THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



541 



The total supplies of home and foreign stock exhibited 

 in the Great Metropolitan Market have been as under : — 



Beasts 18,741 head. 



Cows 480 „ 



Sheep and lambs 115,88() „ 



Calves ] ,<j7 1 m 



Pigs 2,700 „ 



Comparison of Supplies. 

 Sheep and 



May. Beasts. Cows. Lambs. Calves. PiijR. 



1857.... 18,7-22 450 104,.')!H) 1,415 2,530 



l«5t).... 18,995 495 119,6-40 1,260 2,545 



1855.... 1,0,847 410 113,600 2,470 2,590 



1854.... 20,831 576 124,824 2,1 4G 2,435 



Last month 12,850 Scots and shorthorns came to hand from 

 Norfolk, Suilblk, Essex, and Cambridgeshire ; 2,500 of va- 

 rious breeds from other parts of England ; 497 Scots from 

 Scotland ; and 208 oxen, &c., from Ireland, via Liverpool. 



Beef has sold at from 3s. to 4s. 6d. ; mutton, out of the 

 wool, 3s. 2d. to 4s. 6d. ; lamb, 5s. 8d. to 7s. ; veal, 4s. to 

 5s. 4d. ; and pork, 3s. 2d. to 4s. 4d. per 8 lbs. to sink the 

 olfal. 



Comparison of Prices. 

 Maj-, 1855. Ma}', 1856. May, 1857. 



s. d. s d. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. 

 Beef, from 3 to 4 8 .. 3 0to4 10.. 3 to 5 

 Mutton.. 3 2 — 5 .. 3 6 — 5 4.. 3 4 — 5 4 

 Lamb.... 5 2 — 6 10. .5 4 — 6 6.. 5 6 — 7 

 Veal .... 4 — 5 4.. 310 — 5 6.. 3 8 — 6 

 Pork .. .. 3 — 4 4.. 3 4 — 4 8.. 3 8 — 5 



Newgate and Leadenhall have been seasonably well sup- 

 plied with both town and country-killed meat. From Scot- 

 laud the arrivals have been on a very liberal scale. A 

 steady business has been transacted and prices have ruled 

 as follows : — Beef, from Ss. to 4s. ; mutton, 33. 2d. to 

 4s. 4d. ; lamb, 58. 4d. to 6s. Cd. ; veal, 3s. 8d. to 4s. Gd. ; pork, 

 3s. to 4s. 4d. per 81bs., by the carcase. 



HERTFORDSHIRE (SOUTH.) 



We caunot call to mind a season when the country has 

 looked more beautiful, aud the various crops more promising 

 for a plant than they do this spiiug. Wheat is particularly 

 well spoken of, good fields being the rule, and indifferent fields 

 the exceptiou. The tillage for spring corn has been completed 

 under most favourable circumstances, the turnip sheep having 

 " poached" the land less during the past winter than for many 

 previous years ; consequently barley and oats, which love a fine 

 seed-bed, have come up strong and healthy, aud generally a 

 full plant. A few complaints of wire-worm have been pre- 

 valent in the past week. We suggest to our friends that they 

 should poison these pests, as the best means of checking them. 

 We do not mean by this that farmers should purchase any of 

 the thousand-and-one nostrums they are solicited to buy by 

 " agents" of every denomination ; but we meaa that a consi- 

 derable portion of the crop of swedes or other turnips should 

 be eaten where it is grown, that the sheep should have a little 

 corn or liuseed-cake with clover-chaff in addition, and by this 

 means check the progress of the wire-worm under the ground, 

 and force the corn rapidly out of the ground. Winter beans 

 have borne the easterly winds well, and on clean laud promise 

 for a good cfop. Spring beans have set well; but in many 

 places are growing on foul land, which can never pay. It 

 always gives us pleasure to find a farmer forward with 

 the hoeing of his beana, and many fields are now 

 bsing hoed for the second time. We regret to add 

 that other fields are yet strangers to the hoe, aud 

 probably will receive little attention until the cleaning of 

 the mangold crop, preparation for turnip-sowing, and other 

 pressing matters, puzzle the farmer ; who, in despair, turns 

 some tegs into his bean-field to pick out the rank weeds — a 

 practice we cannot admire or recommend. Mangolds have 

 been extensively planted, and in various ways; some preferrmg 

 the ridge-cultivation, others the flat (after deep-ploughing, or 

 subaoiling). On strong soils, complaints are general that the 

 land works unkindly for mangold-sowing, and our own clod- 

 crusher is out on a mission to reduce a neighbour's stubble- 

 soil. We do not care to advise our friend, who is tomewhat 



hasty in temper if not in business, aud might take it amiss ; 

 but we seriously think that if he thoroughly cleaned and 

 ridged the laud in the autumn, intended for mangold, and 

 simply had to fork out odd roots of twitch, &c., cart ou his 

 manure, and split his ridges iu the spring, he would not so 

 often require our crusher. The store of mangold is large and 

 very good : indeed we have never known a better season for 

 winter-food in this part of England, aud we were no little 

 astonished, when on a visit in the north of Lincolnshire, in 

 March last, to find a few acres of swedes had been sold by 

 auction, at £14 per acre, at that time— a ha'penny each for 

 the turuips, as my informant assured me. Breeding and store 

 cattle are now being turned out to grass, the sharp frosts 

 having kept stock iu the yards for the night a little later than 

 usual. Store sheep maintain their price, in spite of the fall in 

 wool aud mutton ; and at Hemel Hempstead fair, on Thursday 

 last, sellers preferred taking their sheep home again to sub- 

 mittiug to lower prices. Our stall-fed beef is pretty well 

 cleared out, aud when the demand for lamb abates, we shall 

 cot be surprised at a rise in mutton. Some fiue rains during 

 the last twenty-four hours have been highly beneficial to corn 

 and grass. Succeeded by warm nights, we may reasonably 

 anticipate good crops of mowing-grass, the meadow-lands 

 having been well dressed with dung, and eaten down close 

 during the past winter. Wheat continues a wretched trade, 

 with no prospect of amendment. Other descriptions of corn 

 realize a fair price. The splendid weather for farming- 

 operations with which we have been favoured for the last 

 twenty months must be a source of thankfulness to the 

 English farmer, and we do not envy the disposition of him 

 who complains, but think he had better take the first outward- 

 bound ship, and compare his native clime with far-away lands, 

 rich in gold and discomfort, — May 15. 



DERBYSHIRE. 



We have now come to a most delightful period of the 

 year. The aspect of the county pleases the eye, even to 

 the mountain-top, with its verdant hue. We have plenty 

 of grass ; and stock is generally laid on to graze. Potato- 

 planting is now the chief employment, and a considerable 

 breadth is being put in. There is plenty of seed found, 

 and the value of such has receded. That mysterious thing 

 called potato-disease, because we suppose there is nothing 

 else to designate it by, seems to lose its virulence as the 

 winter leaves us, and now we hear little of it, and see less. 

 We have had a splendid soed-tim?, and all kiuds of spring 

 cereal crops have a good appearance. The wheat-plant is 

 as fine as we can desire, and the quantity of yellow blades, 

 generally termed by the practical man Maying, is much 

 less than we expected to have seen ; and as that appearance 

 or non-appearance is considered to augur well or ill for the 

 future, we hope that future is fraught with abundance. 

 Farm work is very forward ; and turnip-drilling has in 

 some districts already commenced. Th-e demand for what 

 is generally termed artificial manures continues unabated : 

 in some instances they realize more money, while mo.st other 

 tilings in connection with farming are of less value. We 

 imagine as a farming community we are going to the ex- 

 treme in this respect ; we first exhaust the soil by taking 

 our culmiferous crops, and then a^ a consequence are obliged 

 to purchase those nitrogenous— dearest of manures, at too 

 much haphazard. Would it not be wiser to curtail our 

 cropping, and reduce our need of such extraneous aid ? 

 For instance, instead of two white crops between what is 

 termed the fallow, woidd it not be bettor to seed down with 

 rape after turnips .» thus having three years for pasture on a 

 five-course system, one corn-crop, and one turnip-crop. 

 We leave this hint with our readers ; biit we put it in 

 practice, and keep up the stamina of the soil. Our spring 

 markets and fairs for stock have been depressed, and every- 

 thing has given way iu value. Our corn markets have for 

 depression kept pace with tlie metropolitan report, and we 

 have of wheat now a good home-supply on hand. Many 

 farmers refused to sell, last autumn, because they considered 

 prices were not remunerative. The compaiatively high 

 value of grain for several years past had untitte(l them as a 

 body for so sudden a reduction ; and the iniijority held on 

 and on, until now their case becomes almost hopeless, and 

 a good quantity of their corn, wheat especially, has yet to 



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