February 1, 1883. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 105 
The males or rams should have specially arranged quarters to 
themselves, and only leaving them when required for mating with 
the females. In all these various requirements numerous questions 
will arise as to cleanliness and health connected with their 
boxes or sheds, for the rams would live in the former, but the 
herds whilst in the sheds in summer time, which were moveable, 
would be dropping their dung, both liquid and solid, on certain 
selected spots, remaining only long enough to manure the land, 
and then the site would be occasionally changed during summer. 
In the winter whilst feeding under cover cleanliness and purity 
of the air must be obtained and maintained, and this cm be 
best secured by the flooring of earth which we have so often 
advised in the apartments and pens for all animals, and in Goat- 
farming this is advisable in all cases, for single Goats or for 
herds. 
The illustration (fig. 21) exhibits the type of Angora Goat im¬ 
ported into the Cape colony by Mr. J. B. Evans in the year 1879, 
which were the finest specimens of the breed that ever left their 
native country. The twenty-seven animals were valued at the 
sum of £2000 on their arrival from Asia Minor. 
(To be continued.) 
farms have been bought in so high in price, it is worth consideration 
as to the policy of holding over the latter lambing ewes to breed 
from again, because the wool and the fold during summer is a fair 
profit, especially as the numbers tell in favour when double the num¬ 
ber can be kept as stock and stores compared with fattening them as 
usual. The fatting bullocks in the boxes may now be fed liberally 
with cake and roots, and we recommend the home farmer when 
Potatoes are plentiful and dull of sale to give some to the bullocks 
for a month before selling them ; and if the tubers can be boiled or 
steamed conveniently before feeding with them they will complete the 
butcher’s animal in the best and most profitable manner. All young 
store cattle, both heifers and steers, will now be doing well if fed in 
yards and dry-lying sheds, getting cotton cake and any middling hay. 
The dairy cows which are dry and not likely to calve for a month or 
two should be fed sparingly of the most valuable food, as we fear the 
result of too high condition at the time of calving. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Horse Labour .—The sowing of Wheat will either now be finished 
or abandoned as hopeless, seeing that the rainy period has lasted so 
many months ; the horses will therefore be employed as soon as the 
land is dry enough in ploughing and plairting or drilling Beans. In¬ 
stead of drilling or planting in the ordinary way as formerly, the 
plan now we recommend is to use a drill attached to the presser either 
for Beans or Peas, separate or mixed, in which case the seed falls into 
the grooves formed by the rings of the presser, and is therefore well 
buried by two three-tines with the iron harrows. We do not advocate 
in seeding pulse crops the drilling of the seed after every ring of the 
presser, v’hich would bring the lines too near together to allow of 
horse-hoeing between the rows, but by drilling after every other ring 
of the two-ringed presser would place the row r s at about 22 inches 
apart—a very fair distance for interculture in the early stages of 
growth. We advocate Yetches or Peas being grown as a mixed crop. 
As soon as the Yetches or Peas begin to spread they will effectually 
keep down the weeds and produce an enormous crop generally ; but, 
at any rate, in those seasons v T hen the black or green aphides appear 
(they seldom both appear in the same season), therefore one crop or 
the other is almost sure to escape their attacks, and thus making a 
mixed seeding more certain of a full crop than either of them drilled 
separately. 
Laying out manure on the Clovers has not been done, as the land 
in most cases would not bear treading without injuring the young 
Clover or Grass plants, therefore the yard manure has been carted to 
heap where the fields on which it is to be used lie wide from the 
homestead in readiness for the root crops, such as Mangolds and 
Potatoes. We advise that in the cultivation of Potatoes in the future 
that half-acre plots of the newest varieties should be planted as an 
experiment every year, and in this case the varieties which answer 
best on the home farm may be cultivated in the next few years, for 
we hold that in the event of the newly raised sorts proving good 
croppers the chance is more certain of not only obtaining a full crop, 
but also of keeping them free from disease. We also recommend the 
trial and growth of the largest and best cropping sorts, such as the 
White Elephant and one or two others which produce large tubers 
and prove abundant croppers, that they be grown with the ob¬ 
ject of selling them when it can be done at advantage ; if not, let 
them be used for feeding dairy cattle engaged in butter-making, the 
plan being to feed with Potatoes, hay, and crushed Wheat, as being 
the only materials which will yield not only the best quality of winter 
butter, but also the greatest quantity ; for it must be remembered that 
although Potatoes may be dearer than Swedes or Mangolds at per 
ton, yet an acre of Potatoes may contribute as much butter, and of 
far better quality than other roots. 
Live Stock .—We still hear a great deal of complaining in certain 
districts of sheep rot spreading; but we ask, Why should sheep be 
kept at all in the best grazing districts and accompany the bullocks 
during the summer, when it ought to be well known that they injure 
every pasture (as well as run the risk o* rotting) by eating out all the 
finest herbage and white Clovers, and seriously deteriorate the future 
feeding value of the grass, especially for fattening bullocks ? Many 
early lambs of the Somerset and Dorset cross are now ready for the 
market, and really ought not to be sold unless they will make a long 
price, for, although they may be held over to make mutton as regards 
weight, they will pay better for so doing instead of selling them at 
the ordinary lamb weight of 10 tbs. or 12 tbs per quarter. There is 
this year a superabundance of root food, and if the lambs are kept to 
be heavy weights they will pay better for the extra grazing than to 
be sold at light weights. Nothing but the want of money or scarcity 
of keep ought to induce the owners of lambs to sell them now the 
stocks of sheep in the country is short by upwards of 5,000,000, un¬ 
less a very unusual price can be obtained. The Down lambs are now 
falling fast, and it is fortunate that as yet we do not hear of many 
losses of lambs; and keep is so plentiful that both ewes and lambs 
ought to be found in high condition. In fact, as sheep on the vale 
ABOUT A DOBKING CHALLENGE CUP. 
All that Mr. Harrison Weir writes about Dorkings is worthy 
of most attentive consideration, first because his recollections 
of the breed date back far beyond those of most present poultry 
fanciers, or at least to a period when they paid no attention to 
poultry ; and secondly because he seems to have a keen eye for 
the real beauties of the breed, derived, no doubt, from early ac¬ 
quaintance with it, and a still keener perception of the faults too 
often to be found in modern Dorkings. It is, therefore, in no 
controversial spirit, but solely with the object of improving a 
useful breed, that we proceed to give a few reasons in favour of 
our suggestion of a challenge cup being offered for Dorkings, 
which Mr. H. Weir seems to think could do no good. We gave 
some of them roughly in a former article, but perhaps it will be 
convenient to recapitulate them in order, and then to consider 
Mr. Weir’s objections to our scheme. 
1, We have seen a great impetus given to the Game fancy by 
the offering of a challenge cup. 
2, In former days when the prizes for Dorkings at Birmingham 
were pecuniarily far better than they are now the entry, as old 
catalogues will show, was much larger. Whether the quality of 
the birds was better is a matter of opinion. Many old Dorking 
fanciers think that it was. May not this decline in entries have 
some connection with the reduction in the prizes offered ? 
3, We have reasons for thinking that there are many good yards 
of Dorkings, probably of the oldest and purest strains, which are 
not now shown, and from which consequently fanciers have no 
opportunity of buying. Their owners might be attracted by the 
rumour of a really valuable cup, and be induced to exhibit them. 
4, Those who already breed and show would be incited to more 
spirited enterprise in procuring good stock, more care in mating 
their birds, and more attention to the points which are really 
indications of pure Dorking origin. 
5, Might it not be that with this increased responsibility on 
their hands the judges, of whom Mr. Weir gravely complains, 
would also take extra trouble, before judging Dorkings, really to 
study the characteristics of the pure breed 1 
We will now look at the chief objections urged against our sug¬ 
gestion. They seem mainly to divide themselves under two head¬ 
ings—1, That true Dorkings do not exist ; 2, That even if they 
did there is no one capable of judging them. 
1, Probably the Dorking, as Mr. Weir once remembers it, is a 
very rare bird indeed. Unless we are mistaken he told us some 
months ago in these columns that the farmers’ wives who once 
had the breed in purity and perfection have them no longer, and 
say that they know not where to go for fresh stock. Surely there 
must be some reason for this. There seems no denying the fact 
that the then Dorking was unsurpassable as a table fowl, but why 
should it have become so nearly extinct ? Because, we have every 
reason to think, from in-breeding or other causes it was so delicate 
a race that it could not be perpetuated. Some cross was absolutely 
necessary to keep it alive. No doubt had there been the com¬ 
munication between fanciers and breeders that there now is, and 
the knowledge of poultry and of the difficulty o.f getting good 
table fowls, there would have been judicious exchanges between 
the owners of stocks of the pure old race, and so it would have 
been kept up in purity ; but there was not. The first bird that 
came to hand of large size and tolerably like a Dorking in 
characteristics was used, and so some of the good points of the 
old Dorking were lost, though increased vigour of constitution 
has confessedly been gained. Granting for argument’s sake that 
