118 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER . r August a, issi 
fruit, and will bear long carriage if required. For cold soils the 
latest sorts, such as Enchantress and Excelsior, may answer, and 
thus enable the home farmer to supply fruit for market during the 
whole season. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
LLorse Labour .—Harvest work is now general in all but the latest 
districts, but this should not so much interfere with other work as to 
prevent the seeding and drilling of stubble Turnips, sowing Trifolium, 
Mustard and Rape mixed, or Thousand-headed Kale for spring feed¬ 
ing. During the first few days of harvest the horses which may not 
be required to work the reaping machines may well be employed in 
ploughing and preparing for seeding Turnips after the Pea crop. It 
is a good plan to remove the crop on to about half the land where it 
grew, and plough and drill Red Mammoth Turnip seed with 4 cwt. 
of superphosphate and ashes per acre. The land ploughed during the 
day should be worked fine and rolled down, then drilled every evening 
after four o’clock. In case the Peas are not fit to carry to rick or barn 
they may be removed on to the other half of the field, and thus allow 
the whole field to be seeded with Turnips. In nearly the same way 
Turnips may be sown after the early grain crops—Early White Cana¬ 
dian Oats for instance, or Rye. it will depend upon the date of 
seeding what sort of Turnip should be drilled, for it is only in the 
first week of August that we advise sowing the Red Mammoth ; after 
that we prefer the White Globe or Early Stone varieties. If sown 
upon clean land free from Couch they come in very conveniently for 
spring feeding, and may be followed either by Lent corn or Man¬ 
golds. For the latter it is a capital preparation, especially when the 
Turnips have been fed off, the sheep eating hay, cake, or corn. Tri¬ 
folium should now be sown as soon as the crops are cleared away, for 
unless this is sown early the slugs are liable to eat the young plants 
—in fact, this is almost the only enemy to this useful crop. In order 
to insure a succession of spring fodder all three sorts should be sovvn, 
the Early Crimson Blossom, the Second Early Pink, and the Late White 
Blossom. Reaping grain by the Wood’s String Binder is advised, for 
if not in stock on the farm it may be hired by engaging it soon 
enough. Where the crops of straw are bulky the work is severe for 
the horses, and relays of fresh animals should be taken every four 
hours. The reaping may then be continued from daylight until dark 
when the weather is favourable and the straw dry. We like to cut 
and tie not only Wheat but also Barley, Rye, Oats, and drege if the 
straw is long enough ; otherwise it may be cut with the mowing 
machine and harvested as loose corn. 
Sand Labour. —Men, women, and their families are now fully em¬ 
ployed in work connected with the harvest, and also in hoeing and 
singling the root crops, which may require attention. There is, how¬ 
ever, a great mistake often made by small farmers, and where hand 
labour is scarce—namely, by turning the horses out to graze and 
employing the teamsmen and boys in work on the harvest field or 
ordinary labour of the farm. The mistake is this, That there is no 
time during the whole year when the labour of the horses is of more 
value than in the first week or ten days of harvest and until the 
carting and stacking of the corn is commenced, because ploughing 
for stubble Turnips is then requisite, and also the cross-ploughing of 
fallows on the strong soils is of importance. It is a sacrifice of valu¬ 
able time and opportunities to allow horses to remain idle for the 
sake of making the manual labour available in other directions. 
During wet days, when harvest work may be interrupted, the men 
may be employed in drawing straw and piling it away in readiness 
for the thatchers. 
Live Stock .—The stock lambs which are now being purchased 
should be shorn, without washing, not later than the 20th of August, 
for of whatever breed they may be, except mountain sheep, they will 
always winter very much better, and tne farmer will not only obtain 
the value of the wool but also from os. to 7s. per head advantage 
when sold fat in the spring. The ram lambs should also be shorn a 
few days previously to being turned out with the ewes. Sheep on 
the pastures or parkland should be folded on the arable land if the 
weather is hot from ten to four o’clock, as it is almost the only mode 
of saving their manure and preventing them from taking to the shade 
under trees and hedges. Young cattle, too, both calves and year¬ 
lings, do best in hot weather to find shelter in a littered yard and 
shed with access to water, for the manure would then be dropped 
where it would be available instead of being lost, as is often the case 
when animals resort for shade to spreading trees in the pastures or 
parklands. We find there is, in feeding the salt marsh grass land 
formerly reclaimed from the sea, a point or matter which many 
farmers do not understand—viz., they are at a loss to account for the 
fact that cattle or horses put on the pastures in May and remain 
until the end of October prove to be in no better condition at quitting 
than when they first entered, and frequently are found to have depre¬ 
ciated. To avoid this turn out the cattle, &c., at the end of April, 
and continue the feeding until the second week of July ; then with¬ 
draw them and lay the grass up for autumn feeding with in-lamb 
ewes or store sheep, commencing to feed off the grass the first week 
in October. The sheep do exceedingly well as stores by taking them 
to the arable land at night time, giving them a small portion of roots 
and hay in November if the weather is wet and stormy. After the 
grass has been eaten down any coarse herbage left is mown off with 
the scythe and the pasture laid up until April in the next year, when 
the grass will be young and fresh for the dairy cows, and on this food 
they make better butter than when fed on meadows, dry pastures, or 
parklands. In the same way horses will get fat until July, whereas 
if allowed to remain on the marsh pastures until Michaelmas they 
would become poor. Again, as regards manure, we do not regard 
cake as of any value to this land if fed off by cattle, hence the prac¬ 
tice of feeding store stock only or dairy cattle; nor is any yard 
manure of much service. An application of earthy materials, such as 
road scrapings, after being mellowed and turned in heap and laid out 
in the winter months, greatly improves the herbage and quantity of 
pasturage. 
BAT FI AND WEST OF ENGLAND SOCIETY. 
At the Council Meeting held in the Board-room at the Great 
Western Railway Station, Bristol, on Tuesday, July 26th, there were 
present Mr. J. C. Moore-Stevens in the chair ; Messrs. Jonathan Gray 
and H. G. Moysey, Vice-Presidents ; the Hon. and Rev. J. T. 
Boscawen, Col. Drewe, Col. H. A. F. Luttrell, and Messrs. J. H. 
Arkwright, J. C. Best, R.N.; C. Bush, R. H. Bush, Charles Edwards, 
W. Earthing, H. P. Jones, J. E. Knollys, Evan H. Llewellyn, R. 
Marker, C. J. Naylor, R. Neville, C. Pain, H. D. Skrine, E. W. 
Williams, and J. Goodwin, Secretary and Editor. 
Finance. —Mr. Charles Edwards, as Chairman of the Finance Com¬ 
mittee, reported that as the result of the unfavourable weather at the 
Tunbridge Wells Meeting there was a loss, involving the necessity 
of selling out £1000 of stock, and as consols now stand at par or 
thereabouts this was considered a favourable time to realise, and an 
order was made accordingly. 
Cardiff Meeting. —The Council, on the application of Colonel 
Luttrell, granted the sum of £2167 for stock prizes, the appropriation 
of part of the amount to be subject to any list of local prizes that 
may hereafter be offered for Welsh cattle and other stock. 
On the Application of Mr. R. H. Bush the sum of £200 was granted 
for poultry prizes. The usual amounts were also voted for the 
several departments of horticulture, music, and the Art Union. 
A letter from the Secretary of the Glamorganshire Agricultural 
Society was read, asking, on behalf of the Committee of that Society, 
to be furnished with rules and specific terms by which they might 
be allowed to amalgamate with the Bath and West of England and 
Southern Counties Society on the occasion of the Cardiff Meeting, 
should it be deemed advisable by both Societies to do so. The letter 
was very cordially received, and it was resolved—“ That with the 
view to the promotion of so desirable an object the members of the 
Glamorganshire Society be offered the same privileges in connection 
with the Cardiff Meeting, and on the same terms as conceded to the 
Worcestershire and other county societies -within the district of the 
Society’s Shows.” 
Implement Trials at Cardiff. —The Stewards of Implements, 
considering that the ground offered by the Cardiff Local Committee 
for the trial of implements is too far distant from the show yard to 
render them generally accessible, it was proposed and resolved that 
arrangements be made, if possible, for obtaining about 14 acres of 
land in immediate proximity to the show yard, and that, with the 
exception of implements which can be worked upon this plot, the 
ordinary trials be abandoned. 
Appointment of Committees, Stewards, and Officers. —The 
various committees, stewards, and officers for the ensuing year were 
nominated, the only changes being that Colonel Drew is proposed to 
be added to the stewards of stock, Mr. Llewellyn succeeds Mr. Holds- 
worth as steward of exhibitors’ gates, and Mr. Warre is nominated 
as an additional steward of the Arts department. It was also re¬ 
ported that Mr. Samuel Jones, who for a long term of years has 
discharged the duties of store-keeper much to the satisfaction of the 
Stewards of plant and the Council generally, has so far recovered 
from the results of his recent very serious operation, that it is hoped 
arrangements may be made whereby his future services may be facili¬ 
tated and secured. 
Tunbridge Wells Meeting. —The Council unanimously elected 
Mr. E. Durrant, hon. local secretary at Tunbridge Wells, an honorary 
life member of the Society, in consideration of the great energy, zeal, 
and courtesy displayed by him in promoting the success of the recent 
meeting. 
VARIETIES. 
Selecting Chickens. —“ It is particularly necessary,” writes a good 
authority, “ in a dry summer such as we have been having, continually 
to thin our broods of chickens if we desire to rear any to maturity 
and to fine size. Insect provender is scarce, and the ground is tainted 
from having had no thorough soaking for months past. In such a 
season it is good policy to kill off all but the very best and most 
promising chickens.” 
- Moulting Hens. —The present is a good season to allow our 
best show hens to sit, and if not to rear broods, at least to sit a 
month on sham eggs. They will moult well and thoroughly after 
such a rest, and not drop their feathers, a few at a time, in the 
irregular and unsatisfactory way that fowls often do. 
