JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
October 6, 1881. ] 
325 
drill-presser whereby the seed falls into the press grooves, instead of 
drilling the seed, especially upon lea ground ; for where the ground 
is properly pressed and seeded it can be horse-hoed or hand-hoed in 
the spring. The question of distance between the rows in drilling is 
important, and we prefer under ordinary cultivation the 10-inch 
space; but on good land in high condition we think 12 inches the best 
distance, as the straw will generally grow stiffer and not be so likely 
to go down before harvest. Besides, on some heavy soils, if the 
season should be adverse and the Wheat plant in the spring becomes 
weak and the land weedy, the horse hoe can be applied and worked 
at a depth which will move the soil well between the rows. This 
matter is often the only way to rally and improve the growth of the 
plant, a horse-hoeing being frequently equal in effect to a dressing of 
1 cwt. of nitrate of soda per acre. 
Hand Labour .—Spreading nnd filling dung will be going on, also 
hedge-trimming, and upon the flat-lying strong soils the water¬ 
furrowing after the Wheat is sown is a very important matter, 
taking care that they be made out several inches deeper than the 
land furrows; this is essential, even after the land is perfectly 
pipe-drained, in order that the surface may be freed of superfluous 
water as quickly as possible. Upon the home farm the underwood 
in the coppices and hedgerows should now be cut and made into 
hurdles both for use and for sale, as they are much sought for by 
flockmasters for folding their sheep. In case of land coming to hand 
on the estate which requires draining it is now a good time to com¬ 
mence the work, as the autumn rains will soon show the wettest 
parts of the land ; but in any case test holes should be dug to ascer¬ 
tain the nature and variations of the subsoil before commencing the 
work. 
Live Stock .—The purchase of sheep for the winter feeding of roots 
still continues. The great fair for the sale of Hampshire and Wilt¬ 
shire down sheep will be held at Weyhill in North Hants on the 
10th inst. The great fair for the sale of the homed Dorset and 
Somerset will be held at Appleshaw near Weyhill a few days pre¬ 
viously—namely, from the 7th to the 9th inst. This is called a show 
fair, the animals being exhibited in the grass plots instead of being 
penned close within hurdles, as usual at other fairs, and the ewes 
being forward in lamb it is better for them. Much business is, how¬ 
ever, done on the farms where these horned sheep are reared in the 
counties of Dorset and Somerset, the animals being purchased at 
home and driven direct from their native pastures to the home and 
southern counties, where they are kept in large numbers and furnish 
early lambs for the London market. It is now a good time to 
purchase bullocks for box-feeding, as the Cabbage and early roots 
and Carrots are now ready for use ; but instead of buying cattle only 
in store condition we prefer to take up animals about half fat, or just 
beneath the butcher’s quality. Such stock bought now and well fed, 
with a moderate allowance of cut roots mixed with cake and bean 
meal, will pay better and be ready sooner in the spring than poor 
stock when bought in. In the southern and eastern counties Devon 
and Hereford cattle are preferred ; in the northern and midland dis¬ 
tricts Aberdeens and Shorthorns prevail. All of these, especially if 
pure-bred, yield a fair profit for about twenty weeks’ feeding. It is, 
however, preferred by some farmers, and we also approve it, to buy 
in good short-horned cows with calf at foot, and feed—instead of 
fatting bullocks—and either sell the milk or rear the calves for veal. 
In either case if the cows are kept at the same cost as a fatting 
bullock the well-bred stock of Shorthorrs will fatten well during the 
milking period, and whether milk is sold or veal made it matters not 
—the important point is good feeding and careful management. All 
the young cattle, both calves and yearlings, should now as the nights 
get longer be accommodated with a dry pasture or paddock at night 
time, where they may also receive their allowance of cotton cake and 
meal in troughs mixed with cut roots or Cabbage. This will keep 
them in condition and probably avoid the disease called quarter-ill. 
Farm horses will in many instances be foddered with young Clover 
cut up, for we find both young and old Clover grown fit for mowing 
since the late rains in various localities. 
VARIETIES. 
Canaries Becoming Blind. — I have four Canaries each blind 
with one eye, none of them very old, and one this year’s bird 
The eye appears slowly to shrink away. I am afraid there is no 
cure after they have become blind, but 1 should be glad to know the 
reason, and if I can do anything to prevent it. I feed my birds on 
Canary seed, rape, millet, broken groats, and a little hemp. One bird 
I have given away is blind with both eyes. These birds do not all 
belong to the same family.—E. M. S. 
-Farm Produce in 1800.—The following note extracted from 
a “ Whittlesey Farmer’s Diary ” has been sent to us by a corre¬ 
spondent—“ 1800, July 7th, Wheat was £7 7s. per quarter, beef 9s. 0 d. 
per stone, mutton 8cf. per lb., pork 9s. Ad. per stone, Barley £4 4s. per 
quarter, flour 5s. per stone. 1802, July 15th, a frost—ice as thick as a 
shilling.” 
- <! Electricity,” says a daily paper, “ is gradually finding its 
way, in some shape or other, into nearly all the chief industries, its 
latest utilisation being in the production of cheap alcohol from Beet¬ 
root. The current is passed through the crude spirit obtained by the 
distillation of the Beets, and the result is the dispersion of water by 
the liberation of hydrogen in electrolysis. Probably some of the 
spirit thus procured will be used for fortifying wines and adulterating 
brandies ; but alcohol is now used to such an extent in the arts that 
the process will probably be developed extensively, and its discovery 
may lead to the extended cultivation of the Beetroot for other pur¬ 
poses than cattle-feeding, sugar-making, and dye-stuff.s. The culti¬ 
vation pays well in Germany and France, and it might possibly be 
found profitable in this country.” 
- The Harvest in Manitoba.—T he correspondent of the 
Daily News sent the following cablegram from Montreal last Friday 
—“ The harvest in Manitoba is very abundant. The average yield 
of grain is extraordinarily high. The average of Wheat per acre is 
twenty-eight bushels, or ten bushels higher than the highest average 
ever reached in Minnesota, which is the best Wheat-growing State.” 
- American Farms. —In an interesting work on American farm¬ 
ing recently published, the author, Mr. Finlay Dun, directs attention 
to the diminishing size of the farms in the United States, the official 
returns showing that while in 18G0 the farms averaged 190 acres only, 
the average fell in 1870 to 153 acres, and it is still diminishing. The 
farms in the New England States are, it appears, under 100 acres. 
The largest holdings are in California. 
■-Farming in New Zealand.—A correspondent writes from 
Nelson to a contemporary as follows:—“Most of the pamphlets 
written to promote emigration dwell largely upon the productiveness 
of the soil, but what is the use of large crops if there is either no 
market for them or the price offered is less than their cost ? I know 
a farmer who grew some excellent Barley this year, and he cannot 
get 3s. a bushel for it. The same farmer sold fifty fat sheep for £20- 
Where is the profit to come from ? In the Nelson Auction Booms 
last Saturday I saw good cheese sold for 3d. to Ad. per lb. Who 
would make it for the money ? A good fat bullock will fetch from 
£7 to £8. Thousands of bushels of Oats have changed hands for 
from Is. to Is. 6 d. a bushel, though the price is now somewhat better 
when the unfortunate producer has none to sell. Farming, as a rule, 
does not pay in New Zealand any better than at home, and with my 
enlarged experience I would now earnestly recommend a considerable 
pause before any distressed English agriculturist resolves on the 
transference of his capital and energy from the English shires to 
these New Zealand solitudes. I know a good deal of English farmers, 
having been amongst them all my life, and I know a little about New 
Zealand farmers, and I have no hesitation in saying which I deem 
the better off. Only let men at home resolve on doing what they 
must do here in order to live—put their own shoulders to the wheel 
somewhat more, and put the drag on their household expenditure a 
good deal more—and a measure of calm enjoyment of life largely 
exceeding that to be secured either in Australia or Canada will be 
ensured.” 
- Large Cargo of Australian Meat. —About 150 tons of 
frozen meat, consisting of the cargo cases of more than three thou¬ 
sand sheep, arrived from Australia on Monday at Plymouth in the 
Orient. This was the full quantity that the vessel could accom¬ 
modate. The meat was preserved by the refrigerating machinery 
patented by Mr. Haslam of Derby, and_it is stated that the system 
has proved very successful. 
ENTRIES AND PRIZE MONEY. 
VARIOUS methods have from time to time been tried by the 
committees of poultry shows to meet cases where the entries in 
a class are too few to pay the prize money. Some schedules 
announce that if there are less than a certain number of entries 
the first prize will be withheld, others that in theHike event first 
