August 25, 1881. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
189 
YEGE1 
s. d. s. d. 
Artichokes. 
. dozen 
2 
ot 
o 4 
0 
Asparagus. 
. bundle 
0 
0 
0 
0 
Beans, Kidney .... 
V lb. 
0 
o 
0 
6 
Beet, Red. 
, dozen 
i 
0 
2 
0 
Broccoli. 
bundle 
0 
9 
1 
6 
Brussels Sprouts., 
i sieve 
0 
0 
0 
0 
Cabbage. 
dozen 
0 
6 
i 
0 
Carrots. 
. bunch 
0 
4 
0 
Capsicums. 
V 100 
1 
6 
2 
0 
Cauliflowers. 
. dozen 
0 
0 
3 
6 
Celerv . 
bundle 
1 
6 
2 
0 
Coleworts_doz. 
bunches 
2 
0 
4 
0 
Cucumbers. 
, each 
0 
4 
0 
6 
Endive. 
, dozen 
1 
u 
2 
0 
Fennel. 
bunch 
0 
8 
0 
0 
Garlic . 
. V lb. 
0 
6 
0 
0 
Herbs. 
bunch 
0 
2 
0 
c 
Leeks. 
bunch 
0 
3 
0 
4 
ABUES. 
s. d. s. d. 
Mushrooms .punnet I Otol 6 
Mustard* Cress .. punnet 0 2 0 8 
Onions. bushei 3 6 5 0 
pickling. quart no 0 5 
Parsley. doz.bunches 3 0 4 0 
Parsnips. dozen 10 2 0 
Peas . quart 0 9 1 3 
Potatoes. bushel 3 a 4 o 
Kidney. bushel 4 0 4 6 
Radishes_ doz .bunches 16 2 o 
Rhubarb. bundle 0 4 0 6 
Salsafy. bundle 10 0 0 
Scorzonera . bundle l 6 o o 
Seakale . basket 0 0 On 
Shallots. if* lb. o 3 0 o 
Spinach . bushel 3 0 on 
Turnips. bunch n 4 0 0 
Vegetable Marrows each o o o 2 
/ 1 s' 
m HOME FARM ' i§ 
POULTRY AMD PIGEON CHRONICLE. 
THE ROYAL COMMISSION ON AGRICULTURE. 
(Continued from page 166.) 
Ik proceeding with tbe subject it is requisite that the amount 
of farm capital to be employed should be considered. In justice 
to both landlord and home farmer we may assume that anything 
relating to the improvement or maintenance of the buildings, 
house and homestead, cottages, roads and fences, including drain¬ 
ing and expenditure upon other improvements invested for the pur¬ 
pose of enhancing tbe letting or occupation value, should be con¬ 
sidered as landowners’ fixed capital as when invested in a purchase. 
The working or moveable capital on the home farm, however, may 
be said to consist of, first, the live stock, whether kept for fatten¬ 
ing purposes for the production of meat, for milking purposes, or 
merely as store for breeding animals for the production of wool, &c., 
or as furnishing the means for cultivating and marketing of pro¬ 
duce. Second, the corn growing or in stock, hay, straw, fodder, 
and roots as the food stored for animals, or the natural or artificial 
Grass, Clover, Saintfoin, or other green fodder crops growing for 
their consumption. Third, the machinery required for cultiva¬ 
tion, or for preparing and marketing the produce. Fourth, cash 
required to meet the charges connected with the labour of pre¬ 
paration of the land—the manuriug, seeding, harvesting, thrash¬ 
ing, and marketing the corn and pulse crops—the tradesmen’s 
and other bills required to keep everything in repair and working 
condition, also to pay the Government and parochial rates and 
taxes, and the tithe rent charges. 
We have been rather particular in enumerating the different 
items as above named, because it is usual and desirable for pro¬ 
prietors who undertake the occupation of their land to place 
themselves in the position of tenants by separating the accounts 
and charging the amount of rent which might be obtained if the 
farms were let. The amount of landowners’ capital cannot be 
stated, for the value of land and its appurtenances will vary 
greatly on account of soil, situation, and climate. The working 
capital on the home farm we can estimate by approximation, for 
in our own business we have found that upon the large outlying 
hill farms the required capital would vary from £10 to £12 per 
acre. Upon smaller farms, under new and improved systems of 
stocking and cropping, it would \ary from £15 to £18 per acre, 
or even more in some instances, because it will be found under 
certain circumstances that the best systems, and those which yield 
the greatest money returns, will require an investment of money 
far beyond anything known in ordinary farming, especially if 
market garden farming is carried out. 
In the evidence obtained by this Commission a frequent cause 
of failure and agricultural depression in various districts is stated 
to have occurred through an insufficiency of capital employed. 
It also shows the fact of the strongest soils not only requiring 
much costly labour in working, but suffering also more than drier 
soils from the effect of wet and unpropitious seasons. This fact 
leads us to the cultivation and rotation of cropping; and as the 
clay soils have suffered most, we will endeavour to show the home 
farmer th<? latest and most approved changes recently made in 
tbe management of these soils. Much has been said by various 
advisers of the home farmer, recommending to his notice the 
policy of laying strong clay land down to permanent pasture, 
especially where it is flat-lying. But when we consider the 
serious losses by the rot in sheep, and in various instances of 
cattih also from feeding on cold flat-lying pastures, there is not 
much encouragement to be found for extending the acreage of 
permanent pasture upon such land. We prefer to cultivate such 
land upon a rotation whereby the crops may be—first fallow, 
followed by Wheat, seeded with Glovers and pasture Grasses to 
lie two or three years, then to be followed by part Oats or drege, 
and part Bean 2 . The benefit of this rotation is, that during the 
six years we may obtain pasturage from half the arable land, and 
yet have the advantage of a change in cropping if cereals should 
become dearer from unforeseen causes, because the two years of 
old lea may then be omitted in the rotation, but resumed at auy 
time to meet certain contingencies and emergencies. Nor must 
we lose sight of the fact that under this rotation half the farm 
would be not only in grass of more value than any permanent 
pasture on similar soil, but for the purpose of the growth of 
either cereal or pulse crop 2 , as the land will have received the 
benefit of rest for three years, with an accumulation of manuring 
elements during that period. 
Before we proceed further on the questions of stocking and 
cropping we must call the home farmer’s attention to his un¬ 
fettered and unbiased position, except through matters entirely 
relating to the profits of the farm, for his business will suffer to a 
certain extent through the depression in agriculture which pre¬ 
vails, as represented by the evidence given before the Royal Com¬ 
missioners. In this evidence we find it roundly asserted by some 
of the most experienced farmers that they could not grow Wheat 
with profit at the prices now obtained, and in consequence nume¬ 
rous farms throughout the kingdom have been thrown upon the 
owners’ hands. Yet the arable farms of Messrs. Trout and 
Middled itch, where corn and straw are almost the only saleable 
products grown, have been conducted with more or less profit up 
to the present time, and with scarcely any live stock kept either 
for working purposes or for the production of meat by fattening 
animals. Fertility has been maintained for a series of years and 
valuable crops produced almost entirely by the aid of steam 
p.owerin cultivation and the application of artificial manure ; and 
as Mr. Trout has published a pamphlet describing his position 
as owner and occupier from the time he purchased the land up 
to the present, it must be accepted as truthful, because all his 
crops have been sold annually as they stood in the field, both 
straw and corn together, by public auction, the results of which 
sales have always been published in the agricultural papers of the 
time. On the perusal of this pamphlet both landed proprietors 
and heme farmers will be enabled to understand how agricultural 
depression has been evaded, or only slightly felt, by Mr. Trout, 
either as landlord or tenant. The consideration of the compara¬ 
tive position of the home farmer who cultivates aud produces 
stock and corn combined in somewhat the usual manner and the 
system adopted by Mr. Trout, is of the highest importance, 
whether we view it as a matter of theory or a practical method of 
agriculture, for uuder any circumstances in which either the land- 
owner or home farmer can be placed it is full of interesting matter 
of the highest value, and vve highly commend it to their perusal 
and serious consideration. 
Endeavouring to advise the rotation of crops for corn-growing 
chiefly will be rather difficult, but not so upon laud in hand or 
set apart from the home farm proper ; for upon most home farms 
attached to pasture and park land a certain amount of the various 
sorts of live stock are almost a necessity, and frequently entirely 
so. We must therefore consider what can be done by feeding 
and fatting stock on the home farm in the face of agricultural 
depression and the rotations required, leaving the subject of corn- 
growing only upon outlying land in hand for consideration here¬ 
after. In case the home farm is situated on the hill districts 
we see no better rotation than the five-course, especially on the 
lightest land—viz., Wheat, green crops and roots, Lent corn and 
grass seeds to lie down two years, the Clovers to be mixed with 
Timothy and Terennial Rye grass. If in the second year of grass 
the land should become foul pare and burn before the Wheat is 
sown, for this insures a clean Wheat stubble. On the vale or 
