JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
18 
[ January 4, 1883. 
8 . 
Apples. 4 sieve 2 
„ .per barrel 20 
Apricots. doz. 0 
Cherries. 4 sieve o 
Chestnuts. bushel 10 
Currants, Blach.. 4 sieve 0 
„ Red.... j sieve 0 
Fitfs. dozen 0 
Filberts. tb. 0 
Cobs. 100 ft. 50 
Gooseberries .... 4 sieve 0 
FBUIT, 
d. s. d. 
0to7 0 
0 40 0 
0 0 0 
0 0 0 
0 12 0 
0 0 0 
0 0 0 
6 10 
0 0 0 
0 55 0 
0 0 0 
Grapes . 
Lemons.. 
Melons. 
Nectarines. 
Oranges . 
Peaches . 
Pears,kitchen . 
dessert. 
Pine Apples, English 
Raspberries .... 
Strawberries .. 
s. d. s. d. 
ft. 2 0 to 5 0 
case 10 o 20 o 
each 0 0 0 0 
dozen 00 00 
100 6 0 10 0 
dozen 00 00 
dozen 10 2 0 
dozen 10 20 
ft. 2 0 
ft. 0 0 
lb. 0 0 
3 0 
0 0 
0 0 
POULTRY AND PIGEON CHRONICLE. 
A RETROSPECT OF THE HOME FARM, 1882. 
Again we give a retrospective view of the circumstances which 
have attended the home farmer in his endeavours to successfully 
carry out his practical business. In our former retrospects we 
have always assumed that his agricultural year or season com¬ 
mences on the first day of October, our opening observations will 
therefore begin with October, 1881. We cannot remember a more 
favourable season for Wheat-sowing on all soils, and likewise the 
seed time for Rye, Trifolium, Vetches, Winter Beans in the pro¬ 
verbially fickle climate of the British Isles. We can recollect 
years when the autumn season had been quite as forward, but 
never one more healthy, during which nearly all kinds of farm 
work had been carried on with so little interruption either in the 
cultivation of the land or in another important point, that of the 
management and health of the flocks and herds generally through¬ 
out the kingdom. The progress on the home farm at the com¬ 
mencement of the year was very promising, for all the Wheat and 
autumn-sown catch crops were remarkably healthy, at the same 
time the health of the stock was much better than it had been for 
several previous years. The early lambing Dorset and Somerset 
ewes had passed through a favourable lambing season, and a large 
number of healthy lambs had been saved. Dairy cows had never 
passed through a better autumn season, for the grass continued 
fresh and growing on all favourable situations, and the milking 
period was continued longer than usual, whilst the store cattle 
and young stock were never known to have been in finer condition 
than at the close of the year. This is a favourable picture of the 
stock and prospects of the home farm. 
A few words must, however, be said relative to the probability 
of the home farmer having more land on his hands on various 
estates than he has ever had before, and also that more intelligent, 
industrious, and persevering men will be required in the imme¬ 
diate future to manage farms which through the general agricul¬ 
tural depression have been thrown upon the hands of proprietors. 
In consequence of what we term the great revolution in agricul¬ 
tural affairs, both in regard to the interests of proprietors of 
land as well as occupiers, it is quite clear that home farmers as 
well as occupiers generally will have to make and undertake to 
carry out a new departure—a change of cropping and system of 
cultivation. 
In the home farm department of this Journal we have kept 
steadily in view during the past five years the actual necessity of 
treating most of our subjects introduced during that period with 
the object of enabling the home farmer to combat with success 
the great and increasing difficulties surrounding his position. In 
doing this we have brought the experience of a long life to bear 
upon the various subjects ; and although many of them some 
years ago were not appreciated by some farmers, yet as they were 
based upon our own practice we with confidence have recom¬ 
mended them for adoption as the means of proceeding under what 
we term a new departure, so indispensable for application in the 
present and approaching difficulties of the future. We must ask 
him to refer more particularly to the articles explaining the altera¬ 
tions in cropping and cultivation of both light and strong soils as 
compared with the four-course rotation and other systems so much 
in fashion in times gone by. We must also call his attention to 
the subject of continuous corn-growing upon fertile and vale soils, 
as well as vegetable cropping of lands near the towns and within 
reach of the metropolis by railway. At the same time, it should 
be remembered that manuring by green crops ploughed under on 
certain outlying soils has been found to have the double effect 
of manuringand fallowing at one and the same operation, and at a 
less cost in some cases than the naked fallow. In fact, it will be 
found that under a system of continuous cropping it proves to be 
a continuous fallowing as well as cropping. In our case we never 
made a long fallow for more than twenty years, for when couch 
and weeds are forked out at every opportunity it diminishes the 
cost of either steam power or animal labour in the cultivation. 
Again, with reference to the breeding and feeding of stock, our 
articles upon the subject show that animals do not pay for fatten¬ 
ing under ordinary circumstances, unless the breeding is con¬ 
nected with it on the same farm. Frequently, too, it does not 
even then pay unless the animals, whether they are of sheep or 
cattle, are maintained in improving condition from their birth to 
their death by slaughter, being kept and fed so that the animals 
may never lose their calves or lamb’s flesh, and be fed under a 
liberal system of proper food, upon the principle and practice of 
early maturity. To prove this it is only necessary to examine the 
weight for age of the stock at all the recent cattle shows—those 
of London, Birmingham, and other large towns, and it will be 
found that lambs in the sheep classes are the heaviest at their 
age ; and it is just the same with bullocks. 
Let us consider how these facts affect the consumers of this 
country. It is collected from the statistics in the total of Great 
Britain, and shows a decrease of cattle between the years 1874 
and 1882, amounts 318,491 of all ages; and also exhibits the 
decrease in sheep of all ages for the period from 1874 to 1881 to 
have reached the marvellous number of 5,732,888 ; and the 
decrease in swine is proved to be 374,742 of all ages for the same 
period. Let us now consider how this deficiency can be made up, 
for it is evident that our foreign importations, great as they have 
been, are likely to fall off rather than otherwise, because the 
population abroad over the areas of production continues to 
increase to an enormous extent. This diminution of live stock 
has been going on for years, but to a very large extent the 
quantity of meat has been made up under the system of early 
maturity to which we have referred, and will in the future be the 
means of equalising demand and supply. 
With reference to the price of corn, so long as we have foreign 
imports to contend with the price must be low, and our only 
refuge to which we can resort is in obtaining large and abundant 
crops, but this has unfortunately for seven years been denied us 
as a rule, through the influence of adverse seasons. To take 
another rule, we find that crops of corn, but especially Wheat, 
are still the rent-paying crops upon arable farms, and so we 
believe they are likely to be for many years to come, the only 
exceptions being the produce of certain districts where local 
requirements are of a special kind, such as fruit and vegetables, 
for it is evident that we keep stock for the purpose of manuring 
the land to enable it to carry full crops of rent-paying com¬ 
modities. Yet it is a common thing to hear the unpractical 
portion of writers upon the subject exclaim, “ Oh ! corn does not 
pay for growing, you should therefore fall back upon stock.” This 
is an extreme fallacy, for unless upon fertile pastures the feeding 
of cattle or sheep for slaughter, or the results of dairy farming, 
it cannot be made to answer the purpose other than as above 
stated, the manuring of land to secure full crops of corn. It is 
true that the statistical returns show that the growth of Wheat 
has decreased during the past eight years by 626,300 acres, and 
Barley also during the same period by 32,937 acres. However, 
this indicates chiefly the inability of the landed proprietors, as 
well as tenants, to find capital sufficient for its cultivation, and 
consequently we find an increase of land left in pasture or run 
to waste amounting to 1,643,988 acres, for we know various 
properties now only a sheep walk which were formerly within 
our knowledge arable farms cultivated successfully. 
We must now, however, consider the nature of the season after 
entering on the year 1882. The growing Wheat presented a 
beautiful and luxuriant appearance, with a regular plant, very 
forward, and of a deep green colour, which usually promises 
abundance. The work of the farm, too, was forward, it having 
