406 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ October 28, 1880. 
special favourite of our own, and the sire of most of Mrs. 
Troughton’s strain. 
Space fails us to recount all the contrivances we saw, but we 
must not forget a long row of coop-like connected sitcmg places, 
in each of which a hen can sit undisturbed, and as they are 
partially glazed can remain with her brood through their earlier 
days. From the poultry yards we passed on to a pretty sunk 
flower garden, and thence to kitchen gardens and vineries, where 
all was preparation for a neighbouring fruit and flower show ; 
thence, too, we believe as many prizes or more came to Garthmyl 
as come from the poultry shows. Beyond the gardens another 
treat awaited us—a paddock with Alderney cows and some 
immensely powerful Norwegian cobs, and then the stables. Mrs. 
Troughton is quite as good a judge of a horse as of a Dorking, and 
has much longer been a fancier in this line. The cobs of Mont¬ 
gomeryshire have always been famed, and we saw as fine a pair 
in the stable of Garthmyl Hall as we have seen for many a day. 
But we are wandering beyond the “famous poultry yard.” We 
revelled in the sight of it and its lovely surroundings, and hope 
ere long to see some of its tenants again at the Crystal Palace 
and elsewhere with prize cards over them. We cannot end with¬ 
out advising our lady readers with spare time in the country to 
devote themselves with like energy and ingenuity to make their 
poultry yards useful and famous.—C. 
VARIETIES. 
Hull and East Riding Cattle and Poultry Show. —Amongst 
the prizes offered for competition at this Show are the Corporation 
Plate, value £200, for the best beast in the 6pen classes ; a piece of 
plate, value £100, for the best Shorthorn ; a 'similar prize for the 
best Scotch or crossbred beast; and a Challenge Plate, value £100, 
for the best beast in the Show ; entries close on November 2nd. We 
are requested to direct attention to the following error in the schedule : 
—Classes 78 and 79 are stated to be for Spangled Hamburghs. The 
schedule should read, “ Class 78 Golden-pencilled hen or pullet, any 
age ; class 79 Silver-pencilled, any age.” 
- Agricultural Statistics. —From the agricultural returns 
issued by the Board of Trade we learn that the total quantity of 
land returned in 1880 as under all kinds of crops, bare fallow, and grass 
amounted, for Great Britain, to 32,102,000 acres. For Ireland the 
returns show a total of 15,358,000 acres, and for the Isle of Man and 
Channel Islands the totals are respectively 97,000 acres and 30,000 
acres. Thus for the whole of the United Kingdom the cultivated 
area was in 1880, 47,587,000 acres, exclusive of heath and mountain 
pasture land, and of woods and plantations. In Great Britain the 
area returned as under cultivation has increased by 120,000 acres 
since 1879, and the total increase in the ten years since 1870 is no 
less than 1,091,000 acres, or a greater area than the whole of Devon¬ 
shire. Of this increase about two-thirds, or 1,187,000 acres, were in 
England, 220,000 acres in Wales, and 287,000 acres in Scotland. A 
large share of this increased acreage must be credited to the more 
correct returns of late years, when errors from the use of local acres, 
such as “Scotch” or “Lancashire” acres, and also the omission of 
out-of-the-way farms, have been discovered. 
- Acreage of Cereals.—T he area under Wheat in 1880 was 
2,909,000 acres, or 19,000 acres more than in the previous year. The 
Wheat area of 1879 was, however, the lowest on record since the 
returns were first obtained in 1867, and the present year’s crop was 
grown on nearly 591,000 acres less than in 1870. In some counties it 
has been stated by the collecting officers that a favourable autumn 
led to an increased breadth of Wheat being sown, but the large 
number of unlet farms, and of farms where agricultural depression 
prevailed, appears to have caused much Wheat land to be left in 
fallow, as will be noticed presently. In Barley there is a considerable 
decrease since 1879, when 2,667,000 acres were sown, as compared 
with only 2,467,000 acres in the present year. The inferior quality 
and the difficulty of securing the crop last year are stated by the 
officers in some places as having caused this decrease, but it may be 
noted that the present year’s acreage under Barley is fully equal to 
the average of the last ten years. Oats were sown on 2,797,000 acres, 
or an increase of 5 per cent, over the area in 1879, and these figures 
have only once been reached since 1867 ; but the other stock-feeding 
corn crops show a considerable falling-off, Beans being grown on 
427,000 acres as compared with 530,000 acres in 1870, and Peas on 
234,000 acres, against 317,000 in 1870. The imports of Maize, which 
compete largely with these crops, have somewhat declined during the 
past year, but are still more than double those of ten years ago. 
Taking, then, all the figures as to the com crops in Great Britain, we 
find their area was 8,876,000 acres, or a decrease of rather more than 
1 per cent, from the previous year, and of 7 per cent, from the year 
1870. 
- A Successful Vermont Apiary.—A correspondent writes 
from Danby, Vt., to the “American Bee Journal:”—“I have ex¬ 
tracted 4000 lbs. of white honey, of good quality, from about seventy 
colonies. I do not know whether this is quarter, half, or a whole 
crop. I have spent about twenty days in getting it, and am well 
satisfied with the result. I sell extracted honey at 15 cents per lb., 
and comb honey at 20 cents. I have been in the business three sum¬ 
mers, having started with bees in boxes ; they are the Langstroth 
hives now, and ai’e mostly in good working order. Have had but one 
swarm leave me ; that went fourteen miles by observation, and how 
much further no man can tell. I live between two high mountains, 
the sun always shining into our valley at noon, and the flowers 
always blossoming either in the valley or on the mountain sides. 
Basswood, Melilot, White Clover, and Buckwheat are the main supply. 
I winter the bees in a building with walls 26 inches thick, and floor 
overhead covered with sawdust. It does not freeze in the coldest 
weather, or get warm during a thaw. The temperature is regulated 
by ventilators. The bees consume but little honey during the winter. 
I am well pleased with the business.” 
- Potatoes for Fattening Cattle. — “ As the crop of Pota¬ 
toes is large this year, and prices low, it is probable,” says the Irish 
Fanners' Gazette, “ that growers in districts remote from markets may 
find some difficulty in disposing of their surplus supply. We do not 
require to remind them of the value of Potatoes as food for pigs ; 
but it would appear that it is not so generally known that cattle may 
be profitably fattened for the butcher on Potatoes. In the early part 
of the present century Turnips were not much known in Ireland, and 
a considerable proportion of the cattle fattened during winter at that 
time were fed upon Potatoes. Potatoes are given to cattle either raw 
or cooked, by steaming or by boiling. When given whole cattle will 
sometimes choke upon them, and Potatoes used in the natural state 
are also apt to cause a troublesome amount of swelling from flatu¬ 
lency. Both objections may be obviated by steaming the Potatoes 
or by pulping them and mixing them with chaffed straw or chaffed 
hay. If some cake, Indian meal, or crushed Barley is mixed with 
the mass a very fattening description of food will be obtained at a 
moderate cost. Potatoes lose very little of their weight by steam¬ 
ing, and when given to cows in milk they should always be cooked, 
and given while still moderately warm. In feeding cattle upon 
Potatoes it is advisable to begin with a small quantity daily at first, 
say 10 or 12 lbs., gradually increasing the quantity to 28 lbs. per day 
or more, according to the size of the animals, &c. With beef at 70s. 
per cwfc. there can be no room to doubt the profitableness of using 
the surplus produce of this year’s crop of Potatoes in fattening cattle 
for the spring markets.” 
- Mortality in Sheep. —At a recent meeting of the Devon¬ 
shire Chamber of Agriculture Mr. James P. Heath read a valuable 
paper on this subject, from which we cite the following frem the 
Exeter Flying Post :—“ During the past fifteen years he had especially 
studied the diseases of sheep, and had practically treated over three 
hundred thousand with a loss of less than 3 per cent. As soon as 
the flock is found to be affected the owner should immediately pro¬ 
vide the whole of the animals with shelter, and supply them with 
the best food—Turnips, hay, and corn—and twice a day adminis¬ 
ter gruel seasoned with salt, and with a couple of ounces of 
spirit mixed with it. Methylated spirit was the cheapest for stock, 
and at double the strength of brandy it cost only 5 s. a gallon. 
Common fluke-rot in the earlier stages was curable ; but when there 
was an alteration of the structure of the liver by disintegration it 
was useless to expect a cure. The most that could be done was to 
get flesh enough on them to kill, as they would not pay to keep for 
