JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
542 
[ June 30, 1881. 
more simple and natural manner. We can, however, hardly 
expect breeders to discontinue the practice while they find the 
public prefer buying the animals in such an artificial state. 
Secondly, we think that if the males have been too artificially 
fed by the flock masters that the females, on the other hand, have 
been injured to some extent by the adoption of the opposite system. 
No doubt most people have been stimulated by the high prices of 
mutton for the last few years to turn out as great a number of 
animals as they possibly could, and have thus been tempted to 
keep a larger number than they could maintain in a healthy con¬ 
dition. Now, anjmne can readily understand that disease may be, 
and often is, engendered in the offspring when the blood of one 
parent is in an unhealthy and plethoric state from overfeeding, 
and that of the other in a poor and unhealthy state from under¬ 
feeding. We would suggest that they who have erred from either 
or both of these reasons should be very careful to have male 
animals not artificially fed and reared, taking care to select the 
breed best adapted for our purpose, while we would give the 
females every indulgence consistent with good health and con¬ 
dition, and try to increase the quantity of mutton by a greater 
weight per carcase. 
The losses of lambs to which we have just referred has often 
been attributed to the animals having been fed upon roots, the 
produce of applications of concentrated manures to almost all the 
food crops on which the flock masters of certain districts keep 
their sheep, and may have had some effect on the organisation of 
the plants, and that has again operated injuriously on the sheep. 
We, however, with the greatest confidence oppose the theory that 
any losses of sheep or lambs were owing in any degree to the use 
and application of artificial manures. 
(To be continued.) 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Horse Labour. —Horses, and oxen too, are still fully employed on 
the land, for although the working of oxen is not carried out to so 
great an extent in some districts, yet in various counties they are 
nearly as much in use as formerly, except in those instances where 
steam power is used. We cannot recommend the home farmer to 
exclude oxen from the tillage labour of the farm, for when compared 
with horses there are various practical points in their favour, more 
particularly when the best kind of animals either of Sussex, Here¬ 
ford, or Devon breeds can be obtained. We estimate their compara¬ 
tive value for working purposes as we have placed them, taking the 
Sussex first as being the stronger, and the Devons last as being the 
smaller and weaker animals of the three. The value of the ox for 
labour should be estimated like that of the horse, according to its 
size, weight, and activity. We have not space now to enumerate 
the comparative advantages of the two animals for working pur¬ 
poses, especially as we have previously referred to this matter on the 
working power of animals in these pages. The preparation of land 
after green crops for sowing Turnips will still be going on, and we 
prefer sowing at once, ploughing, drilling the seed and manure every 
day as fast as the land is ploughed. This plan is certainly the safest 
in our changeable climate, for by sowing as fast as the land is 
ploughed we are sure of obtaining a fine surface upon all except the 
strongest soils, and a sufficiency of moisture. There is sometimes the 
fact to be considered how best to dispose of the Couch, if there 
should be any found after the green crops are removed. If it is 
present the land should be first scarified, dragged, harrowed, &c., and 
the Couch carted away, unless the weather is very dry. It may then 
be burned to save time. After this by ploughing a moderate depth 
the land may be again worked fine, and the grass picked off after 
drilling the seed ; for that is a matter which must not be delayed, 
otherwise the seed will not vegetate if the weather is very dry. The 
odd horse, ox, or mule kept for various work on the farm will now be 
fully employed, and in some cases one or two more horses will be 
wanted for carting green fodder for the cattle. In addition to this 
there will be horse-hoeing Mangolds, Swedes, early Turnips, Cabbages, 
and other root crops. This hoeing should always be done without 
reference to the weeds being very strong, because stirring the soil 
will always be beneficial in dry weather. At the same time we must 
not wait for the weeds to become strong, for when young they are 
more easily destroyed. Irrespective of the weeds the second hoeing 
is a necessity, and in the case of the Mangold plants being weakly or 
sickly 1£ cwt. of nitrate of soda per acre should be strewed along 
between the lines before the horse-hoeing is done. Horse labour will 
still be required with the mowing machine. Strong horses should be 
used and changed at mid-day, so that no horse in this work may be 
worked longer than about four or five hours. The mowing will 
require to be continued if the weather is fine, the crops generally 
being little if any more than half a crop either of field grass or up¬ 
land and parkland. In dry weather we need not fear having too 
much work on hand, because machinery gives the opportunity of get¬ 
ting over a lot of work in a little time. The hay, also, requires but 
little labour or attention, for in really hot dry seasons we have known 
pasture hay cut one day and carried to stack the next day without 
any tedding whatever; and this is the best plan with light short 
crops, because when taken up out of swathe there is then neither 
waste or loss of the small fine grasses. 
Hand Labour. —Men are now employed in carting bavins to the 
appointed place for making the hayricks, so that the stands may be 
made and ready at short notice for the commencement of rick-build¬ 
ing. Unless in very small occupations, or in case the hay is near the 
farmsteading, the stacks are best made in the field where the hay 
was produced, as so much work can be done in a short time in such a 
case—a matter of immense importance at the busy period. The 
home farmer should obtain a skilled thatcher for constant work on 
the farm, or teach and engage one of his best labourers to prepare for 
the work. 
Live StocJc. —Now the weather is favourable the stock, whether of 
cattle feeding for beef or dairy cows grazing for the milk supply, 
have been doing well, although the grass has not been very abundant. 
It has been the same with sheep ; the weather during the period of 
folding off Clovers, Vetches, and Saintfoin has been favourable, and 
all land intended for roots after the green crops will work fine for 
drilling and seeding. The lambs which have been weaned, and are 
required for early sale, should have a full allowance of cracked beans 
or grey peas, unless as we find some farmers are now employing 
Mangold cut and mixed with cake or beans in the meal state; and 
where it can be done, and the Mangold has been reserved, this is the 
best means of feeding without waste. Breeding sows should now be 
accommodated in a littered yard, feeding on green crops or grazing in 
a grass paddock or orchard with pease or maize in the troughs given 
twice a day. 
VARIETIES. 
Rapid Growth of Grass. —It will be remembered that at the 
Paris Exhibition of 1878 some surprising results were produced 
with grass seeds, but even these have been surpassed at the Derby 
Show ground of the Royal Agricultural Society. We are informed 
that on the 20th June Messrs. Carter mowed for the first time the 
grass which was sown on the afternoon of the 2nd June, the ground 
thus presenting a perfect sward in the short period of seventeen 
days from the time of sowing—the quickest growth of grass that has 
been recorded. 
- Ipswich Apiarian Show. —We have received the schedule 
of prizes for hives and honey offered] by the Suffolk Bee-keepers’ 
Association to be competed for at the second annual Show, to be held 
on the 19th to 21th of September, 1881, inclusive, at Ipswich, under 
influential patronage. Thirteen prizes are offered for hives, two for 
supers, twenty-one for honey, four for wax, two for bee flora, and 
there are also special classes for cottagers. A honey fair will be 
held in connection with the Exhibition. 
- Art and Science of Agriculture. — Professor W. H. 
Brewer has written as follows in the Journal of the American Agri¬ 
cultural Association, a work of two hundred pages, containing much 
interesting matter and valuable information:—Agriculture is both 
an art and a science. The art of agriculture is very old, almost as 
old as'the human race; the science of agriculture is very young, 
almost as young as some of the men who hear me speak. Before the 
modern means of transportation were devised, and before commerce 
had so placed all civilised nations into one brotherhood, when regions 
separated from each other by even moderate distance did not and 
could not stand in direct agricultural competition, when agricultural 
methods were simpler, and society’s wants were also simpler, then the 
art sufficed very well to feed and clothe the people as they then lived. 
But now, when distant regions stand in sharp competition with each 
other in the markets of agricultural products, the science must play 
a more important part. The art still varies with the locality, with 
the soil, climate, the traditions of the people, and the thousand and 
one local conditions which control the agriculture of any particular 
place. The art is local and changeable, but the principles of science 
are fixed and general. The aro n usfc be changed or modified with 
each new invention, with n w fab] ties for transportation or produc¬ 
tion ; but scientific princ’pb s. remaining fixed, may, however, be 
applied in new directions with the new need or new conditions, or it 
can be applied in new ways to remove old difficulties. 
- The Importance of Pure Seed. —From the same source 
we cite the following by Dr. Albert R. Ledoux :—From a lot of com¬ 
mercial red Clover seed, a carefully drawn sample of 2ozs. (59 grams) 
in weight was taken. It contained seeds of red Clover, 94 per cent. ; 
impurities, G per cent. Of the 94 per cent, of pure seed, 60 per cent., or 
three-fifths, were found to be incapable of germinating. The impurities 
consisted of sand, chaff, and seeds other than red Clover, A pound 
contained no less than 14,400 foreign seeds. Pursuing the investiga 
