, possible and even justifiable and desirable under a liberal course of manage- ment, is paraphrased in the north of England by another modifica- tion better adapted to what may be called the self-supporting system of agriculture. In Northumberland the Norfolk course becomes a Apb.] Rotation of Crops. 187 five years' series by allowing the grass seeds to remain down two years. In East Lothian, again, a six years' course of crops is pre- valent : — 1, wheat ; 2, turnips ; 3, wheat or barley ; 4, grass : 5, oats ; 6, beans or potatoes. But this is greatly modified on farms where potatoe culture is the most important because the most profitable part of farm management ; potatoes are there taken after turnips and followed by wheat, beans, wheat, grass, and oats ; thus convert- ing the course into one of seven years' duration. The four years' course of Norfolk, with its modifications, and the six years' course of East Lothian, with its modifications, seem to be the two distinc- tive rotations of the country. But the varieties are endless. In Gloucestershire, on the Cotswold district, wheat is often fol- lowed by oats, that by turnips, and these by barley and seeds. In the Fen districts of Lincolnshire oats are followed by wheat, and that by grass seeds and clover, to be broken up for wheat and fol- lowed by beans, after which another crop of wheat is taken and followed by rape or coleseed, thus making seven years' rotation. I have not mentioned the word " bare fallow" yet in the course of these rotations, but if you go upon the clay lands of the country you will find them still frequently subject to this management. A bare fallow is the commencement of a course of cropping just as under better management a fallow crop is the first of the series. The rotations of the country are well discussed and fully enume- rated in Mr. Caird's " English Agriculture," and among those preva^ lent on the clay lands of the country he specifies that of Essex — 1, fallow ; 2, wheat ; 3, beans ; 4, wheat ; 5, mangolds ; 6, barley ; 7, clover ; 8, wheat. The following, again, is the rotation on the alluvial or " carse" clays of Scotland — 1, fallow ; 2, wheat ; 3, barley ; 4, clover ; 5, oats ; 6, beans ; 7, wheat. In this case the second succession corn crop, barley after wheat, receives a short preparative fallow in March and April before being sown, and the clover seed is always a better plant after barley and on a recently stirred soil than after winter wheat. A heavy application of dung is spread over the oat stubble, which is left to be washed into the ground by the autumnal and winter rains, and the land is found to turn up very mellow and rich in January and February, when, after being some time exposed to the action of the frost, it is sown with beans. The beans are gene- rally, with this preparation, a heavy crop, and leave the land in a good state for wheat or oats. There are, indeed, numberless methods of taking crops in suc- cession, but in place of any detailed description of them we will add a mere enumeration of some of those which have obtained an ex- tensive adoption . — ■ 188 Steam Cultivation. [Ap;i. 1 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 1 6. Wheat Wheat Wheat • Wheat Wheat Wheat 2 Turnips Turnips and MangldWurzel Turnips Turnips Turnips Beans 3 Barley Barley and Wheat Wheat Barley Barley Wheat 4 Clover Clover and Beans Barley Grass Grass Clover 5 Clover Grass Oats Wheat 6 Potatoes and Beans Swedes and Carrots 7 Wheat 8 MangldWurzel 1 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. Wheat Fallow- Fallow- Wheat Wheat Turnips 2 Oats Wheat Wheat Turnip Rye&Grass* Potatoes 3 Turnips Beans Barley Potatoes Barley Wheat 4 Barley Wheat Clover Wheat Clover Clover 5 Clover Swedes and Mangold Oats Grass Oats Oats 6 ... Barley Beans Oats Beans and Turnips ... 7 Clover Wheat Beans 8 Wheat No. 1. The Norfolk rotation. „ 2. Do., as sometimes modified. „ 3. Ditto ditto. ,, 4. Northumberland course. , , 5. East Lothian ditto „ 6. Whitfield farm. No. 7. Cotswold district. 8. Essex clay soil. 9. Scottish Carse lands. 10. East Lothian (Potato culture). 11 . Mr. Hewitt Davis (forlight soils). 12. Mr. Caird's recommendation. II.— STEAM CULTIVATION. It is well during this, one of the busiest months of the year, when horse labour is harder than at almost any other time, to call attention to that substitute for horses in the field, which is to benefit the farmer not more by a direct annual saving of expen- diture in the stable, than by greater efficiency in the cultivation of the soil. Por the clay land farmer especially, the benefit under both of these heads by substituting steam power for horse labour in the fields is enormous. He, much more than the light land culti- vator, needs to keep a large team of horses throughout the year for the sake of their work during three or four months ; and he, too, more than the other, will benefit by that completer tillage which steam power can effect. On our stiffest clays on many farms sis Followed by cabbages and turnips. Ai'K.] Peasemore Farm. 189 horses per 100 acres are no uncommon allowance, while on lighter soils one-half that number will suffice. And on such heavy soils the trampling of the team beneath the furrow slice produces a har- dened floor which necessarily interferes with fertility, confining the soil indeed to a mere shallow layer of tilled earth, instead of per- mitting the roots of plants freely to expatiate throughout that greater depth from which nourishment will be drawn as soon as by a steam-drawn implement, involving no pressure on the subsoil, that floor shall have been thoroughly broken up. I propose in one of the autumn months to describe in detail the various methods of steam culture which have been adopted ; mean- while it may suffice to name as the two chief ones that of Fowler, and that of Smith, of "Woolstone. In the former, the engine tra- vels along one headland, and a self-worked anchor travels opposite to it along the other : a wire rope, passing round a single pulley beneath the engine and around a pulley in the anchor, is drawn to and fro — a half circuit at a time — thus causing an implement, either a so-called balance plough, or a grubber, to travel strip by strip over the whole surface between the two headlands. The plough turns over three or four furrows each journey, and the grubber works four to six feet of width at a time, and so from five to eight acres are done each day. In the latter method — that of Mr. Smith, of "Woolstone — a fixed engine works a fixed double windlass, and the wire rope goes all round the field, or rather around that part of it not yet worked, and the anchorages carrying pulleys are shifted step by step by hand, as it may be necessary, to allow the grubber worked to and fro between them gradually to encroach upon and overtake the portion of the field yet untilled. Drawings will hereafter be given of the two systems, and of the various improvements which have at length made Fowler's apparatus a perfect arrangement for the economical application of steam power to a draught implement of tillage. But I will give here, abridged from an account which I have already elsewhere* published, the history of Fowler's and of Smith's of Woolstone's system respectively on one or two large farms. 1. Fowler's Plough on Peasemore Farm, near Newbury, Berkshire. — Peasemore Farm forms part of an open country, well timbered here and there around the villages, but otherwise bare, and being high, somewhat cold and bleak. The fields are unfenced except against the roads. It is upwards of 770 acres in extent, of which about 30 are in permanent pasture. The soil is for the most part on a clayey drift, with which the chalk is here overspread. It is accordingly of a much stiffer character than any one seeing the chalk-pits open here and there in the neighbourhood would expect * The Agricultural Gazette. 190 Peasemore 'barm. [Ape. to find it. So stiff, indeed, that by a single ploughing in the wet you. may easily destroy your chance for the whole season of reducing it to tilth. Mr. Plummer, who succeeded the late Mr. Tull, and has been resident at Peasemore for rather more than a year, introduced Mr. Fowler's 12-horse power steam plough about thirteen months ago. He has in consequence already reduced the former horse-power of the farm (rather more than thirty horses) to six three-horse teams, and an odd horse for the water-cart, and ultimately he expects to dispense with another team, reducing his number of draught animals to fifteen or sixteen. Let us see what he saves by this : In the first place, comparing nineteen with thirty-one, he avoids the purchase of twelve horses, at an expense probably (at 35?., or thereabouts, a-piece) of 420Z. The annual expense of these animals, as employed upon the farm, is difficult to estimate ; it is made up of food, maintenance at original value, smith work, harness, and farriery, maintenance of the implements worked by them, and wages. The food of these horses is stated to me to have been two bushels of oats a-piece weekly throughout the year, and half a bushel of beans in addition during three months of seed-time. They have hay ad lib. during the winter months, and cut green food — trifolium, clover, vetches, &c, during summer. The oats and beans may be valued at 2s. Qd. and 4s. Qd. a bushel consumed at home — the hay at 3s. a cwt., and the green food cut and brought home at Qd. per cwt. (a) The following, then, will be the annual cost of food — £ s. d. Oats, 104 bushels, at 2s. 6d 13 Beans, 6 bushels, at 4s. 6d 17 Hay, 22 weeks, l|f cwt. a week, at 3s. per cwt 4 19 Green food, 30 weeks, 7 cwt. a week, at 6d. per cwt. . . .550 24 11 (5) To this must be added the annual cost of smith's work, car- ' pernor's work,* and saddlery, and farriery, probably . .290 (c) And the annual depreciation of value, at least 10 per cent., on35Z ..300 30 The annual cost under these heads amounts to SOI., and this over 12 horses is 360 (d) To this must be added the wages paid, viz., head carter, at 13s., and probably 3 younger men at 9s., 40s.f weekly, or per annum 104 * Implements of carriage will remain as many as ever on the farm. Implements of tillage will be diminished in larger number than in the proportion of the horses displaced. The carpenter's bill upon the latter will remain in full, but a more than average smith's bill, so far as the implements are concerned, will be saved. t The whole expense is probably 20s. weekly more for four carter's boys— but this has not been taken into account ; for the steam plough has not in effect dis- Aie.] Peasemore Farm. 191 Brought forward . . . £464 (e) The annual cost of the implements required for any number of horses may be put at 2s. per acre on the land which they would cultivate, supposing them to be the whole horse-power employed on a, given extent of land. But as in this case they are displaced only so far as cultivation is concerned, and, indeed, only a certain department of that, this item is necessarily much smaller. The quantity of carriage, of harrowing, and rolling, and sowing for the whole farm remains as it was, and the same number of the implements for these purposes will be in use. On the other hand, the ploughs and scarifiers will be reduced in number more than in proportion to the teams displaced, and probably the implements displaced may cost as much as 150Z. ; and 10 per cent, on the whole for depreciation, will be . . 15 We thus arrive at a total annual saving of . . . 479 (/) To this should be added 5 per cent, on the money invested in the horses and their implements (probably 57(K.) or . . 28 10 Making a total of about .... £507 10 Tliis is the annual cost which has been displaced by Mr. Hum- mer's steam plough. Let us now inquire his expenditure upon the substitute. He has spent on the engine and machinery 780Z. His annual expenditure in repairs, fuel, oil, and depreciation of value is not easily ascertained, and it is proper to add here that some of the items have been incurred in working for a neighbour. I therefore make a proportionate deduction from their amount whenever justi- fiable, guided by the fact that of 878 acres actually worked within the year, only 700 acres have been done on the farm, so as to dis- place the twelve horses whose cost has just been calculated. (o) Mr. Plummer has purchased this spring 400 yards of new wire rope, and it appears from as detailed an examination as I could give, that this is likely to be an annual purchase, and that the old rope will require annual replacement to this extent in order to preserve its efficiency. The annual cost under the head of rope will therefore be about £ s. d. 60Z., or, deducting 12Z. for work done off the farm . . . 48 (J) Bepairs of anchor and engine and plough. I examined Mr. — —— — Hummer's accounts from March to December, and the amount in the past year under this head seeuis to have been 50£. 16s. 3d. This includes everything needed connected with every part of the machinery, and is otherwise excessive, so that I shall not be wrong in putting the probable sum hereafter chargeable under this head at not more per annum than . . . 30 (c) The consumption of coals is of course a costly item. They are 18s. a ton at Newbury, eight miles off. The quantity consumed was about 56 tons per annum, costing . . . . . 51 Carriage of 56 tons from Newbury, being in otherwise empty return waggons, say 900 Annual cost of coals, 1860—61 60 C placed farm labour, and probably quite as much as 20s. weekly is paid, besides the wages of the steam ploughmen, in addition to the remaining hands formerly em- ployed. 192 Peasemore Farm. [Apb. Brought forward . . . £60 I find that during the year ahout 700 acres have been ploughed or scarified on Peasemore by this consumptiou of fuel, and this amounts to rather more than \\ cwt. of coal per acre, or including carriage, about 2s. per acre. Mr. Plummer has how- ever ploughed 180 acres for a neighbour, but the coal used in that case was supplied to him. Of the oil consumed during the year I have no record, but it may probably be put as high as a gallon every four days, or on the whole 25 or 30 gallons for the work upon the farm . .600 The coals and oil together cost then about . . . 66 (d) The depreciation in the value of the engine, though nothing perhaps during the first year of its use, must of course amount to a considerable item in the long run, and probably it may be fair to charge 10 per cent, on the value of the whole apparatus, excluding the rope, which is supposed to be kept good by the purchase annually of 400 yards. This item, therefore, amounts to ' 68 (e) To this must be added the wages of the men employed, who are farm-labourers, engaged in other farm work when not at work with the steam plough. The daily wage when thus at work, is as follows : — Driver, 3s.; ploughman, 3s.; anchor lad, 2s.; three boys, at Xld.; water-cart boy and horse, estimated at 3?. 3d.; or in all, 14s. Now, during the past year they ploughed and scarified 878 acres, of which about 180 acres were off the farm ; and, though I have no exact record of the days when they were at work, yet the 700 acres ploughed at Pease- more can hardly have been done in less time than 110 days, including stoppages, removals, &c; 110 days, at 14s. . . 77 (f) The removals, referred to, take less than four hours each, and may be taken to require the assistance, upon the average, of four horses with a man each time. Supposing one removal for every twenty-five acres, we have to charge against the steam plough twenty-eight removals, of half a day each of one man and four horses ; fourteen days, at 15s. . . . . 10 10 To recapitulate, then : — we have as the annual cost of work at Peasemore done by steam power : — Pope Eepairs f Coals Oil Depreciation of value ....... Wages, including supply of water Removals ......... And 5 per cent, on the cost of the whole apparatus Amounting to a total annual cost of £ s. d. . 48 . 30 . 60 . 6 . 68 . 77 . 10 10 299 10 . 39 £33S 10 ArB] Steam Culture. 193 Horse and ateam power, then, may be thus contrasted, so far as the cost incurred on Peasemore during the year 1860-61 is con- cerned : — Cost incurred by 5 per cent, od 1st cost Food — fuel, &c. Bills — repairs Depreciation ... Wages Twelve horses. Share* of engine. £28 10 294 12 44 8 36 104 £39 66 78 68 87 10 £507 10 £338 10 If the whole cost to Mr. Plummer of the engine for the year be added up, not deducting tear and wear upon a neighbour's farm, and adding for other costs and wages, then the amount is 389Z. But there has been received for 120 acres of ploughing at 10s., and for 60 acres at 12s. for the work done upon that farm, or 961. in all, so that the sum actually spent by Mr. Plummer during the year on his steam plough has been only 242Z., as against 5071. saved. And if it be urged that there will be in general work enough upon the farm for the engine and its machinery without going out for hire, then the cost of 389?. which would have been charged against it on Peasemore Farm alone must be compared with the larger sum which the horse labour displaced would have cost — for in that case Mr. Plummer expects to do with one team less — to save five teams instead of four — i.e., to save 6001. instead of 500Z. per annum. Besides which, it must be remembered that the year 1860-61 has been one of the worst years for the tillage of the land, whatever power may have been adopted, that has been known. It results, then, upon the whole, from Mr. Plummer's experience during this year — taking no account of his work except upon his own farm — that 700 acres ploughing and scarifying cost Is. lOd. an acre for fuel and oil, 2s. 3d. an acre for repairs of all kinds, 2s. 6d. an acre for wages, including share of removals, and about 3s. Id. an acre foK-.interest and depreciation of value. These sums amount to 9s. 8d. per acre, or 338Z. 13s. 4>d. on the 700 acres culti- vated by steam ; the actual cost as already estimated being 338?. 10s. In connexion with this estimated cost per acre of steam ploughing, there is this to be borne in mind — that Mr. Plummer's neighbours gladly hire his men and apparatus at 12s. an acre, pay- ing for the coals (2s. an acre) themselves ; and, above all, that the * " Share " of engine — this assumes that every year as large a portion of the cost of the engine will be chargeable for work done off the farm on hire. 4 o 194 Mr. Smith's Grubber. [Ape. depth and quality of the work thus done are an immense enhance- ment of the mere immediate advantage on a money valuation which Mr. Plammer thus derives. The difference between the ploughing by horse-power and by steam, though obvious enough, is greater in reality than it appears. It is the disturbance and breaking up of the old floor beneath the shallow soil on which the horses employed in its cultivation have been for centuries treading, that is the great advantage of the steam drawn plough ; and this, though ultimately discovered in the greater luxuriance of the subsequent vegetable growth, i3 not immediately seen. But a thorough ploughing by steam-power in good season is generally visible enough in the better tilth which is almost imme- diately observable. I walked across one field after it had been ploughed by steam this spring (1861). This steam cultivation crossed the cultivation of the previous autumn, which had been partly done by steam and partly by horse-power, and the difference was very greatly in favour of the previous steam ploughing. In another field, again, (33 acres), which had been in 1860 in barley, oats, and wheat (11 acres each), one end was then in spring vetches, looking as well and promising as possible — the middle piece after oats had just been sown with rape. They were horse- ploughing it as I walked over it, and the harrows were following almost close behind the plough. A particular line across the field divided the tilth from the clods ; on one side it was breaking down before the harrows as well as possible ; on the other side the land was clung, and rough, and intractable. That line separated the 22 acres which had been steam-ploughed in March, 1860, for barley and oats, and which had been again steam-ploughed in October, 1860, from the 11 acres of wheat stubble which had been horse- ploughed for turnips. But it is not in mere instances of this kind alone that the advantage of steam-culture lies. The result will appear at length not only in a more complete utilization of the natural fertility of the soil and in a consequent and constant annual increase of crops, but in a quickened and more energetic charac- ter impressed alike upon both labourers and employers. 2. Mr. Smith's Grubber, at Sutton Courtney, near Abing- don. — On Mr. Pullen's farm, which lies between this long and straggling village and the Didcot Station on the Great "Western Railway, Smith's steam cultivator has been employed since August, 1858. The apparatus was purchased at the Chester Meeting of the Royal Agricultural-Society, and was soon (August, 1858) at work on peas and bean stubble for wheat sowing ; and since that time 1480 acres have been cultivated by it. The farm is 700 acres in extent, of which 600 acres are arable. It lies for the most part over gravel upon the Oxford clay. At least 500 acres are thus a tolerably open soil, the remainder is, how- ■Apr.] Sutton Courtney Farm. 195 ever, upon the sheer clay, and some of it is thus " the stiffest land in England." It is very flat, and lying low, was last year (1860) flooded over a considerable part of its surface. It is in several ways parti- cularly well adapted for steam cultivation. Thus it is open and unfenced except against the drift ways and roads ; it is sufficiently heavy to make horse labour always costly and often mischievous, and in particular there is not a field or division of it which has not water close at hand in ditches through it or around it. Instead, therefore, of a horse and cart, a boy and bucket are all that is needed for the water supply of the engine, and even that is sometimes dis- pensed with, the engine pumping directly from the ditch by which it stands. The rotation adopted on this farm, while it is especially adapted to the stiffer class of soils, is framed with a particular view to the provision of food for a large quantity of fatting stock. There is no bare fallow; and excepting here and there a field for mangold wur- zel, as well as the ease of wheat stubble ploughed for spring corn, there is not even any winter fallow. The following is the ordinary cropping of the land. Of 600 acres, 200 are in wheat ; 150 in barley ; 100 acres are first trefoil or vetches, and then Swedish and common turnips or rape, a field or two lying fallow during winter for mangold wurzel ; 100 acres are beans and peas ; and 50 acres are in broad clover. Of the wheat stubble half comes up for barley and half for vetches, Ac., and roots. Of the barley stubble 50 acres are in clover, and 100 are for beans and peas. Half the root crop, all the beans and peas stubble, and the clover, are followed by wheat. It is in the laborious rather than the exhausting character of the rotation that we are especially interested. There are only 50 acres of broad clover on the whole 600 acres ; 550 then are every year in cultivation. Wheat stubbles need autumn and spring ploughing for barley, and autumn ploughing for vetches, &c, and again more than one ploughing for turnips. Barley stubbles (excepting 50 acres sown with clover) need autumn cultivation for beans and peas. Beans and peas stubble needs ploughing for wheat. The fields in root crops, carted off or fed upon the land, need ploughing for barley or for wheat. The clover needs also ploughing up for wheat. It is not too much to say that every year upon 600 acres there are at least 900 acres of ploughing, besides other cultivation, needed. The number of horses kept upon the farm was accordingly unusually large. Ten three-horse teams were needed for its cultivation; occa- sionally, on the lighter lands, worked in pairs. The steam grubber has displaced twelve, so that the stock which Mr. Pullen now finds enough is eighteen. The twelve horses displaced would have done in their proportion 360 acres of the ploughing which we have esti- 2 ]