348 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ October 16,1890. 
DAIRY AND FRUIT FARMING. 
Two Shows were held in London last week ; a Dairy Show at 
the Agricultural Hall and a Fruit Show at the Guildhall, both of 
them being ostensibly in the interest of farmers, though it must be 
owned if farmers do ultimately derive benefit from the fruit Show 
they will be greatly indebted to gardeners for such a lesson in fruit 
culture as they never had before. We saw both Shows, and may, 
we think, usefully record our impressions now, for both of them 
taught lessons of weight and moment which should tend to pro¬ 
mote that progressive improvement which is steadily bringing 
prosperity to agriculture once more. 
Taken as a whole, the thousands of plates of fruit were 
absolutely bewildering, but a mere glance at any part of the 
marvellous Exhibition was sufficient to convince one of the high 
degree of excellence to which fruit culture has been brought in 
this country. In more than one report of the Show in the daily 
papers exception has been taken to it as a gardeners’ exhibition 
after all, as having missed its aim of promoting fruit farming, its 
tendency to show what skilful fruit cultivators gardeners are, and 
how unskilful are farmers and cottagers. But that is precisely the 
point of the whole thing. If the Show taught one, thing more 
emphatically than another it assuredly was the high importance of 
■careful selection and skilful cultivation. It has long been notorious 
how very much farmers have been wanting in both things, and 
they have now been told in no uncertain manner that the careful 
cultivation of the best sorts—especially of Apples—tends to insure 
a supply of really first-class fruit even in a season so remarkable 
for the scarcity of Apples as the present one is. 
Readers of the Journal were told long ago of the process of 
■cultivation applied to the Barham Court orchards, and the gold 
medal, won so easily by the magnificent fruit shown by Mr. Wood¬ 
ward last week, affords proof of its soundness. To farmers who 
intend planting more fruit trees this season we say then, See that 
the stations are thoroughly well done for orchard trees, that the 
whole of the land is trenched for plantations, that full attention is 
given to the drainage and fertility of the soil, and that the plant¬ 
ing is well done, and the trees made fast to stakes or other supports 
at once. Do not forget the importance of shelter, and if you plant 
an orchard in an exposed place plant belts of fast-growing trees 
around it at the same time—not a mere line or hedgerow, but a 
belt of several rows, which will form an efficient barrier against 
cold north-easterly winds by the time the trees come into bearing, 
and also screen the trees from violent south-western gales when 
they are laden with fruit. It is these two cross winds that so 
frequently prove fatal to the fruit crops, and we must guard 
against them if we would succeed. One word more before we 
turn to the Dairy Show, and that word is an expression of our 
pleasure at seeing Mr. Wright’s prize essay on fruit culture being 
sold at the Show. That certainly was like the application of a 
sermon, for there was the marvellous fruit, and there also was the 
manual which tells so clearly what to grow and how to grow it. 
Pleased as we were with the Fruit Show, we must own to a 
feeling of being crowded out by the eager throng by which every 
coign of vantage was taken up. It was not so at the Dairy Show, 
for there was ample space to enjoy fully the full and very excellent 
display. The various breeds of dairy cows were well represented, 
forming a show indeed in themselves, and the show of dairy produce 
and appliances was equally attractive. There could be no doubt 
about the earnestness of farmers here, and there certainly were 
many instructive sights, of which none afforded more striking 
evidence of progress than the cream separators. There was the 
milk fresh from the cow poured in at the top, and a steady stream 
of cream flowing out below on one side, and the milk from which it 
was extracted on the other. This useful implement is a fine 
example oc the combination of practice with science ; its inventor 
has simply turned his knowledge of the laws which govern centri¬ 
fugal force to account, and here is the result. Inventors must be 
paid, but we wish so useful an appliance could be placed on the 
market at a price which every dairy farmer could afford, for then a 
hundred separators would be sold for every one now ordered. 
Bacon, cheese, and butter were all attractive features, especially 
the latter, which was so good in texture, colour, and flavour that 
the judging could not have been an easy task. What are termed 
fancy butters were striking examples of elegant design and skilful 
manipulation. Marechal Niel Roses in butter were so skilfully 
arranged with suitable foliage as to present a wonderfully close 
resemblance to natural flowers, the rosebuds and petals of full 
blown Roses being correct in every line and curve. 
There was an important discussion on the second day of the 
Show on railway rates for dairy produce, and copies of a paper read 
by Mr. George Barham were ordered to be sent to the Board of 
Agriculture and every Chamber of Agriculture in the kingdom. 
WORK ON THE HOME EARM. 
As autumn draws on live stock require especial care. If calves have 
been let out on pasture they should now be housed entirely for winter 
in any convenient building that is well ventilated by roof ventilation. 
Many an old barn is turned to account for sheltering live stock, and 
such buildings answer well enough if only the walls are sound, but 
many an old barn have we seen with its boarded sides so broken and 
time-worn that the interior of the building was draughty and cold. 
Now, we do not approve of a close warm atmosphere in buildings for 
cattle at any time, but when warmth and shelter for them is men¬ 
tioned, it points to thorough protection from cold wind and rain such 
as a sound building affords. This forms the basis of successful winter 
management, and with it there must be perfect cleanliness, pure food, 
water, and air, and a clearance of all filth twice daily. Let the dietary 
be abundant without waste, clear out rack and manger after every 
meal ; keep on the calf flesh by all means, at the same time avoid a 
plethoric habit and its attendant risk. Our aim should be the happy 
mean between poverty of condicion and the other extreme of over¬ 
feeding. 
We have had only an occasional wet day, and the weather continues 
most favourable for work on the land. Wheat sowing has been such an 
easy matter that it and all winter corn sowing ought to be finished 
early. Foul land has been ploughed and harrowed repeatedly, and it 
has been possible to burn twitch and other rubbish as it is collected. 
With harvest over long ago, corn sowing done, foul land cleaned, abun¬ 
dance of feed still on pastures, and root crops improved wonderfully 
during the last six weeks, the situation is certainly not an unpleasant 
one for farmers south of the Trent, but they have their grievance in the 
low price of stock just now. Other farmers have much greater reason 
to complain. Here is an extract from a letter written on the 6th inst., 
after a journey due south. “It was raining heavily all last week in 
Caithness. All the north of Scotland has had a lot of rain lately. As we 
came along in the train the floods w T e saw in the valleys were fearful ; 
all the cornfields were under water, much corn that had been cut was 
swept away by the floods ; the hay, too, which is not yet all carted, is 
covered with water.” 
While the land is so dry and firm all roots intended to be stored in 
heaps should be cleared off the land, as useful growth is now pretty 
well done, and the ploughing should be done early, in order that the soil 
may derive full benefit from exposure to winter weather. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
CAMDEN SQUARE, LONDON. 
Lat. 51° 32' 40" N.; Long. 0° 8' 0" W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
DATE. 
9 AM. 
IN THE DAT. 
Hygrome- 
0 . 
Shade Tern- 
Badiation 
a 
October. 
ter. 
r 0 
or 
perature. 
Temperature. 
is 3 ^ 
fl O'” 
In 
On 
Dry. 
Wet. 
5o 
E-i 
Max. 
Min. 
SU11. 
£ras8 
Inches. 
deg. 
deg. 
dee. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
In. 
Sunday. 
6 
30.211 
58.2 
65.3 
s.w. 
65.9 
65.9 
50.7 
96.2 
46.6 
0.017 
Monday. 
6 
30.088 
68.7 
55.5 
w. 
66.4 
66.3 
£3.3 
112.9 
49.0 
0.061 
Tuesday .... 
7 
83.061 
67.6 
66.8 
s. 
56.9 
61.9 
56.1 
72.1 
53.8 
0.210 
Wednesday.. 
8 
30.351 
61.8 
48.5 
N.E. 
5*.2 
62.2 
44.9 
101.9 
40.6 
— 
Thursday.... 
9 
30.490 
44.1 
44.1 
Ca'm. 
54.? 
59.3 
£7.8 
ai.3 
33.1 
— 
Friday . 
10 
30.386 
44 4 
43.2 
S.w. 
52.2 
62.9 
37.1 
94.2 
33.9 
— 
Saturday .... 
ii 
30.380 
46.3 
45.7 
N.E. 
51.9 
66.2 
42.1 
97.1 
38.7 
— 
30.281 
61.6 
49.9 
64.8 
63.5 
43.0 
93.1 
42.2 
0.388 
REMARKS. 
6th.—Bright sunshine from abont ll A. M. to 3 P.M.; the rest of the day cloudy. 
6tli.—A little rain from 2 to 8 A.M. ; generally brignt from sunrise to 1 P M. ; cloudy 
afternoon. 
7th.—Wet from8 A.M. to J p.M. ; overcast a ttrnoon, and wet againinevening.- 
8th.—Rright sunshine throughout. 
9th.—Fog (at times rather dense) till 10.30 A.M.; faint sunshine from U A.M.; bright 
afternoon and evening. 
10th.—Bright throughout. 
11th.—Misty early ; brilliant day. 
A fine wcek,;cooler than the previous ones,but still above the average.—G. J. 5TM NS. 
