324 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ April 21, 1881. 
at the Metropolitan Cattle Show weighing 313 It)'. We have also 
seen fine Gourds grown in woodlands where Dot overcrowded with 
timber trees, and planted the first season after cutting the under¬ 
wood, particularly in sheltered valleys, where the land is moist 
and composed of vegetable mould, small mounds being formed, 
and manure or guano dug-in ; in this way the plants have plenty 
of room, and are not encumbered with weeds, the underwood 
shoots shelter them and keep them in position. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Horse Labour .—The work has been heavy lately, and where the 
animals have not had some Mangolds in addition to their usual dry 
food of Oats or Maize with hay they will, in some cases, have lost 
condition. One thing, however, is greatly in favour of the horses, 
and it should be carefully attended to—that is, the employment of 
steam power to perform the first cultivating or scarifying of the land 
deeply fallowed in the early winter. This should be done by the 
steam cultivator across the furrow at an acute angle first, and the 
second time it should be done across the first work. The land after 
being treated in that way is quite ready for the new self-acting drag- 
harrow made by Howards of Bedford, and by a couple of tines with 
this implement; the land may then be rolled with the Cambridge ring 
roller, then two tines with the iron harrows, and after being rolled 
the second time, and one time with the iron harrow, the chain harrow 
may be used with good effect. The land will then be ready to be 
cleared of the couch, of which there is on most of the fallows we have 
noticed lately a rather large quantity upon many farms owing to the 
wet seasons of 1878 and 1879. The practice generally is to burn it, 
but our plan has been for many years to burn only enough to 
furnish ashes sufficient to drill with the manure for the root crop. 
All couch in excess of that requirement we prefer to cart away to 
heap if we have no pasture land near which has been fed down close 
enough to lay out the couch upon, and spread as fast as laid out. In 
this way the succession of the grass on the pasture would be delayed 
only for a few days, and if chain-harrowed and rolled down there 
would spring up in about a fortnight a most abundant crop of grass. 
If, however, we have no land near in a fitting state to receive the 
dead couch we prefer to heap it, for we consider it unwise to burn 
any vegetable matters which will decay. The weather having been 
so fine during March and the first week of April, Barley sowing is 
now completed or ought to have been ; if not, the sooner the better, 
and the same may be said of Potato planting. Sowing Mangold 
seed may be now commenced, and after it has been sown it will 
flourish regardless of weather if the land has been liberally manured 
either with yard or town dung. We prefer, however, artificial 
manures sown broadcast upon the surface, and then to throw two 
furrows together and drill or hand-dibble the seed upon the stetches 
thus formed, for the manure will be found just under the seed in 
readiness to act upon the young plant. Where the land works soft 
and fine stetching answers well, but where the land is rough and 
cloddy throwing two furrows together makes a poor seed bed. 
Hand Labour .—At this time hand labour is a very important item 
of farm practice and expenditure, and will require all the attention 
and intelligence of the home farmer. 
Live Stock .—The cattle and sheep, in most instances, have as yet 
passed through the period of scarcity of roots and green fodder better 
than was at one time anticipated, especially where feeding stuffs have 
been liberally supplied to them. In the cattle markets, which are 
again open, the sheep and lambs are in excellent condition when we 
consider the wretched weather which prevailed for several months. 
Sheep, too, come out of their wool in good condition and sell well in 
the London market; in fact, vendors of shorn sheep always find a 
worse market in the country when early shorn than they do in the 
metropolitan market. Much has been said lately about the slaughter 
of all stock sent to that market, and it is to be hoped that it will be 
made a standing rule from this time forward that no cattle or sheep 
be allowed to come out of London alive. We know from past ex¬ 
perience that cattle and sheep purchased in London have generally 
done more towards spreading disease than has occurred in any other 
way, and especially we include the Deptford market for foreign stock, 
from whence the latest outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease spread 
into the country. We cannot see, even in the interest of the con¬ 
sumer, why the whole supply of foreign meat should not be imported 
dead, for under the present importations there is less loss and far less 
expense attending the dead meat than the live cattle importations. 
This is the time of year when the breeders of both sheep and cattle 
are selling their stock to the feeders in the pasture districts. We do 
not see the necessity of two parties being engaged in the breeding 
and fatting of stock, and the home farmer should consider the policy 
of breeding all the stock he requires for feeding, and by that means 
obtain not only all the profit from the two transactions, but also 
escape many losses. The home farmer in stocking the grass and 
parklands should also consider the policy of feeding the grass hard 
with sheep. It is, we know, common in good pastures to feed one 
bullock and one or two sheep on an acre—but why ? We have asked 
this question of many business men, and have received but little reply, 
except that it is customary ; but let it not be forgotten that the 
sheep will eat the best herbage, and thus injure the feeding value of 
the future produce. 
VARIETIES. 
Homing Pigeons as Biiids of War. —Apart from the fact we have 
noticed on page 304, of the strange return to the old traditions and 
the consequent disappearance from cur fowl lore of the ‘ gentle bird 
of peace,’ there is a world of interest in this innovation of modern 
war. This pretty flying column without weapons may be so 
terribly powerful, and strike its blows so swiftly and invisibly, 
that, though telegraph wires may be cut, the shades of night prevent 
the working of the heliostat, and the viligance of vedettes make the 
carriage of despatches impossible ; yet, let the night be never so dark, 
and the enemy never so watchful, the news that may be their ruin 
will get through their lines. No sentries or battlements, no scouts 
or outpost duty, will be able to intercept the sudden messenger whose 
wings they hear passing overhead. Under that wing, fastened close 
by a silken thread, lies the little missive which may make all the dif¬ 
ference between victory and defeat, which may betray tactics, en¬ 
courage a wavering garrison to renewed resistance, or summon to the 
scene a shattering strength of reinforcements. All this, and more, 
may be hidden in the down of the Pigeon’s under wing, and the 
enemy know it well, yet be powerless to prevent the bird from carrying 
over their lines to the beleaguered fortress, or to the head-quarters of 
the opposite camp, the news which they would give so much to inter¬ 
cept. A battalion of men could not carry what the one bird will; 
and thus resistless, it deserves to be ranked as a formidable feature 
in the adversary’s equipment. 
- Proofs of Agricultural Distress. —Signs of the dis¬ 
tressful agricultural times are plentiful. We hear of a market 
garden farm of 200 acres, not forty miles from London, the rent of 
which has recently been reduced from 22s. to 11s. per acre. An 
adjoining farm has been let on a seven-years lease, free for the first 
three years, while during the remainder of the term the rent will be 
7s. per acre. Another large farm, with a good residence, is let for 
£70 a year, and the tenant re-lets the shooting for £G0. In the mid¬ 
lands there is not the same inclination to let land for what it will 
fetch. Hence it is that 30,000 acres in Leicestershire are said to be 
still in hand. Rents in that county have been very high; and rather 
than let their farms at lower rates, landlords prefer to sell the crops 
and grass annually by auction at very uncertain prices.— [Land.) 
- The Manchester Examiner has published some extraordinary 
statements as to the reductions in the rents of agricultural land in 
the midland and southern counties, collected by a well-informed cor¬ 
respondent. It states that in Lincolnshire the rent of marsh land has 
fallen 30 or 40, and of clay land 40 or 50 per cent., while in the Fens 
many farms may be had by tenants who are ready to pay the rates 
and taxes. In Hunts the value of the fee simple of land has been 
reduced one-third. In Bedfordshire new lettings are from 25 to 75 
per cent, under the old rates. In Essex rents have gone down by 
40 or 50 per cent. 
- A daily paper commenting on the above says :—“ In some of 
the southern counties matters are still worse. In Wilts, for instance, 
on the northern edge of Salisbury Plain, a large portion of the farms 
are now unlet. On one estate all the tenants have left, and the land 
is now covered with grass and weeds ; and on another estate some of 
the stiff land farms have been re-let, the first year rent free, and after 
that at less than half the former rent. The following are samples 
of the reductions on other estates :—A 1450 acres farm, from £1050 
to £810 ; a 700 acres farm from £G00 to £400. It is said that another 
700 acre farm on a stiff soil has been recently let for £60 a year.” 
- Agriculture in Ireland.—I n the earlier parts the sowing 
of grain, and also the planting of Potatoes, are now almost finished. 
In many districts, partly owing to the abundance of last year’s crop 
and to the low price of Potatoes, a larger quantity of them than 
usual has been planted. A correspondent in the south-west states 
that there many of the small tenants have planted a much greater 
breadth than in recent years, and most of these, he says, have used 
their own seed—Champions imported last year from Scotland. The 
sowing of grain, he says, is almost completed in some districts of the 
south-west, while the grass fields are looking extremely well; indeed, 
some well-sheltered fields are already affording good pasture to stock. 
