430 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ May 21, 1885. 
months old in April and May. Many clever farmers never 
suffer the calves to run out on grass, but keep them in snug 
winter quarters, and in an enclosure in summer with a cool 
shed, where there is little worry or annoyance from flies. We 
give preference to a large shed so constructed as to afford all 
necessary shelter both in winter and summer, with a yard for 
exercise in winter and spring, and a small paddock of rich 
grasses and Clover for summer, due care being then taken to 
fasten the yard gate open so that the calves may always 
enjoy the shelter of the shed at will, and they are generally 
to be found in there during the extreme heat of the day. 
Of the diseases of calves, navel-ill requires prompt atten¬ 
tion. Fomentation and disinfection with tepid water and 
carbolic solution two or three times daily are the ordinary 
remedies, with a diet of milk and linseed gruel, and if there 
is constipation doses of castor oil must be given. Should 
the disease apparently require more than ordinary remedies, 
at once call in the veterinary surgeon. Indigestion followed 
by diarrhoea is often brought about by the foolish custom of 
only allowing a young calf two meals daily—the first in the 
morning and the other in the evening, so that the tender 
animal has to bear the severe strain of long fasts and rapid 
gorging, to which it not unfrequently succumbs, and when 
inflammation of the bowels supervenes it often proves fatal. 
A dose of castor oil with from twenty to forty drops of 
laudanum, according to the animal’s strength, will cure both 
indigestion and diarrhoea in mild cases. In severe cases it 
is recommended by our highest authorities to give forty to 
sixty drops each of laudanum and sulphuric ether in a little 
water. At intervals of three or four hours supply from a 
bottle 4 to 5 ozs. of new milk diluted with an equal bulk of 
lime water. If the milk, however, continue to disagree 
withhold it for several days, and sustain the calf with well- 
boiled starch gruel, of which 6 or 8 ozs. are given every three 
or four hours ; white of egg or beef tea stirred amongst it 
renders it more nutritive. Condensed milk and Liebig’s 
farinaceous food are also useful in such cases when the ordi¬ 
nary milk keeps up the wasteful diarrhoea. These remedies 
are recommended by Mr. Finlay Dunn in Professor Sheldon’s 
great work on Dairy Farming. We quote them confidently 
because we have applied them in our own practice success¬ 
fully. 
(To be continued.) 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
On our Sussex farm the corn is so far advanced that hoeing is 
practically at an end for the season, but in Suffolk the hoes aie still in 
full activity among Beans, Wheat, Peas, Barley, and Oats. All this work 
is done by the acre, and it is a sign of the times when plenty of men are 
found eager to do such work for 4®. an acre. Let men in southern 
counties understand this, for they think themselves badly paid at 6s. an 
acre, and yet the extra 2s. is a serious matter to many a struggling farmer. 
The horses are now kept daily upon the land in preparation for Swedes, 
and in cleaning fallow, which, when clean, are sown with Mustard or 
with Rape, Cole or Tares for sheep-folding, we actually found thirty acres 
of bare fallow upon a farm which we havo lately taken in hand. “What 
are you doing or intending to do with it ? ” asked we of the bailiff. We 
could get no clear answer from him, only some vague talk about Wheat 
and Barley for another season. Orders were at once given for the clean¬ 
ing of that land, and the sowing of the whole of it with White Mustard, 
for it is both foul and poor. Upon another farm we were asked by the 
bailiff for leave to use artificial manure for his Swede instead of farmyard 
manure, which he said was required for next season’s Wheat. Now this 
man had six horses at work striking out furrows for manure, so that the 
work was sufficiently ad vanced to admit of the farmyard manure being carted 
in ample time for getting in the Swede seed, so our decision was—No, use 
the farmyard manure for the roots, and we will have an autumn and 
sprin g dressing of genuine artificial manure for the Wheat. 
Yet another instance of want of thought or of ignorance upon another 
farm where the land is very poor. The sheep had been turned upon— 
not folded upon—nine acres of Rye Grass, which was being ploughed for 
Colewort for the sheep again. We at once decided that nine acres should 
be our first piece of White Mustard upon that farm—not to be eaten by 
the sheep, but to be ploughed in as soon as it is in flower. To go on 
attempting to get crops out of poor land year after year without making 
a bold effort to begin that reform which is so much wanted among farmers 
—we mean thoroughness of cultivation—is altogether wrong. If rents 
are too high let them be reduced, but only when a tenant is known to be 
worthy of it. Better, far better, take the land in hand and show that 
with favourable seasons something more than the mere rent is still forth¬ 
coming from it. Let us be cautious in what we undertake, but after due 
consideration let us resolve to do the whole of our work as well as is 
possible. We have had a hot dry summer, a fine autumn, an equally fine 
spring ; is it possible that we can let such noble opportunities slip and not 
have the land clean now ? 
REVIEW OF BOOKS. 
The Early Maturity of Live Stock. By Henry Evershed. The 
“ Field ” Office, 346, Strand. 
This little pamphlet contains in its thirty-two pages a clear pithy 
explanation of a matter of vital importance to all farmers, for, as it says, 
“ the early fattening of bullocks as well as of sheep is essentially a prac¬ 
tical subject.” It tells how cattle “roughed it ” during winter fifty years 
ago ; how even ten or twelve years ago the “ cracks” of the shows were 
always three years old, that being then considered the earliest period at 
which they could be had ripe for the butcher. It then sets forth in full 
detail how a clear gain of a year has been effected, and the process of 
breeding and rearing, with its happy and profitable consummation of full 
maturity at the age of two years, or something less. It goes even farther, 
and tells of a Hereford weighing 920 lbs. at 350 days old, which is equal 
to a daily gain of 2’62 lbs. ; of a Devon weighing 809 lbs. at 3S8 days 
old, having gained daily 2 09 lbs.; and of a Shorthorn which had gained 
daily from birth l - 74 lb. It also shows the importance of early maturity 
in sheep, and how it has been attained. Numerous facts and figures are 
given, every page containing valuable and important information upon 
this important subject. It is ®ur earnest desire to do all we can to pro¬ 
mote the breeding of improved live stock, and we cordially welcome this 
compilation of facts set forth in such an able manner by Mr. Evershed as 
an important means to that end. 
Pastures Old and Men': a Plea for the Improvement of Old Turf, Better 
Systems of Grassing-down, and the Prolonged Tenure of Alternate 
Husbandry Grass-layers. By Joseph Darby. 
Also issued from the Field office, this work is equally valuable. 
Thoroughly practical and sound, its teaching is that of the most advanced 
school of agriculture, altogether devoid of mere theoretical assertion, for 
its six chapters set forth facts and nothing more ; but facts of such great 
value that all farmers desirous of holding their own in the stern battlo 
with hard times should fully master and apply them to practice. It treats 
briefly of the poverty and foulness of old pastures and the remedy. The 
laying down of new permanent pasture, with cultural details and selec¬ 
tions of seeds. Mr. Faunce de Laune’s system is explained ; its simpli¬ 
city and economy shown in comparison with more complicated and 
expensive ones. Chapter 4 is a valuable one, showing fully and unmis- 
takeably how great Mr. Faunce de Laune’s success has been, not only in 
preventing the tco common deterioration of new pastures, but in effecting 
such a steady annual improvement that at four years from the time of 
sowing tne seed what was originally regarded as the poorest land on the 
Tharsted estate was actually affording food for sixteen sheep per acre. 
In the other chapters we are told how geological influences upon the 
various grasses are now known not to be so important as was at one time 
supposed. The great value of Lucerne and Tall Fescue (Festuca elatior) 
as drought-resisting plants is shown ; and, lastly, Alternate Husbandry 
is also well treated of, and the advantage shown of sowing more of such 
permanent grasses of vigorous growth as Cocksfoot and Timothy with the 
Clovers for a three to six years lay. 
meteorological observations. 
Camden Square, London. 
Lat. 51° 32'40" N.; Long. 0° 8' 0" W.; Altitude, 111 feet 
DATE. 
9 A.M. 
IN THE DAY. 
a 
as 
Ph 
1885. 
May. 
Barome¬ 
ter at 32# 
and Sea 
Level 
Hygrome¬ 
ter. 
Direction 
of Wind. 
| Temp, of 
Soil at 
1 foot. 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature. 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
sun. 
On 
grass. 
Inches. 
dev. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
In. 
Sunday . 
20.942 
47.3 
44.4 
W. 
47 6 
55.8 
41.3 
102.0 
37.3 
— 
Monday . 
30.048 
45.0 
39.4 
W. 
47.7 
57.5 
37.3 
106.6 
32.0 
— 
Tuesday. 
30.186 
49 9 
44.0 
N.E. 
47.8 
59.2 
35.2 
104 6 
27.5 
— 
Wednesday . 
. 13 
29.887 
49.2 
42.0 
E. 
48.2 
56 4 
36.7 
94 5 
28.4 
— 
Thursday ... 
. 14 
29.860 
50.9 
45.7 
N.E. 
48.4 
58 4 
36 9 
106.6 
30.4 
— 
Friday. 
29 984 
51.3 
45 5 
S W. 
493 
62.1 
37.0 
113.4 
30.2 
0.012 
Saturday ... 
. 16 
29.840 
62.7 
46.0 
w. 
5 .2 
60.4 
42.3 
113.3 
35.2 
0.010 
29.978 
49.5 
43.9 
48.5 
58.5 
381 
1059 
31.6 
0.022 
« REMARES. 
10th.—Showery morning, bright after 10 A.M. 
11th.—Bright day. 
12th.—Fine and bright; warmer. 
13th.—Bright and fine. 
14th—Fine,but overcast at night. 
15th.—Fine, but not much sunshine. 
16th.—Gusty, with rain at 7 A.M.; bright afterwards, but thunder at 4.4 r.M., with 
shower. 
Temperature much the same as last week, and below ihe average. Frost on grass on 
five nights, but not very sharp. A dry week.—U. J. Symons. 
