August 18, 1881. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
1G7 
estimate the growth at more than 5 cwts. per acre. In the majority 
of the gardens from Paddock Wood to Ashford, with Cranbrook, 
Newendon, Benenden, Rolvenden, Biddenden, and other parishes— 
usually a heavy cropping district—we were much disappointed, as 
slackness of bine prevails to a considerable extent, and it does not 
seem probable that the average will be more than 6 cwts. The neigh¬ 
bouring parishes of Goudhurst, Horsmonden, and Lamberhurst are 
more fortunate, and seem likely to produce 9 cwts. ; and Brede, Win- 
chelsea, and Rye district about G cwts. Maidstone, Chart Sutton, 
Yalding, and the Farleighs, Mailing, and Banning show some good 
bine, and, if mould does not interfere, a growth of 10 cwts. may be 
anticipated. West Kent again is decidedly slack of bine. The gar¬ 
dens in and around Chevening, Brasted, Westerham, Shoreham, Ot- 
ford, and Sevenoaks cannot produce more than an average of 7 cwts. 
per acre, while Edenbridge, Penshurst, Chiddingstone, and adjoining 
parishes cannot grow more. Mould does not seem likely to be very 
serious, except in the district around Maidstone, and the cultivation, 
we may add, is in nearly all cases all that can be desired.— {The South- 
Eastern Gazette) 
- American Wheat. —According to the official statistics, the 
Wheat area of the United States is upwards of 32,000,000 acres, or 
ten times that of the British Islands. The area of the crop of 1875 
was 25 per cent, greater than that of 1877, while during 1879 a 
further increase was made of fully 3 per cent.—an increment of 
28 per cent, under two years. Even with this rapid augmentation 
the Wheat area of the States is stated by Mr. Finlay Dun to be only 
equivalent to the dimensions of the single State of Alabama, or in 
other words only one forty-fourth of the total area of the United 
States. The principal districts of the United States in which Wheat 
is produced in the greatest abundance, and where it forms a leading 
article of commerce, embrace the States of Illinois, Minnesota, Cali¬ 
fornia, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, New York, Pennsyl¬ 
vania, Wisconsin, Kansas, Nebraska, and Oregon. The first three 
States enumerated produced in 1880 over 40,000,000 bushels of Wheat 
each ; the next five States enumerated produced over 30,000,000 
bushels each ; and the remaining six States yielded over 10,000,000 
bushels each. The chief varieties cultivated in the northern and 
eastern States are the White Flint, Tea, Siberian, Bald, Black Sea, 
Egyptian, and Italian Spring Wheat. In the middle and western 
States the varieties grown are the Soule, Mediterranean, Virginian, 
Bluestem, Indiana, Kentucky, Old Red Chafet, and the Talavera. 
The yield varies in the numerous States from ten to forty bushels 
and upwards per acre, weighing from 58 to G7 lbs. to the standard 
bushel. It is known that Wheat contains water in greater or lesser 
quantities, and that its amount is larger in cold countries than in 
warm. For instance, in Wheat from Alsace the proportion of water 
varies from 16 to 20 per cent.; in that from England from 14 to 17 
per cent.; in that from the United States from 12 to 14 per cent.; 
whilst in that from Africa and Sicily it amounts only from 9 to 11 
per cent. The superiority of one kind of wheaten flour over another 
is shown by its greater ability to absorb water, and in general 
American flour may be put down to absorb from 8 to 10 per cent, 
more of its own weight of water in being made into bread than 
English Wheat. The English Wheat is usually fuller and more 
round than the American owing to its being puffed up with moisture. 
—(The Miller.) 
- The Costs of Land Transfer. —A “Land Agent” writing 
to the Times states that great hardships have been inflicted on 
tenants who purchased their holdings from the Irish Church Tempo¬ 
ralities Commission, and suggests that rules should be made to pre¬ 
vent similar hardships from being inflicted on tenants purchasing 
under the new Land Act. He says, “ The first hardship to which I 
allude was the absence of a map of the lands from the conveyance 
which the Commissioners gave to the tenants. In a case which I 
know, a tenant, after purchasing a title over an acre for about £30, 
spent about £20 more in litigation with a neighbour about the 
boundary of the acre he had purchased from the Commissioners. 
Had there been a map on his conveyance he would have saved this 
£20. The second hardship to which I refer was the extremely high 
charge demanded for preparing the mortgage when a portion of the 
purchase money was allowed to remain as a charge on the land, and 
for this the tenant appeared to have no remedy, as, if I remember 
rightly, the Commissioners insisted on the mortgage being prepared 
in their office. For example, I received from the solicitor to the 
Irish Church Temporalities Commission a demand for £12 12s. costs 
for preparing a mortgage for £400 for a tenant for whom I was 
acting. I put the matter in the hands of my solicitor, who succeeded 
in reducing the amount by £7 7s., so that £5 5s. was accepted as pay¬ 
ment in full of an account for which £12 12s. had been demanded.” 
-Emigration to South Africa. —While South Africa is 
slowly forging ahead the sister colonies are supplying her markets 
with commodities. In every store or grocer's shop, or general winlcet, 
the Cape colonist will find tins of Australian beef, and not only does 
he find it, but he buys it and eats it, and probably finds it more 
palatable than the round of trek ox he last dined off. Butter also is 
imported in enormous quantities, and spread on bread made from 
foreign flour or meal. America supplies nearly all the pork that is 
consumed. To meet its great wants in the way of population and 
production the Cape is contented to import annually a very few hun¬ 
dreds of immigrants, the majority of whom are non-producers. It 
retains the services of one hydraulic engineer, where it might well 
employ a staff as numerous as that of the railway engineers. There 
are fifty-two millions of acres of waste land, a large proportion of 
which might probably be turned to profitable account were a hun¬ 
dredth part of the water stored which now runs annually to waste. 
The settlers of 1820 had everything against them for many years, 
but to see what they have effected should convince the most sceptical 
that South Africa is capable of maintaining a thriving population 
many times larger than its present one. Yet there are people there 
who persist in asserting that South Africa would succumb under an 
influx of 10,000 inhabitants .—{The Colonies and India.) 
Mr. O. E. Cresswell, in reply to my remarks on this subject, 
takes umbrage at what I wrote with regard to fanciers. I did not 
attack the true and real fancier, but those who call themselves so, 
when, perhaps, they have only purchased a few fowls or Pigeons 
of good quality for the purpose of dealing in them, and sheltering 
themselves behind the term “fancier” because of their position 
in life. These are they that I do not consider to come within the 
true description of the term “fancier.” Not, of course, but what 
they are at liberty to deal just the same as any other dealer or 
dealers, and do so, and are dealers in every sense of the word, 
but still they wish to be thought amateur fanciers when they 
keep theii birds more for profit than love. 
For example, I consider Mr. O. E. Cresswell a true fancier, and 
1 have always looked on him as such, but there are very many 
others that only keep poultry, and exhibit them to gain prizes, 
for the purpose of profit. They buy and* sell, they advertise 
their birds and eggs, and quote their prizes as an inducement to 
the public to deal with them. A reference to the advertising 
columns of the papers will prove the correctness of my statement. 
Whatever they may think of themselves cannot, of course, be 
known to me, but I have the knowledge of what others think of 
them. 
Mr. O. E. Cresswell says he is astonished and indignant. If he 
be so I cannot help it. He must know when he read what I 
wrote that I did not attack such as lie, a well-known and a recog¬ 
nised fancier, and I for one believe in him greatly, however poor 
an opinion I may have of what I may designate the spurious 
fancier, and it is to these principally that the muddle of the 
DorkiDg is in my opinion to be partly attributed. Through a 
misprint of one word in my article I am made to say, ‘ I have 
three uncles who were most particular.” Ihe word " have was 
written “had”—I had, See. These relatives have long passed 
away and their farms are occupied by others, or else I for one 
should not have far to seek for the true Grey Dorking. Mr. 
Lewrey bought some of his best birds, not his dark-coloured ones, 
of two of them ; and this I can truthfully >ay, I never saw a sooty- 
footed bird amongst the whole of their birds, nor even a dark 
toe nail, and I have seen some hundreds, all of which were clear 
and white in their legs and feet. 
From various experiments I have made I am clear in my own 
