390 
JOURNAL OF HOR1ICUL1URE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ November 1, 188S. 
otherwise the border-grass from round the fields and ditches, also in the 
plantations on the estate, which should be cut and used unless the game- 
keepers require it to remain as cover and layer for pheasants and hares. 
Lice Stock .—All the pregnant ewes should now be subject to constant 
changes of a moderate quautity of food daily : this will usually insure a 
strong and healthy fall of lambs from whatever sort of sheep we may be 
breeding. But on many estates the ewes are only just now being mated 
with the rams. This applies to most of the long-woolled ewes, as well as 
Shropshires, and hill stocks of Hampshire and Wiltshire Down breeds ; 
whereas the Down breeds reared in some of the best districts in Dorset 
and Somerset are many of them forward enough to lamb in December 
and first half of January. Again, the horned ewes of the Dorset and Somer¬ 
set breeds, especially the off-going stock, which have now been nearly all 
sold and have reached their new home, are now lambing fast, many flocks 
having at this time more than half yeaned, and produced a large number 
of twin lambs ; as these ewes produce the largest per-centage of lambs of 
any known breed, some of the earliest of them are now strong enough to 
follow their dams into the Turnip or Cabbage crops for a night fold, but 
running upon the best Italian Rye Grass grown on the Wheat stubbles, 
or the Clovers, and Sainfoin, as grown in the Lent corn stubbles. The 
grass is now becoming short and stale for milch cows, and the worst of 
it should be left for the store cattle to look over, allowing the dairy cows 
to have the best grass on the farm, also with Cabbage and cake at the 
stalls at milking time. Unless severe frost sets in they may lie out on dry 
pastures situate above the fog level for some time longer. Still the 
falling-off of milk should be a guide to some extent, for when that occurs, 
or if any of them are attacked with quarter-ill, they should immediately 
be housed or lie in well-littered yards and sheds at night time. 
POTATOES IN LINCOLNSHIRE—WARBURTON'S POTATO 
DIGGER. 
During a recent visit to Lincolnshire we observed this implement 
working so satisfactorily on the farm of Mr. I-may Fisher of Scawby 
near Brigg, that we feel justified in directing attention to it for the benefit 
of those of our readers who grow Potatoes extensively in fields. In some 
parts of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire the Potato appears to be the staple 
crop for miles, and hundreds of acres of land are devoted to its culture. 
Much of this land is very low and has been subjected to the process of 
warping—that is, the admission of the tidal waters from tributaries of the 
Humber, the sediment of which on their recedence having rendered what 
was once a worthless tract one of the most fertile in the kingdom. Mr. 
Fisher, however, does not grow Potatoes on such soil as this ; he is a high¬ 
land farmer, and one of the most competent, and has several acres of 
Potatoes this year on yellowish loam of medium texture which produces 
excellent crops, the tubers being of the best colour and quality. He has 
also a wonderful yield on soil that a few years ago was little better than 
blowing sand. 
The best preparation of this light land for Potatoes is to first establish 
a crop of “ seeds ”—Clover and such herbage as will grow, and graze it for 
a season. This turf ploughed in gives “ b jdy ” to the land, but something 
else is given by the cultivator for producing such excellent crops, as a 
casual observer would consider the land incapable of yielding. This 
“something'’ is eight or ten loads of farmyard manure, and 4 cwt. of 
kainit spread in the trenches before planting, supplemented by a top¬ 
dressing of 4 cwt. of sulphate of ammonia just before the plants are 
earthed. This heavy dressing of ammoniacal manures would frighten 
not a few cultivators, and those who rely on theoretical principles alone 
for growing Potatoes would consider it excessive. Mr. Fisher, however, 
is a close observer, studious, and practical, one of the last men to invest 
money either in manure or anything else without surety that it would 
return him fair interest. His method of manuring Potatoes is founded 
on experiments ; and great as the outlay is in purchasing several tons of 
sulphate ammonia and applying it thus liberally, it is found the most 
profitable course to adopt in the cultivation of the crop. Its action is 
quick in producing strong tops, and without these the tubers are small 
and the crop light. In rich heavy soil they grow strong naturally, but in 
this light land they do not do so, hence the apparently costly yet really 
profitable practice that is adopted. 
The yield of Potatoes had not been ascertained, but off one portion of 
land seven tons per acre of York Regents have been marketed. The crop 
of Magnum Bonum is very much larger—in fact, splendid ; and there is 
without doubt one of the finest breadths in England of Reading 
Hero, the tubers of some acres being very large, sound, and clean. Both 
these Potatoes far surpass the Scotch Champion in this soil, and also 
Schoolmaster, some roots which had special treatment, grown on mounds, 
each producing 14 lbs. of splendid tubers. 
The work of taking up several acres of Potatoes is no light one. 
Digging them by manual labour is a long and tedious process, and 
ploughing them up is at the best a rough mode of procedure, as they can 
only be secured by the pickers combing them out of the soil with their 
fingers, and this is both rough and tedious. But these old modes are fast 
becoming obsolete, for the crop was being lifted expeditiously with the 
implement under notice, which was, moreover, doing its work as well if 
not better than the most careful and competent nlen could effect with 
forks. 
It was drawn by two horses. The wheels pass along each side of a 
row, a “ sock.” which is something like a turfing iron, being drawn along 
under the row, loosening and partially raising it, and at the same time, 
immediately behind this, a rapidly revolving 
cylinder with eight forks throws out the Pota¬ 
toes, thoroughly desiccating the soil, clearing out 
the weeds, and spreading them on the land. The 
rake-like shield is to prevent the tubers being 
driven too far, the few that miss it often being 
cast 6 or 7 yards. Practically they were spread 
in a wide row convenient for picking, twenty 
persons following the machine for this purpose, 
and they were kept well employed. Not a tuber 
in a thousand or ten thousand was cut, and the 
“ Digger ” was saving the owner 145. per day. 
There are three tines to the forks in Mr. Fisher’s 
implement, the diggers now made by Messrs. 
Warburton of Preston containing some slight 
improvements on that represented in the engrav¬ 
ing. Where Potatoes are grown extensively in 
fields an implement of this kind would appear 
indispensable. 
OUR LETTER BOX. 
Fly Infesting Cattle (A. K. <?.).—There are two 
species of fly which occasion much alarm amongst 
herds of cattle. One of these—Tabanus bovinus— 
simply wounds them with the keen lancets attached 
to the head ; this is commonly called the breeze or 
gadfly. The other—AEstrus bivis — the botfly of 
popular phrase, forms the bumps or wurbles in the 
skin by depositing its eggs there, piercing the skin 
by an instrument attached to the abdomen. The 
specimen you enclose is neither of these, which 
are two-winged insects, but a four-winged species 
of the Hymenopterous order, the giant sawfly, Sirex gigas. With the 
conspicuous borer or ovipositor at the tail, the female (your specimen being 
of that sex) cuts deeply into the wood of trees, chiefly Firs, depositing an 
egg in each incision. The larvae feed upon the wood, and undergo pupation 
there, emerging as flies towards the end of summer usually. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
Camden Square, London. 
Lat. 81° 32' 40" N. ; Long. 0° 8- 0" W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
DATE. 
9 A.M. 
IN THE DAI. 
s 
cr 
M 
1883. 
October. 
& 2» OS_ 
£ CC OJ <U 
^ — '/I 
33 “ 
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. 
dee. 
dee. 
dee. 
dee. 
deg. 
dee. 
deg. 
In. 
Sunday . 
21 
29.835 
4'JG 
41.8 
W. 
48.3 
65.7 
37.1 
89.4 
31.2 
— 
Monday. 
23 
3-U) 2 
43.7 
42.2 
N. 
47.3 
50.6 
30.9 
868 
28.4 
0.093 
Tuesday. 
23 
29 759 
500 
494 
W. 
47.0 
58.3 
40.2 
72.5 
29.4 
— 
Wednesday .. 
24 
29 847 
47.0 
45.6 
W. 
47 8 
55.4 
42.0 
69.9 
32.7 
0.03(8 
Thursday .... 
25 
29.784 
58.0 
54 9 
s.w. 
49.3 
61.4 
40.0 
71.2 
45.3 
0.01 O’ 
Friday. 
23 
3 .049 
57.8 
55.3 
s.w. 
51.3 
60.0 
54.8 
69.4 
6&2 
0.041 
Saturday .... 
27 
30.0 i7 
53.1 
52.2 
w. 
51.7 
62.3 
50.1 
88.7 
43.8 
— 
29.913 
50.6 
48.8 
49.0 
57.7 
43.9 
78.3 
37.7 
0.174 
REMARKS. 
21st.—Fine bright day ; misty evening. 
22nd.—Fair morning ; fine bright afternoon. 
28rd.—Showery in early morning ; fine bright afternoon. 
21th.—Fine and blight for a short time in early morning; dull drizzly day. 
25th.—Warm, dull, and drizzly all day ; windy in the morning. 
26th.—Warm and fairly bright in morning, heavy shower at noon, fair afternoon. 
27th.—Fair morning, fine bright afternoon, foggy evening. 
There was a fair quantity of bright weather during the week, and not an unusual' 
amount of fog. Temperature nearly 2° below that of the preceding week, but still about 
2-6° above the average.—G. J. SIMONS. 
Fig. 72. -WARBURTON'S POTATO DIGGER. 
