November 3,1831. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 415 
milk than any other breed, and at the same time will fatten 
quicker whilst suckling their lambs than any other known breed. 
They are of excellent constitution and very hardy, being fre¬ 
quently reared on very exposed hill farms in the south-western 
counties. When fat they yield flesh with the fat most intimately 
mixed with the lean, and furnish joints for the table yielding 
a larger amount of rich gravy than can be obtained from the 
mutton of any other breed of sheep, although rather coarser in 
the grain than the meat of the pure-bred Sussex Downs. We 
have described the advantages of the Somerset homed ewe in 
detail, because so few breeders understand their characteristics 
and attributes, and because we can obtain what we require in a 
new type from no other source or breed ; and to illustrate this let 
us ask what we require the Hampshire Down ram to contribute 
towards the fixing the new type. We desire to obtain his colour 
both of face and legs, and his hornless or polled head, and 
character only ; every other point of consequence is to be found 
in the description we have given of the Somerset ewe. As it is 
admitted by all professional and experienced practical men that 
the male animal contributes in cross-breeding the colour and 
outward characteristics in a superior degree, and that the female 
may be said to furnish nearly all the important functions of the 
animal, such as constitution, internal structure, together with 
breeding and milking capacity. But we can assure breeders that 
this cannot be obtained with absolute certainty ; it must, therefore, 
in all cases be supplemented by judicious selection, following our 
object in view. One thing, however, is certain, that if we wish 
for complete success we must select maiden ewes to breed from, 
for in case we take aged animals which have previously bred to 
other rams than the sort we require, no defined style or type can 
with reason be expected in the offspring ; and we have no hesita¬ 
tion in saying that to this circumstance the failure of many 
breeders who have attempted the cross-breeding of sheep may be 
attributed. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Horse. Labour. —The weather upon the whole has been so favour¬ 
able for the autumn tillage by steam power that it has been continued 
until the time we write. The horse labour has, however, of necessity 
been employed lately in preparing the land and drilling the Wheat. 
Some farmers say that the land is too dry for Wheat-sowing, but that 
is not our experience. We have known several seasons during the 
past fifty years when fine dry weather without frost has prevailed 
through October and the first half of the month of November ; it, 
however, requires different management to some extent. Where the 
land is not ploughed and pressed and sown after the presser it should 
be drilled so deep that the young plants may root in the subsoil not 
moved by the last ploughing, in order that they have firm holding in 
the soil. When drilled shallow in light fine tilth after the rains and 
frosts of winter the plants are very liable to be lifted out of the soil. 
Another point is that in the case of a very light dry seed time for 
Wheat a great number of weeds will often prevail in the spring of 
the year. If the corn has not been drilled at 10 or 12 inches apart 
the land cannot be effectually horse-hoed in order to destroy the 
weeds, more particularly if the Wheat proves what is termed winter- 
proud. It later on frequently turns off very sickly and loses colour, 
in which case if not drilled so as to be effectually horse and hand- 
hoed the weeds will overpower the crop. Even if the land should be 
free from weeds the horse-hoeing is nevertheless a necessity, in order 
that the surface soil may be moved and thus give life and energy 
to the growth of the Wheat, without which it would continue to lose 
colour and produce a small ear. Practically, an effectual horse-hoeing 
is of far more consequence than] a dressing of nitrate of soda under 
such circumstances. 
We have personally inspected much land lately, and we find 
that whole districts are almost worthless as arable land for want 
of a dressing of chalk or lime, the latter being well adapted for 
the heavy lands whether resting on chalk or clay. We have seen 
hundreds of acres of Wheat land where last year the crop was hardly 
worth harvesting in consequence of blight accelerated, if not actually 
caused, by want of chalk. We find a general impression prevailing 
that when chalk underlies the clay the land cannot require chalk. 
That is a great mistake, for land containing rubble only is called 
chalk, and is actually expected to assist vegetation, when it has been 
for long periods robbed of its carbonate of lime and the plant food 
which it originally contained by a long series of cereal crops, and has 
become comparatively worthless. As if to teach the farmers a lesson 
the chalk dells and pits of former days, which are numerous, should 
show them that formerly the farmers were wise in their generation, 
and used an abundance of chalk in the districts where its use is now 
seldom or never attempted. We therefore advise the home farmer 
to look well to his crops, and notice the kind of weeds which prevail, 
and which exhibit the want of chalk; but we must refer the reader 
to our article upon chalking given in this Journal on the 20th and 
27th days of November, 1879. In fact, we go so far as to say that it 
is impossible to farm profitably where land is exhausted of chalk and 
lime, because corn or grain of any kind will not yield and root crops 
cannot succeed in its absence. On heavy land it is also necessary 
that the small ten-furrowed ridges should be made the rule. Although 
the water may not often stand upon the land, yet it passes away and 
does not charge the subsoil so much when it can pass quickly off the 
surface by the action of land and water furrows properly made out. 
It is, however, of still more consequence when the strong land rests 
upon strong clay, for even after it has been properly drained the 
surface-lying of the land cannot be neglected with impunity. 
Hand / abour .—The women and boys are assisting the men in 
pulling and storing the Mangold crop, which we are glad to say in 
the mixed soils on the vale farms of the southern and midland coun¬ 
ties is nearly or quite an average produce. Should this crop be re¬ 
quired for feeding on the land in the spring the roots may be pitted 
in the same manner as we find necessary in some cases to treat them 
and preserve the Swede crop, Carrots, &c., especially upon farms 
where ground game is reared to any considerable extent. In other 
cases the wood pigeons prevail to an extent sufficient to cause 
immense injury to the root crops during the winter months. Water¬ 
furrowing on the Wheat land will now be going on ; also hedging, 
ditching, ifcc., as well as work in the woodlands by converting the 
Hazel and other woods into hoops, hurdles, hop poles, &c., The 
cutting of Ash and Elm timber may now be done with better effect 
than in spring. 
Live Stock .—All fatting bullocks which have been feeding on grass 
land during the summer should now be sold if ready, or otherwise be 
put into the boxes or stalls, the former being the preferable mode of 
management. As barns are not now wanted in winter they can be 
made to act as cattle boxes during winter, spring, or summer, and by 
having moveable fittings they may also be filled with corn for ear'y 
threshing, and thus be made available as harvesting barns and cattle¬ 
feeding apartments combined—in fact this has been our plan of 
proceeding for the past thirty years. Milch cows and young stock 
should both lie in at night, the former in their stalls, the latter in 
littered yards and sheds, and receive their roots, fodder, and cake, 
which will then be used with advantage. The fatting sheep must 
now be treated as we have often stated, being fed with cut roots and 
cake or bean and maize meal mixed with the roots twice a day, and 
twice with hay and straw chaff mixed with the cut roots. Down 
ewes must now be carefully treated during pregnancy, and if they 
have not been allowed hay at night time they will eat a fair quantity 
of sweet straw chaff—enough to keep them in health; but in case the 
wet harvest has injured the straw it may be spiced with some of the 
foods now sold for the purpose, the aroma from which makes it 
attractive and more palatable for the animals, especially when feed¬ 
ing on grass in the daytime. But the home farmer must beware of 
trusting the ewes upon the water meadows, for there have been 
instances of rot taking place in the present autumn where sheep 
were fed upon fiat-lying grass land, although not under irrigation. 
POULTRY NOTES. 
A poultry and Pigeon Show was held at Shepton Mallet on 
September 6th. The exhibitors have recently received a portion 
of their prize money, accompanied by the following curious 
notice :— 
Copy. 
“ Taylor’s Paddock, Shepton Mallet. 
“ Dear Sir, —We beg your acceptance of enclosed cheque for prize 
money, and very much regret it has not been paid before ; also, that 
we are compelled through a heavy loss, which you will see by our 
balance sheet enclosed, to make a reduction of 36 per cent, on all 
prizes. Should we in future be in a position we will pay you the 
balance 
“ Yours truly, (Signed) W. J. N. Perry.” 
We understand that an exhibitor at the late Show will lay the 
above document before the Committee of the Poultry Club. 
Exhibitors are constantly troubled with the careless way in 
which labels are sent out by the secretaries of shows. A number 
are tied together iu a bundle, the exhibitor’s address is written on 
the reverse side for the return address of the birds, and so they 
are posted. To begin with, we are frequently charged double 
postage, as such a bundle is not a book, and to send it at book 
rate is contrary to postal regulations ; but besides this, it more 
often than not happens that the postal address of an exhibitor i3 
not the railway address, consequently the direction has to be 
altered for the return of the birds, and confusion results. Con¬ 
sidering the high fees commonly paid for entrance, committees 
may surely afford an envelope to each exhibitor. 
We hope in an early number to describe another most interest¬ 
ing and, we believe, unique “ Famous Poultry Yard,” that of the 
Rev. M. H. and Mrs. Ricketts, at Knighton Vicarage, Radnorshire. 
