JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
224 
[ September 2, 1880. 
we consider the cost of the food of the working animals, and as far 
as horses are concerned the yearly depreciation in value also. For a 
fortnight past, and as soon as the Wheat crop had been carried, we 
have noticed the double engines steam tackle at work on some farms, 
very much to the credit of the managers, whether they are on a home 
farm or occupiers as the tenants of the land. This is taking time by 
the forelock, and on the same farms last spring we noticed the steam 
power at work, which forwaided the seed time so much that we now 
see these fields covered with splendid root crops seeded in due season, 
as well as fine crops of Barley sown after Wheat. The autumn work 
we are now recommending could not be done last year to any extent 
in consequence of the lateness of the harvest, thus leaving a legacy 
of labour for the present year. There is, however, every appearance 
of this season continuing favourable for all work required upon the 
land. Upon the strong and heavy lands preparation for the Wheat 
crop seeding should not be much longer delayed. Whether the pre¬ 
paration is by the long fallow or after fallow crop, such as Beans or 
Peas, the land cannot be tilled too soon after the orops are cleared 
and the manure carted upon the land so long as the weather continues 
favourable, after which artificials may be sown broadcast and ridged 
in, or the manure may be applied in the spring. Where the strong 
lands are put into Wheat out of Clover lea the manure should now be 
laid out and the land ploughed and pressed, in order that it may 
become mellow before the seed is drilled ; and we must again call the 
attention of the home farmer to the policy of wide drilling, so that 
in the spring the ordinaiy three-shared horse hoe may be effectively 
employed between the rows ; for upon cold strong soils in some 
seasons the Wheat plant will lose colour and look sickly and yellow, 
in which case nothing changes the colour of the plant like effective 
moving of the surface by the horse hoe. The plan of hoeing with 
the machine, which does the width of the drill at one operation, is by 
no means suited to the hard surface of the land in winter-sown Wheat, 
although it does very well upon spring-sown Lent com, the soil being 
loose. 
Hand Labour .—This will still be required for drawing straw for 
thatching corn and pulse ricks, the second hoeing of some late root 
crops which may have been neglected during the harvest, filling and 
spreading of manure, and hedge-trimming. In the later districts the 
men will be engaged for a little time yet in cutting and tying the 
grain and pulse crops, and on such farms all roots should be sown 
early, so as not to require any attention by horse or hand hoeing 
during the harvest. The early crops of Turnips ai-e so fine this year 
that they are now fit for feeding by the sheep, and, in conjunction 
with a run on the Clover and Saintfoin leas they may be folded at 
night on the roots, receiving some little cake or corn as the weather 
and objects for which the sheep are kept may dictate. If sheep are 
intended to be fattened for the Christmas markets it may be desirable 
not to allow the sheep to run into other grass keeping, for after they 
get accustomed to the root food they do best to remain on the land 
and have a small fold twice each day with half a pound of cake or 
corn at first, but further on in the season they may have one pound 
each sheep ; but they never pay for more, because they cannot pro¬ 
perly assimilate a larger quantity, or turn it into profitable meat. As 
the root crops are so abundant the milch cows may have some Turnips 
drawn on to the pastures as supplementary to the grass food. If, 
however, a butter-making dairy is kept the root-feeding should be 
omitted, and cake or corn added where the grass is short. When the 
root crop is abundant like it is now at least one-third of the crop may 
be pulled and carried away, two-thirds of a full crop being quite 
enough for consumption on the arable land with cake where a corn 
crop is to follow. Now is the time for the home farmer to consider 
his position as to obtaining the cattle for stall or box feeding during 
the winter ; but where there is a good sale for milk, or where it is con¬ 
venient to obtain calves for suckling, milch cows with calves at foot 
will pay more money than fattening bullocks, especially if the cows 
are kept to the stalls and receive the same allowance of food as the 
fatting cattle. In that case the cows if well bred, either Devons, 
Herefords, or Shorthorns, will feed out fat, although they may give a 
profit in milk or in suckling calves for veal. The ewes in lamb must 
now be looked to very carefully, and care taken that whilst food is so 
plentiful as now that they do not get too much forcing food ; and 
whether the stock is horned Dorset ewes—now getting heavy in lamb 
—or late-lambing down or cross-bred ewes, they may be kept too 
high, and suffer at lambing time in consequence if they make fat 
internally during pregnancy. 
THE POULTRY YARD IN SEPTEMBER. 
We are apt to think that our poultry yards require no attention 
while fine and dry weather, such as we have had for the last fort¬ 
night, prevails. This is by no means the case. We have found 
sickness particularly liable to appear and spread during dry 
summer time. The cause of this is somewhat doubtful. It may 
he that in the absence of rain to wash the soil it becomes foul and 
tainted ; at this season, too, we are apt to have our stock at its 
highest numbers, which of course contributes to the same evil. 
Thinning should be continued as fast as possible, and lime-washing 
freely resorted to, even well-kept houses become offensive in 
summer without it. Chickens which cough should be separated 
from their fellows, well fed and stimulated till quite cured. 
Sneezing and coughing are often the first signs of a want of tone 
in the system, which if neglected may terminate in roup, but 
which, if taken in time, passes off very rapidly. In most places 
growing chickens suffer now from the decrease of insect food ; old 
birds too are going, or soon will go, deep into the moult, and all 
will be better for a tonic. Wc have long used one, when occasion 
required, taken from the pages of our old friend “ The Henwife,” 
and always find it efficacious. 
One pound of sulphate of iron, one ounce of sulphuric acid, 
dissolved in a jug with hot water; let it stand for twenty-four 
hours, and add one gallon of spring water. When fit for use, one 
teaspoonful of the restorative to a pint of water, given every other 
day to chickens, and once a week to old fowls, will make roup and 
gapes entirely a stranger to your yards.” 
Chickens hatched at this season are generally delicate, and seem 
to pine from unaccountable causes. If it is desired to rear any, 
we have found it best (save in the case of Bantams) to let them 
lire the most natural life possible. We have some ourselves doing 
admirably. The hen sat herself in a hedge, and has from the 
first ranged with the chicks at complete liberty, taking them back 
every night to their dry birthplace in the bank. We suspect 
that some of the mysterious maladies which beset summer chickens 
may be attributed to the foul air of coops, and the ease with 
which the soil, as we have before said, now becomes soured, if 
they are kept long on the same ground.—C. 
CANARY TREATMENT IN OLDEN TIMES. 
I HAVE before quoted from an old work treating upon Canaries, 
and I here give a chapter showing forth their “ dispositions and 
inclinations.” The writer, Mr. Hervieux, says— 
“ It may truly be said that almost all Canary birds differ in 
their temper and inclinations, but being afraid it would take up 
too much time to distinguish between them all successively, I 
think fit to divide them into four classes. In the first place I 
find some cocks who are always of a melancholy temper, and if 
I may so call it, thoughty, who sing but seldom and in a doleful 
tone, being for the most part hufHed up. This sort of Canary 
birds seldom answer the the end they are designed for, for if you 
would teach them to sing flageolet tunes they are a prodigious 
time learning, and are never perfect in what they have been 
taught; besides that, what they have learnt they easily forget, 
especially the first time they come to be sick, as at moulting time 
or the like ; and sometimes there are such as pine so much at 
being always covered that they die, and this sort of Canary birds, 
though they are cocks, I believe would never sing unless they 
were put to it under other old brisk Canary birds, that hearing 
them continually sing they may in some manner serve them 
instead of masters. These same birds are sometimes naturally 
so slovenly that their feet and tails are always very dirty. When 
you would clean them without danger you must use the following 
precautions :—Take the Canary birds into your hand, and with a 
little spittle by degrees take off the hardened filth that sticks on 
their feet which often hinders them from perching, and it often 
happens that when care is not taken to clean them their feet 
grow sore and their claws drop off. If you will make use of 
water instead of spittle to clean them it must not be cold, unless 
it be in very hot weather, for besides that the cold water does not 
clean them so well, there is danger that it may kill them through 
coldness striking to them on a sudden, especially in winter. 
Some young curious persons have lost their Canary birds by using 
of cold water at a time that did not seem to them cold enough to 
warm it, and your hands ought to be hot when you take hold of 
the bird.” 
As evidence that Mr. Hervieux estimated his mode of treatment 
at some considerable value, he says, “ All the particulars I take 
notice of in this small treatise are of such consequence that those 
who through ignorance or negligence do not observe them lose 
many of their Canary birds, for those little creatures are of so 
tender a constitution that a very small matter impairs their health 
and occasions their death. On the other hand, if you design to 
have this sort of Canary birds to sit there is not only reason to 
believe that their young will be no better than the old, but the 
first cross accident that happens in their breeding, as the death 
of any of the little ones, or any distemper of the hen, or any 
other thing of this sort, they grow melancholy and dull that 
they often die ; or if they happen to survive it they are all the rest 
of the time they remain in their huts so heavy that they never 
cheer the hens by singing, especially when they perceive the 
young begin to hatch. I would advise those who have any of 
these to get rid of them to save themselves the concern it will be 
to them to see that whatsoever they can do for them nothing will 
succeed. 
