84 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ July 24, 1890. 
Professor Henry Stewart has recently in the New York 
crimes called special attention to the Instantaneous Butter Maker, 
-of which we gave a brief description in our article of July 10th. 
He shows how admirably it gets rid from both separated milk and 
T the butter of all the impurities commonly found in milk— i.e., the 
fibrine, the mucus, the scales of tissue, &c., leaving it quite pure. 
He also explains how, by a fortunate application of dynamics and 
mechanics, the dairyman’s labours are reduced and made more 
■effective with a proportionate gain and profit. His prospects are 
hrighter than they have been for several years, for his greatest 
difficulty is in course of removal—that of the intricate manipula¬ 
tion of milk and cream, with all the adverse conditions of tem¬ 
perature and exacting work and oversight to contend with. There 
will now, he asserts, be every chance for making good butter, 
instead of so many chances against it. With well fed healthy cows, 
••and the exercise of due care in the housing and milking, the 
making of pure butter up to a uniform standard of excellence 
becomes a very simple matter, and a good trade is certain to follow 
if only due care is taken with the salting and packing. 
Vendors of this splendid implement will do well for themselves 
•and well for farmers if they will be content with a moderate profit 
upon the cost of its manufacture, so as to ensure a large sale. A 
•cheap motor has now also become a necessity for most dairies, and 
there will be a growing demand for it with the enlargement of 
ffarm dairies, or rather the growth of herds of dairy cows ; for the 
new implement will enable us to dispense with milk pans and 
■cream crocks, but it must not be forgotten that a regular supply of 
from 200 to 300 quarts of milk is requisite for a profitable use of 
the instantaneous butter maker. At many farms the entire dairy 
yield of milk does not amount to above a half or a third of that 
quantity. Butter factories are still few and far between, and the 
only course open to farmers generally is to curtail their Wheat 
orops still more, to extend the area of Oats, roots, and fodder 
•crops, to substitute ensilage for haymaking, and to keep more 
cows. This would enable them to derive full benefit from the 
milk and butter trade, and also to materially improve their cattle 
business. The purchase of store cattle would then be avoided 
altogether. Cheap animals and cheap food, all home produce, 
•upon which not a penny has been wasted for middleman’s profits, 
•must answer. The food would be pure, wholesome, and nourish¬ 
ing, and the cattle ought to be superior to most of the purchased 
•store beasts, and they will be if due care is taken in the selection 
of the stud beasts. 
Mention of the middleman is a reminder of the Rev. Harry 
Jones’ efforts to bring the farmer into direct communication with 
the consumer of his produce. His proposal that railway companies 
shall furnish lists of shopkeepers in London who are willing to 
receive produce direct from farmers, the company collecting the 
msney and transmitting it to the farmer, is hardly practicable. 
The responsibility and risk involved is precisely that for which the 
middleman makes the farmer pay so dear, and judging from our 
•experience of railway rates, very much upon a par with the middle¬ 
man’s exorbitant commission upon sales. We shall indeed be 
surprised to find any railway company at all willing to pose as the 
farmer’s friend. 
The fallacy of bare fallowing to rest the land is now pretty well 
•exploded, and extension of root culture and of green crops has 
probably given an impetus to bastard or half fallows. It hardly 
•ever answers to rush into extremes, and when land is taken up in 
very foul condition or becomes so through a succession of wet 
seasons, recourse must be had to a bare fallow. The tillages must 
be done with care and caution, ploughs, drag, and light harrows, 
crosshill and plain rollers, and even hand forks, must all be brought 
into use to eradicate the weeds. The work must be thorough and 
deliberate, and each field must be treated according to its require¬ 
ments. It is mere waste to sow corn in a foul seed bed, and we 
could only say “ serve you right ” to an old tenant of a heavy land 
farm who recently complained that he had been obliged to plough 
in a field of Barley as the crop was smothered by weeds. To have 
land clean in the fullest sense of the term, and that is free from 
weeds and superfluous water, is essential to progress, whatever 
may be our system of cropping. We can then proceed to store the 
soil with fertility and to plant and sow with confidence, only we 
must be very sure our seed is good, true, and free from weed seeds, 
for we doubt not that Charlock and Poppy have first entered the 
soil of many a farm through the coulters of the seed drill. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
St. Swithin’s has passed without rain, and the indications of a change 
to fairer weather cause us to hope still for a tolerably full corn harvest 
and some good hay j'et. But the rain of the past six weeks has given 
such vigorous growth to weeds that it will prove by no means an easy 
matter to have clean root fields by harvest. Early sown Mangolds were 
singled and the weeds were well under before the wet time set jn. If 
subsequently weeds have grown so have the Mangolds and early Swedes, 
which now have the leaves meeting well across the space between the 
rows, and keeping down weed growth. 
Two important points of practice to which managers of home farms 
on heavy land should now give special attention are the provision of an 
ample store of burnt clay and other ashes, and the turning to account 
the household sewage if the farm includes the park, or is near the 
mansion with its large staff of servants, laundry, kitchen, and stables. 
The supply of sewage from such an establishment is considerable, and it 
should on no account be wasted, but should flow through a main pipe 
into a tank, whence it can be removed either for distribution by a water 
cart and spreader on pasture, or to saturate ashes, ballast, or charcoal 
dust, either for ploughing in, or top-dressing pasture. Wood ashes so 
treated are an excellent manure for the Clovers in permanent pasture, 
and all really good pasture contains a large proportion of Clover, 
especially of the white perennial variety. Get rid of all useless banks 
and mounds on the farm, and turn the soil to account by burning it. 
In very hot dry weather the burning is easily done without coal, but in 
showery weather some coal is necessary. 
Sheep are so profitable that the provision of plenty of food for them 
at all times is desirable. As the folds are removed off the Tares let the 
ploughs follow at once, then the harrows, roller, drill with late Turnip 
seed,°and then a turn or two of light harrows finishes the work. There 
should be no delay about this, as a full crop will soon be a speculative 
matter from the advanced season and risk of hot dry weather. Land 
may also be prepared for drilling Imperial and Drumhead Cabbage 
early in August, or if a field cannot be spared, then get ready seed beds, 
and sow 1 lb. of seed per acre about the first week in August. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
CAMDEN SQUARE, LONDON. 
Lat. 51° 32' 40" N.; Long. 0° 8' 0" W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
DATE. 
9 AM. 
IN THE DAT. 
J o3 . 
Hygr-me- 
d . 
• 
Shade Tern- 
Radiation 
a 
1890. 
§1*1 
' “ter. 
r d 
. c3 £ 
2 * so 
peratire. 
Temperatu'e. 
M 
July. 
53 -a 
a. ^ 
£ z* 
In 
On 
c3 
Dry. 
Wet. 
5o 
H 
Max 
Min. 
sun. 
grass 
Inches. 
deg 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
dee. 
In. 
Sunday . 
13 
19.869 
62.2 
78.8 
8 . 
56.5 
70.6 
53.0 
110.6 
52.2 
— 
Monday.. 
14 
£9.8.53 
64.1 
58.9 
s.w. 
57.9 
70.9 
£8.4 
117.9 
57.7 
— 
Tuesday .... 
15 
29.881 
64.2 
59.7 
S.M. 
£8.8 
75.4 
£9.0 
124.4 
56.8 
Wednesday.. 
16 
30.105 
64.7 
56.8 
S.E. 
61.1 
74.2 
50.4 
111.0 
47.8 
— 
Thursday.... 
17 
29.947 
68.2 
62.3 
N. 
6 .8 
75.6 
58.3 
105.0 
55.3 
l.b/l 
Friday . 
18 
£9.861 
61.2 
57.0 
N.W. 
61.3 
70.0 
56.0 
117.9 
0.410 
Saturday .... 
19 
£9.818 
56.9 
55.1 
N.W. 
60.9 
63.8 
55.8 
1 ib.O 
56. 1 
29.907 
63 1 
58.4 
59.8 
7i.o 
55.8 
lit.3 
£4.5 
2.081 
REMARKS. 
13th.-Fair, wiih some sunshine, but spots of rain in the evening, 
lith—Fine, and occasionally bright. . , 
16th.— Bright and warn; the first summerlike day for two or three weeks. _ 
16th.—Bright and warm morning ; hazy and f-equently cloudy in he afternoon, 
j 7th—Cloudy till about 4 r.M., then wet; thunder, lightn ng.and heavy ran in evening, 
the rain lasting till alter midnight. , . and 
18th.—Wet till 6 AM ; bright morning ; generally cl udy in afternoon , wa, evening ana 
19th.—Heavy rain at 6 A.M.; dal', with occasional drizz’e in mirr.ing; aflernoon and 
evening generally bright, but occ isioual slight showers. 
The week has been noteworthy on account of the occurrence of one ofA} 10 !® l-^eat 
rains which occur at long intervals, and whin they come produce considerable damage. 
Although here the storm of the 17th yielded 1'67 in., more than twice that f mount ieu 
1 at some stations in Berkshire and Hertfordshire— G. J. SYMONS. 
