518 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ December 4, 1884. 
is kept sound and sufficiently rounded to throw off water at once, 
and that no provision of drains beneath the surface is necessary, 
except to convey away water falling upon the road. No hollows 
must be allowed upon the surface, or water accumulates, and with 
the friction of wheels soon causes serious damage. This is the most 
convenient season of the year for making and repairing roads, and 
the cost of the work depends upon the means of obtaining stone. 
If this is brought from a distance expenses soon mount up to a 
formidable sum, and no effort should be wanting to ascertain if suit¬ 
able matei'ial cannot be obtained at convenient points near the line 
of road. We once had to make a road two miles in length, and 
although there were no indications of stone or gravel beds upon the 
surface, yet by boring beds of gravel were discovered close at hand, 
and a considerable saving effected. Now, this was soft sandstone 
gravel, quite unsuitable for the surface of a road, but answering 
perfectly beneath a surface dressing of hard gravel or broken stones, 
8 inches of the soft, covered with 4 inches of the hard material, 
being all that is required for an ordinary farm road or carriage drive, 
if subsequently due and timely attention is given to keeping the 
surface sound by any necessary repairs to be done at this season of 
the year. There is sometimes much wasteful outlay upon this work, 
through its being entrusted to the hands of incompetent persons. 
We were recently asked to inspect an unfinished road upon which 
£200 had already been expended. The puzzled owner knew that the 
outlay was greater than it ought to be, but did not know why, and 
yet the errors were apparent at a glance. A track 2 feet deep had 
been excavated and filled with gravel—fault one ; and the work 
had all been done by the day, and not by the cubic yard—fault two. 
Casual labourers employed by the day upon such work simply 
squander time, doing little good either for themselves or their em¬ 
ployers, their object being to make the job last as long as possible. 
Tiece-work, on the contrary, incites men to earnest effort ; they have 
a reward in view proportionate to work done, and every one of them 
are bound to exert themselves, for there are usually enough good 
workmen in a gang to keep the sluggish ones up to the mark, and it 
is the foreman's business to see that the work is well done. 
Gratings and drains are required at frequent intervals on sharp 
gradients. Thin cast iron gratings with narrow openings should not 
be used, but gratings with bars and frames thick enough to bear 
the trampling of heavy horses and wheels of a waggon. Finding it 
somewhat difficult to obtain such gratings from an ironmonger, we 
had a wooden pattern made of a strong grating and frame, and 
whenever a supply of gratings is wanted we have simply to send our 
pattern to an iron foundry and have some cast. Glazed socket pipes 
should be used for the drains, and the size should be from Cinches 
to a foot in diameter, according to the position, length, and gradient 
of the drain. Avoid long drains as much as possible. Short drains 
wuth a sharp gradient invariably answer best, for they are self¬ 
cleansing, the water passing through so quickly that stones or soil 
cannot settle and eventually choke the drain, as so often happens 
when the gradient is fiat. 
(To be continued.) 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Live Stock .—Beasts forward in flesh have been easily sold off grass to 
the butchers at 5s, &d. per stone of 8 lbs. dead weight, and we have only 
a few left. These are put together in a separate yard, and are fed with 
meadow hay and a mixture of crushed Waterloo cake, crushed oats, bran, 
and hay chaff. One or two dealers offered to buy these beasts off the 
grass ; but by drafting them off somewhat more slowly to the butchers we 
have realised the £2 to £3 per bead profit that would have gone into the 
pockets of the dealers or middlemen who so obligingly offered to save us 
the trouble of going to the butcher’s to see the beasts weighed. Lean 
stock are now settled permanently in the yards for the winter, and much 
care has been taken to stock each yard with animals of a similar ao-e and 
size, so as to avoid bullying and fighting as much as possible. °Three 
cows have calved recently, affording a welcome addition of fresh milk to 
the dairy. We repeat that upon the home farm where a good well- 
supplied dairy is of the first importance, there should always be some 
cows to calve during the winter months, or the butter will certainly prove 
faulty. Let cows have a daily supply of chopped Carrots now as well as 
bran and the best meadow hay ; but no cake, our object not being to 
fatten but to keep cows in a good he.althy condition, and to sustain a full 
flow of fresh sweet milk till about two months or six weeks before the 
time of calving. Everything in connection with dairy farming has alwavs 
been worthy of our best attention ; but now and in future it must assume 
greater importance, for depend upon it in future the farm that pays will 
before all others be the dairy farm. We shall never be over supplied with 
milk and butter in this country, and we have only to produce first-class 
butter to enable us to compete with that which, to our shame and serious 
loss, is now imported in such large quantities. We have an excellent 
dairy woman, and so have most managers of home farms, but that 
certainly is not the case upon farms generally. This is one of the matters 
in which there must be a change for the better, and it is not difficult. 
Butter and poultry do much towards helping pay the rent upon manv a 
farm. We know one excellent farmer’s wife whose only complaint 
about her dairy is that her butter is in such demand that she can hardly 
keep enough of it for her family. As usual, we have three or four 
heifers to calve next spring to afford us the choice of a good cow or two 
for the herd. This is done every year to keep up a full herd, and to 
pass out failing or barren cows in good time for a summer run upon grass 
to fatten for sale in autumn. 
PEICKLY COMFREY. 
I THANK you for your remarks on Prickly Comfrey. My expeiience 
differs from yours. My horses eat it freely, especially m the spring, 
after being kept on dry food during the winter. It has grown very 
on my light soil during the last two years. But beyond a change of food 
I cannot find what advantage, if any, it is to animals. Can you tell me 
what are its characteristics or properties 1— H. N. 
[We here give analyses of Prickly Comfrey, Rye, and some Grasses, 
in order that you may see the actual qualities good and bad of Prickly 
Comfrey and its relative value especially to Meadow Grass for feeding 
purposes. 
Italian 
Smooth 
Rough 
Prickly 
Green 
Rye 
Meadow 
Meadow 
Comfrey 
Rye. 
Grass. 
Grass. 
Grass. 
Water. 
89-2 
76 0 
73-4 
14-3 
143 
Albuminoids. 
1-4 
8 S 
3-6 
89 
8 4 
Carbo-hydrates. 
62 
10-4 
12 1 
36-8 
St-4 
Fat. 
_ 
0-8 
10 
2-3 
S 2 
Crude Fibre. 
1'8 
7-9 
7-1 
326 
82 6 
Ash. 
1-4 
16 
2-8 
8-1 
7 1 
100-0 
100-0 
100 0 
1000 
100 0 
These analyses are by Professor Fream, who says of Prickly Comfrey, 
“ That it has about the same feeding value as Green Mustard, Mangold, 
or Turnip tops. Being a very deep-rooted plant it is far less liable than 
plants of more superficial growth to be affected by drought, and it is 
therefore being cultivated in India.”] 
Webb & Sons’ Stand at the Bieminoham Cattle Show. —The 
centre bay of the gallery at the Bingley Hall Show is occupied, as usual, 
by Messrs, Webb & Sons, the well-known seed growers and manure manu¬ 
facturers, with a magnificent and extensive display of agricultural and 
horticultural produce, raised from their celebrated varieties of seeds, 
which are as popular for yielding marvellous crops of unsurpassed quality 
as for producing specimens that are invariably successful in open prize 
competitions. Recent awards to the produce of Webbs’ seeds include 
no less than thirty-two first and other prizes at the Birmingham Show 
now being held, the Prince Consort’s cup, presented annually by Her 
Majesty the Queen, important prizes in Australia, the champion cup open to 
E ngland and Wales, the whole of the prizes for roots and grain at the Norwich 
Show, together with champion cups and first prizes at all other leading 
shows and competitions ; to which must be added a prize medal awarded 
at the late International Exhibition, London, for the excellence of Webbs’ 
seeds for the farm and garden. The total value of the prizes won with 
Webbs’ roots, cereals, &c., is estimated at over £18,000, and many of the 
prize crops and specimens were grown with the aid of Webbs’ bone 
manures. 
OUR LETTER BOX. 
Ringdoves and Small Birds in the Same Cage {E. S .).— You can, of 
course, keep “ ringdoves ” (do you not mean collared doves ?), canaries, and 
love birds in the same cage ; but if you want the former to look clean and 
comfortable you will not, for the small birds are so much lighter and more 
active that they are sure to soil the plumage of the doves by dropping on 
them. Then you would find it rather expensive, for the doves would not 
eat anything else when they could get canary seed, and they have large 
appetites. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
Camden Square, London. 
Lat.61° 32'40" N.; Long. 0° 8' 0" W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
DATE. 
d A.M. 
IN TUB DAY. 
B 
"S 
os 
1884. 
November. 
Barome¬ 
ter at 32« 
and Sea 
Level 
Hygrome¬ 
ter. 
Direction 
of Wind. 
1 Temp, of 
1 Soil at 
1 1 foot. 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature. 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
sun. 
On 
grass. 
Inches. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
In. 
Sunday ...... 
23 
30.1.53 
35.9 
34.2 
N.W. 
40.8 
42 4 
33 6 
63.6 
27.8 
— 
Monday ....'.. 
24 
30.120 
3>.0 
33.9 
N.W. 
39 8- 
38.7 
27.9 
41.3 
21.8 
0.010 
Tuesday. 
25 
30.275 
27.7 
27.5 
N. 
39.2 
3i.4 
25 3 
39.4 
21.4 
— 
Wednesday .. 
20 
30.295 
33.9 
339 
S.W. 
38.4 
43.7 
27.7 
S3.1 
25.3 
— 
Thursday .... 
27 
30.178 
42.8 
40.9 
N.W. 
38.8 
48.2 
33.8 
63.0 
30.2 
0.016 
Friday. 
28 
29.817 
41.2 
38.8 
W. 
40.2 
48.1 
39 9 
50.1 
34.2 
— 
Saturday .... 
29 
29.765 
35.1 
34.2 
N, 
39 8 
4J.2 
3J.8 
60.1 
27.2 
— 
30.086 
35.9 
34.8 
39.0 
42 5 
31.3 
52.9 
26 8 
0.026 
REMARKS. 
28rd.—Fine all day, cold night. 
24th.—Foggy, slight sleet at 11.45 a.m., and occasionally aftervard.^. 
25th.—Fog early, and slight fog aU day, otherwise bright but very cold. 
26th.—Fine and bright. 
27th.—Fine and generally bright, slight shower in evening. 
28th.—Fine. 
29th.—Dull early, fair after, rather fine sunset. 
Another dry and very cold week. —G. J. Symoxs. 
