The farmer's kalendar; or, A monthly directory for all sorts of country business. By an experienced farmer [A. Young]. By A. Young1862 |
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acre ad lib Agricultural alsike ammonia animals arable arable land autumn average barley beans better breed bushels cake calves carrots carts cattle chaff clay clover common turnips corn cost cows cultivation dairy drainage drains drill dung early eight ewes experience farm farmer fattening feeding feet fertility field flax furrow give given grain grass lands green crops ground growth guano harrow harvest heaps hoeing horse-hoe horses inches labour lambs latter lime Lochgilphead lucerne machine mangold wurzel manure meadow milk mixed month oats pasture peas Peasemore perennial rye-grass pigs plants plough potatoes practice produce quantity rain reaper red clover roots rows season seed sheep soil sorts sowing sown spring steam straw stubble subsoil sufficient superphosphate surface swedes tenant threshing tillage tons turnips vetches weather weeds week wheat whole winter yards yield young
Popular passages
Page 413 - The pulling then begins, which is done carefully by small hand fuis at a time. These are laid upon the ground to dry, two and two obliquely across each other. Fine weather is essential to this part of the operation. Soon after this they are collected in larger bundles and placed with the root end on the ground, the bundles being slightly tied near the seed end ; the other end is spread out that the air may have access, and the rain may not damage the flax.
Page 484 - The method adopted by the steepers of Courtray, where steeping flax is a distinct trade, is different The bundles of flax are placed alternately with the seed end of the one to the root end of the other, the latter projecting a few inches : as many of these are tied together near both ends as form a thick bundle about a foot in diameter. A frame made of...
Page 322 - ... once or twice before twelve or one o'clock, when the people go to dinner as usual. If the weather has proved sunny and fine, the hay which was last night in bastard-cocks will this afternoon be in a proper state to be carried ; but...
Page 323 - ... the ridge. The ends of the thatch are afterwards cut evenly below the eaves of the stack, just of sufficient length for the rainwater to drip quite clear of the hay. When the stack happens to be placed in a situation which may be suspected of being too damp in the winter, a trench of about six or eight inches deep is dug round, and nearly close to it, which serves to convey all the water from the spot, and renders it perfectly dry and secure.
Page 600 - JO 0 10 0 16 6 4 0 The manufactured foods thus cost, weight for weight, four or five times as much as the most nutritive of the ordinary stock foods on our farms.* Very undeniable evidence of the superiority of the former should therefore be required to induce the farmer extensively to employ them.
Page 324 - In the making of hay, some attention should be paid to the quality of the soil, and the kind of herbage growing on it. The hard, benty hay of a poor soil is in little or no danger of firing in the stack ; and should, therefore, be put very early together, in order to promote a considerable perspiration, as the only means of imparting a flavour to such hay, which will make it agreeable to horses and lean cattle, for it will be nearly unfit for every other sort of stock.
Page 484 - The whole is then immersed in the river, boards loaded with atones being placed upon the flax, till the whole is sunk a little under the surface of the water. The bottom does not reach the ground, so that the water flows over and under it. There are posts driven in the river to keep the box in its place, and each steeper has a certain portion of the bank, which is a valuable property. The flax takes somewhat longer time in steeping in this manner than it does in...
Page 214 - ... to be chiefly adapted to the exhausted pastures of certain localities, and not to be generally applicable to meadow land which is mown for hay. The hay crop is a great exhauster of the mineral constituents of the soil; and these, owing to the high price of salts of potash, cannot, with profit, be fully restored in artificial manures. The return of the mineral constituents is better accomplished by means of farmyard manure, stable dung, night soil, and the like; which, at the same time, bring...
Page 413 - This is the method adopted by those who defer the steeping till another season. Some carry the flax as soon as it is dry under a shed, and take off the capsules with the seed by rippling, which is drawing the flax through an iron comb fixed in a block of wood ; the capsules which are too large to...
Page 324 - ... as it has sometimes done; of course, the grass from such land must have more time allowed in making it into hay : this the Middlesex farmers are perfectly aware of; and when the weather proves moderately drying, they make most excellent hay ; but when it i» very hot or scorching, they, as well as most other farmers under similar circumstances, are sometimes mistaken.