FARM NOTES FROM ENGLAND

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8663, 4 September 1891, Page 3

FARM NOTES FROM ENGLAND

[by OUR ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL CORRESPONDENT.] ' London, July 11, STORMY JULY. As usual in the first half of July, we have had more or less heavy rains in all parts of the country ; indeed, there have been few days without rain since the end of June. At first the change to unsettled weather was welcomed, as rain was wanted on light soils ; bub wo have now had more than we need, and a prolonged drought would be disastrous. Some of the heaviest of the wheats and barleys have been laid by the storms, but, as a rule, the wheats are not long enough or thick enough to go down badly, excepb under the infliction of repeated storms. Barley is the best of the cereals, wheat being whab is called a failstanding crop, and oats rather light. The earing period is now about finished, and the appearance of the crops is satisfactory. All that we need to ensure a good harvest is a spell of hot and sunny weather up to I the end of July. Harvest will not begin much before the middle of August, the wet weather having retarded tho progress towards maturity. Potatoes have improved greatly, and will do well if they escape disease, which will be feared if dry weather does nob at once set in. Turnips have grown nicely, the rains having suited them; bub mangolds very commonly have been attacked by the mangold leaf maggot, which lives between the upper and under skin of the leaf, eating up the tissues and causing blisters, which ultimately turn black. Tho hay crop has grown into a good one, bub has been more or less injured by the rains, where it was cub last week. Tho bulk of the crop, however, is still uncut, formers having waited in the hope of more settled weather. The work of haymaking is fully a month behind the usual period.

THE " ROYAL" JOURNAL. All the critics agree that the new number of the Royal Agricultural Society's Journal is the best issued since the quarterly publication of it was begun. The opening article is by Mr. Charles Whitehead, on tho besb means of deal, ing with attacks of insects and fungiand contains a mass of information, in condensed form, useful to farmers and gardeners. There is nothing new in it, but the latest knowledge on the subject is summarised, while the appliances required are described with the help of illustrations. In " The Survival in Farming," by Mr. W. E. Bear, the question of the relative advantages of high and low and large and small farming are discussed, the conclusion arrived at being that good, bub nob extravagant farming pays besb, and has best withstood tho long period of agricultural depression, while no rule can be laid down as to the most profitable sizes, for farms, small holdings being besb under some conditions and large ones under others. Other articles are on " Canker in the Larch," by Mr. Carruthers, botanisb to the Royal Agricultural Society; " The Experience of a Scotch Farmer in Ewell," by Mr. Primrose McUonnell; and on "The Cultivation of Sugar Beet in Austria," by Mr. Ernest Clarke. Among the reports tho mosb important is Dr. Voelcker's on the Woburn field experiments in 1889 and 1890, the thirteenth and fourteenth seasons of consecutive wheat and barley crops. During the period the same manures have been used on the'same plots. Dr. Voeleker was in India when tho report for 1889 was due, and that is why we have the reports for two years ab the same time. The yield j of the two wheat plots which have nob ! been manured during the whole period averaged 13 bushels per acre in 1889, and 14*9 in 1890, or less than in some previous years, the quantity having been over 25 bushels on one occasion, and nearly 23 bushels five years ago. Whab are somewhat loosely called " mineral" manures, as contrasted with those containing a good deal of nitrogon, produced very little effect; indeed, the application of 2001b of sulphate of potash, 3£cwb of superphosphate, and 1001b each of sulphate of soda and sulphate of magnesia per acre, produced less than was grown on the unmanured plots in 1889, and only half a bushel more in 1890. Bub the addition of 2001b of ammonia salts (half sulphate and half muriate) to the manures abovenamed raised the yield from 12 - 2 to 35*5 bushels in 1889, and from 15 - 4 to 30*3 bushels in 1890. Here is a striking instance of tho advantage of judicious high farming. The same "minerals" and 2751b of nitrate of soda (quite as much a mineral as the other, manures) gave 30*5 bushels in 1889 and 34-1 in 1890. The points to bo specially observed here are the uselessness of the minerals" alone, and their value with one of the nitrogenous manures. To show that they did good ib is only necessary to compare the yields just mentioned with those of plots to which the same quantities of nitrogenous manure were applied without the " minerals." The application of 2001b of ammonia salts alone gave 26'3 bushels in 1889 and 24 7 in 1890; while 2751b of nitrate of soda alone gave 18*9 bushels in 1889 and 31 '2 in 1890. As usual, the ammonia salts gave the best results in the web season (1889) and nitrate of soda in the drier one of 1890. The results on the barley crop have been similar to those jusb described.