496 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ December 26, 1878, 
may then be put to good food for fattening, and instead of green 
fodder eaten with beans, &c., they should have all trough food. 
In winter time it should be warm or cooked food, such as boiled 
potatoes, carrots, cabbage, &c.,as much as they can eat without 
waste. These mixed with barleymeal and bean or peameal will 
make meat fast enough and of good quality after about eight 
weeks’ feeding. For the last fortnight of the period they should 
have meal only, this will make the meat firm and improve the 
yalue for consumption. We cannot however, leave the subject 
without referring to a method of feeding whereby a farmer of 
our acquaintance fed annually over one hundred hogs up to 
200 tbs. each for a bacon factory, and they gave good satisfaction, 
being fed with mangolds cut and placed in troughs with meal 
alternately, and he assured us that it paid him better than any 
other mode of feeding he had ever adopted during the summer 
months. The mangolds were the produce of the previous year. 
We cannot contradict such evidence, but we may improve upon 
the mode of feeding by pulping the mangolds, addin;: the meal +o 
make a pudding instead of giving the mangold and meal sepa- 
rately. In this way mangolds may, we consider, be used with 
safety and profit by pigs of full age, but not for animals under 
four months old. In the instance we have given the pigs made 
excellent bacon when finished-off by a fortnight’s feeding with 
meal only. 
When young sow pigs are reared for breeding purposes those 
should be chosen which have not less than twelve teats. The 
selected animals may when weaned be kept upon the same food 
as the pigs held on as stores for bacon, but they may have more 
liberty and be keptin a yard and store for manure as recommended 
for the aged sows. Sows will usually continue to breed until they 
are four or five years old with advantage, but care should be taken 
that they may be expected to farrow in the months of March and 
September. 
The sort of pigs to be kept should be in accordance with the 
district and the climate, for nearly every county in the United 
Kingdom has a breed which is preferred by the farmers of the 
district. The most prominent stock, especially for exhibition pur- 
poses, are the large Berkshire, the smaller Sussex, and Improved 
Dorset as black pigs ; but the white breeds are the large York- 
shire, the smaller being chiefly of the Middlesex and some other 
sorts; but for general purposes, instead of confining ourselves 
to distinct breeds we prefer judicious crossing both the larger and 
smaller breeds of the same colour. We cannot enter into the 
merits of different breeds on the present occasion. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Horse Labour—This is the dullest time of the year for horse 
labour. Although tillage operations have been at a standstill 
during the late frosty and changeable weather, yet there is always 
work of some kind which may be found for the horses, such as 
carting gravel for the repairs of the roadways on the home farm. 
These repairs are too often done in a negligent manner. When- 
ever gravel is applied, and especially when the road is only wide 
enough for one vehicle to pass, it should be laid only in the 
middle of the road, extending to the wheel track on either 
side. The road will then be kept in shape, particularly when 
so made that the water can pass away freely. When the land is 
firm enough to bear the carts without cutting the surface long 
fresh dung may be laid out on the clovers and pasture land, and 
if the frost is hard manure may be drawn on to the land which 
has been stetched or baulked up in readiness for the mangold or 
potato crop. The land will afterwards only require to have the 
stetches reversed and be ready for seeding and planting at the 
earliest season in the spring. When the horses cannot work on 
the land by dung-carting, &c., they may be employed in making 
heaps of earth in a convenient place in readiness for carting to 
farm buildings whenever earth floors for cattle pens, &c., are in 
use. All corn in the barns should now be threshed to prevent 
damage by rats and mice, for they are sure to increase rapidly 
from this time forward if the corn is allowed to remain. A large 
number of the rats may be killed by ferreting, but the mice are 
more difficult to deal with. The odd horse or horses will also be 
employed in carting roots from fields or pits for horse and cattle 
feeding, &c. ; also carting hurdles for the shepherd, as the sheep 
will now be feeding off roots upon the land. When the sheep 
tread the land too much—as they often do when the weather is 
very wet, and especially upon the breaking-up of frost—the stock 
cannot feed roots on the fields without injury to the land for the 
next crop. In such cases the roots may be carted to a dry pasture 
for a few days’ feeding. The carting of straw and hay for stock 
will also be going on; at the same time the straw and hurdles 
necessary for making a lambing fold for the ewes must employ the 
odd horse for portions of the day. The shepherd will know how 
to place the fold, as it should be near to some shelter by hedges or 
woods with a convenient drift way, &c., unless it is made on some 
part of the farm premises which will secure shelter and con- 
venience also. 
Hand Labour will now consist of cutting and plashing hedges, 
making banks and ditches, and attending to the outfalls of drains. 
The work of draining im the fields may now be done, as it is 
easier to command a sufficient number of men for the work with 
out displacing valuable labour in the spring. The present season 
is more favourable than it usually is in the winter months for 
draining. We notice the subsoil is drier than the surface, thus 
facilitating the labour of underground draining. We shall not 
enlarge upon the subject at present, as we intend to treat of the 
drainage of different soils as a leading subject on a future occa- 
sion ; we will, however, remark in passing that draining, although 
it may be done piecemeal, yet there ought always to be a plan 
showing the depthand distance apart of the drains. This calls to our 
mind that having some years ago set out and completed the drain- 
ing upon a home farm, and having also furnished a plan of the 
drains in each field, the property was afterwards sold. The new 
proprietor, without reference to the plans of draining and the out- 
lets, grubbed the hedges and filled in the ditches, which blocked 
the drains. Since then we have always been particularly cautious 
by calling attention to the fact that no underground draining ever 
ought to be done without being shown on a map or plan. It is 
now that the labour of women and lads is valuable in preparing 
roots for the cutter for feeding cattle and sheep, but we do not 
find that the women and boys are to be had as they used to be. 
We once never thought of employing men for such easy work 
where agility is so important, the men not being able to do more 
work than the women and boys, although receiving double the 
wages. The young store cattle, particularly heifers of one and 
two years old, where fed in yards and sheds, will require not only 
regular feeding with rocts and straw or rough hay, but constantly 
fresh litter of dry straw; even this will not make a comfortable 
bed for them without the sheds and yards have been bottomed 
with earth for absorbing the liquid manure. This matter, there- 
fore, should have attention, as it tells favourably both for manure 
and the comfort of the stock. On some home farms wood-cutting 
will now be going on, and it is advantageous to have this work 
completed by the middle of February, because the sap begins to 
rise in the underwood stools about that time, and the carting of 
the underwood can be done whilst the horse and manual labour is 
least valuable. The cutting of timber for repairs also should now 
be done, it being desirable that when the timber is required for 
repairs upon the home farm it should be cut in the winter time 
before the sap rises; even oak timber will be more enduring if 
cut now than when cut for the purpose of taking off the bark in 
the spring. It is now also that the carting away both of timber 
and the made-up underwood can be done without delaying more 
valuable labour, except in the case of very wet woodland or 
gullies, when the carting may be deferred with advantage until 
drier weather in the spring. 
SHOW OF THE SURREY COLUMBARIAN SOCIETY. 
THE newly-formed Surrey Columbarian Society held their first 
Show on the 10th and 11th at Guildford. The entries numbered 
180, and the Show was a singular success fora first attempt. It 
was held in a well-lighted hall in the Commercial Road, which, 
being over the Turkish Baths, was of a most pleasant tempera- 
ture—no small advantage in the present weather alike to exhibitors 
and Pigeons. Mr. Esquilant was the Judge, and we believe pro- 
nounced some of the classes excellent, specially those for Carriers. 
There were two special prizes : the one for the best bird in the 
classes for Carriers, Pouters, Barbs, and Fantails ; the other for 
the best bird in the rest of the Show. The former went to 
Messrs. Cucksey & Flicker’s Black Carrier hen; the latter to 
the first-prize little Red Turbit, the cup bird in the young Turbit 
classes at the last Crystal Palace Show. 
Carriers had four classes. Cocks were very good. Firsta Black, 
second a Dun, with the finest wattle in the class, but a little short 
in body. The first hen was a very good Black. There were two 
well-filled classes of young birds. Pouters were few, but the first- 
prize bird good. Barbs were a good class. We thought the second- 
prize bird a very promising young one. Fantails were decidedly 
good. First went to the little White hen with beautiful carnage 
that took the cup last year at the Crystal Palace. Second to the 
flat-tailed cock which took the cup there this year. Tumblers 
were chiefly Kites, and not remarkable. Dragoons.—The first- 
prize brd—a Blue—was well ahead of the rest. Turbits weze 
interesting from the three prize birds being all celebrated winners 
shown against each other. First the little Red before mentioned 
as winner of the special prize. Second a Yellow hen celebrated 
for her frill and winner of many cups. Third a Black, and first at 
the Crystal Palace one year. Owls.—First and second were beau- 
tiful little White Africans. Second was the Palace and Birmingham 
winner, while the first hen was second at the Palace. Third an 
English Powder Blue, lovely in colour but deficient in head pro- 
perties. Jacobins were not good. Short-faced Antwerps a well- 
filled class, and the winners very fair. Homers number about fifty. 
In the Any variety class rich-coloured Archangels were first 
and second, and a large Silver Runt third. 
We must congratulate the promoters of this Show on the excel- 
lent management of their first attempt, and hope to see many 
more such on a still larger scale. We subjoin the prize list :-— 
PIGEONS.—CARRIERS.—Cocks.—l, 2, and 3, Cucksey & Flicker. Hens.—1 
