LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
[Letters of the length of one of our leading paragraphs are often more read, and therefore more effective, than those which fill treble the space.] LATE SOWINGS AND GOOD CROPS. (To THE EDITOR Olt THE " SPECTATOR."] Silt,—My grandfather, Captain T. W. Buller, R.N., who farmed his own land in Devon, lying in the neighbourhood of the seventh to ninth milestones on the Exeter-Honiton road, kept a careful farming journal. Some extracts from it as regards late spring planting of oats, barley, and potatoes may be of use, and possibly of encouragement, in this very late season :- "1824—June 1st.—Planted seven acres of potatoes. . . . The quantity of rain has greatly impeded all spring sowing and hindered ground from being in order for planting potatoes as soon as it ought.
1824—July 20th.—Earthed up potatoes for first time.
1824—October.—Potatoes lifted. Crop considered best in that part of the country, though damaged slightly by September frosts.
1825—May 20th.—Finished planting potatoes.
1825—November 14th.—Digging potatoes. These potatoes have grown most astonishingly since the rain which fell on the 22nd August after the long drought. At that time I tried a few roots, and could not find a potato larger than a marble.
1826—May 3rd.—One of the farmers in this parish told me to-day that he once sowed a field of oats on the 4th June—the season having been dry. he could not pulverize the ground sufficiently before that time. Rain fell a few days after the corn was sown, and it grew one of the best craps he ever had, and it was cut on the 29th September."
1826-1827 appear to have been fine and forward springs. 1828, however, was very wet, cold, and backward, and the journal continues :—•
" 1828—May 10th.—I have yet several acres of spring corn and barley to sow, and have little doubt (unless very dry weather sets in) that this will be a better crop than that which was sown before the heavy rains. The Slade was sown with oats on the 4th of this month." (A marginal note says " this proved the best crop I had.")
This spring of 1828 was evidently something of a precedent for the present one in other respects, as in mid-May the writer says : " Dairy cows are yet upon hay owing to the backwardness of the grass." And later :-
" 1828—May 16th.—The unfavourable spring has so retarded the usual course of labour that as yet I have not a fallow for turnips ploughed up, nor ground prepared either for potatoes or mangel- wurzels.
1828—June 16th.—I finished planting potatoes in the first week of June, and expect a good crop, the ground being in good order and manured."
The wheat crop was very short that year, as the writer states wheat fetched 103s. a quarter in the London market.
In the year 1829 apparently the spring was nearly as backward as the preceding one, a very cold March succeeded by a very wet April:- "1829—May 25th.—Commenced planting potatoes, ground in good order."
But the compensating mercy of Nature often prevailed then as now, as later the writer says:— " 1829—May 29th.—Never did the orehards hold out fairer promise the spring having been so remarkably cold and ungenial, vegetation was kept back a month, and the fine weather setting in, trees burst at once into blossom and leaf."
The journal shows that the writer (who was a careful and successful farmer) quite anticipated in the ordinary course not having all his oats, barley, or potatoes sown much before May 15th. The land that ho was cultivating varied from a light peaty hill soil to heavy clay loam in the bottom lands. His maxim about spring sowing was in effect not to be concerned about sowing later than usual, that it was much better to " sow in ground out of season than out of temper." Certainly, any words of encouragement, if well founded, may be useful in this present season.—I am, Sir, 8:c., HAUGH Panirorts. Brooks's Club, S.N.
Previous page
