JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ December 25, 1890. 
574 
■the others comprising Welsh, polled Scotch, Sussex, and Short¬ 
horns. The whole of these abnormally heavy beasts were over 
three years, having evidently been kept for show rather than profit, 
and not one of them can be taken as an example for ordinary 
practice. This keeping of “ over-yeared ” beasts is a mistake, and 
the Committee of the Birmingham Show marked their sense of it 
this year by offering only one prize for beasts over three years. 
Mere prizewinning ought certainly not to be the end and aim of 
•competitors in such shows, and early maturity must be kept to 
the fore. 
At the Agricultural Hall, Islington, the Judges were so pleased 
with the eight Devons in the class for young steers that they were 
•commended en Hoc. The age of the first prize beast was 584 days, 
-and its average gain in weight per day since birth was 1 lb. 14 ozs. 
Hn the same class for Herefords the best beast was Gil days old, 
with an average gain in weight per day of 2 lbs. 2f oz3. ; but this 
average was beaten by Her Majesty the Queen’s young Shorthorn, 
-577 days old, with an average daily increase of 2 lbs. 64 ozs. The 
champion beast of the Show was the Queen’s Shorthorn heifer 
•Princess Josephine II., which was sold to Mr. John Jones of 
Llandudno for the marvellous price of £160. Her live weight 
was 16 cwt. 2 qrs., and the price given equals Is. 9d. per lb. live 
weight, but sinking the offal it brings the price up at dead weight 
to 3s. per lb. Her record is so remarkable that we give it in full. 
At the Birmingham Show she gained first-class prize, £15 ; best 
■Shorthorn, £50 ; Elkington cup, £105 ; total £170. At Islington 
(first-class prize, £20 ; best Shorthorn, £25 ; best cow or heifer, 
£50 ; Horley’s prize, £5 ; champion plate, £105 ; total £205 ; 
or won in prizes £375, sold for £160, total £585. 
Sheep were more numerous than usual, and were remarkable 
for general excellence, the champion prizes 'going to Lincolns 
among Long-wools and to Hampshire Downs for Short-wools ; and 
in these two breeds lambs under twelve months gave the highest 
daily average in weight increase, that of the Lincolns being 12£ oz3. 
and of the Hampshire Downs 12 ozs., the best lamb of that breed 
belonging to Mr. W. Newton, being the heaviest lamb in the show. 
It was 314 old and weighed 236 lbs., thus well maintaining the 
pre-eminence of this breed for early maturity. 
The entries of pigs were also more numerous than usual, the 
Berkshires taking chief honours, and Tamworths were much 
better shown than they were last year. Middle Whites were well 
represented, and we do not know a more useful class ; some of 
those shown were perfect pictures, over which a fancier would 
linger with delight. Surely it was one of those enthusiastic persons 
that penned the following lines :— 
“ I would like to be a pig, is my incessant, heart-felt sigh— 
And to wallow, wallow, wallow in a warm and cosy sty ; 
To feel myself upon the straw so comfortably stout ; 
To exercise activity by the twiddling of my snouc ; 
To open for a moment an appreciative eye. 
Oh ! might I be a pig like this, how sweet to live and die ! 
Such is the contemplative life—reposing, peaceful, still ; 
Enjoying with tranquillity the sweet unworked-for swill ; 
The future all so rosy, and the present all a “ cram,” 
Secure of a most useful immortality in ham, 
For eating is elysium, and sweet it were to me 
To think the more that I could eat more useful I would be.” 
The arrival at the Deptford Cattle Market of 422 prime Christ¬ 
mas bullocks from the United States of America is a new feature, 
as these cattle averaged 1900 lbs. live weight, or nearly 18 cwt., 
and were well bred. The fact is significant, and should not be 
overlooked by our home breeders of cattle. All that is possible in 
the way of improved breeding and the development of early 
maturity should be done, for that is the only way to meet foreign 
competition. 
The attention of dairy farmers is called to Mr. T. Nuttall’s 
assertion that the complete removal of buttermilk and caseine in 
churning and butter working ensures the removal of all un¬ 
pleasant flavour of Turnips or other food from the butter. It is 
also claimed for the American simplex churn that it does this 
perfectly, the process of butter making being by the novel plan of 
allowing a stream of air to ascend through the cream. The intro¬ 
ducers of this churn offer to purchase cream from any description 
of feed, so confident are they in efficiency of the churn in getting 
rid of all impurity from the butter. We hope shortly to see this 
novelty at work, and to report upon it, for if all is true that is said 
about it it should prove a real boon, and cause really palatabb 
butter to be far more common than it now is. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Advantage has been taken of the frosty weather to Cn.ar away an 
accumulation of manure from the pig yards to heaps at convenient 
points for the root crops of next season. The manure is placed upon 
a bed of road sidings about a foot in depth, and when the heap is 
finished it is at once covered with a coating of several inches of soil.. 
It will be turned over once, and the soil well mixed with it next March, 
just before it is used. Of course the temptation to cart straight from 
the yard out upon the land now while the surface is frozen is great, but 
the los3 of fertility from the manure is so great when thus exposed 
that we altogether prefer the heaps or mixens made as the manure 
can be had and left till spring. 
Some large heaps of clay burnt some months ago are now being carted 
and spread upon heavy land that is being drained in readiness for the 
steam cultivator, which will be set to work immediately after the drains 
are finished. The land is very heavy, and the drains are only 15 feet 
apart and 20 inches deep ; this close draining, with plenty of ballast 
worked well down to the subsoil, should get rid of the superfluous 
water. That drains alone will not do so we have long been convinced, 
and we recently had additional proof in some tree stations from which 
the soil—a tenacious clay—had been taken out to a depth of 2 feet only 
6 feet from a drain, yet when the holes became full of rain water the 
drain had absolutely no effect upon them, and each hole had to be 
connected with it by means of a short branch drain. Some old drains 
are also being examined and all outfalls cleared of obstructions. It is 
always advisable to set the eyes or ends of main drains in brickwork, 
especially when they are in the sides of a pond or ditch where cattle go 
to drink, for if the pipes are set in a wall of turf sods, as is so often 
done, the turf soon gets trampled down and the pipes closed. This 
poaching of the margins of ponds by cattle renders them so unsightly 
that we always like to harden them with gravel for a width of 2 yards 
from the edge of the water. This is not unsightly, for the grass gradu¬ 
ally spreads among and conceals the gravel, and the pond sides are 
always firm. The common plan of having a narrow drinking place to a 
cattle pond is decidedly wrong ; the sides of the pond should have no 
high banks, but should slope gently down to the water, which is then 
accessible from all sides. 
The lambing folds are now being made on the south side of a dense 
belt of trees, the enclosure being formed by a double line of hurdles 
with straw between them, and there are plenty of cribs around the 
inner sides with roofs of thatched hurdles. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
CAMDEN SQUARE, LONDON. 
Lat. 51° 32' 40" N.; Long. 0° 8' 0" W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
DATE. 
9 AM. 
IN THE DAY. 
.2 
‘3 
« 
1890. 
December. 
Hygrome¬ 
ter. 
d . 
II 
So 
Ep 
OG rH 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature. 
Dry. 
Wet. 
| 
Max. | Min. 
In 
snn. 
On 
grass 
Sunday.14 
Monday.15 
Tuesday .... 16 
Wednesday.. 17 
Thursday.... 18 
Friday .19 
Saturday .... 20 
Inches. 
30.051 
£9.773 
29.79S 
£9.889 
29.81 
29.242 
29.83L 
deg. 
20.2 
24.0 
29.4 
30.0 
80.2 
26.9 
21.9 
deg. 
20.0 
23.9 
28.8 
29.2 
29.3 
26.8 
21.7 
N.E. 
8.W. 
E. 
N.E. 
K.E. 
E. 
N.E. 
deg. 
35.3 
34.8 
34.3 
34.2 
31.0 
84.0 
34.0 
deg. 
30.0 
31.1 
31.0 
31.9 
31.0 
29.7 
33.4 
deg. 
17.0 
19.7 
23.7 
26.9 
24.1 
25.6 
15.6 
deg. 
37.1 
31.4 
30.8 
36.0 
32.3 
34.1 
86.6 
deg. 
13.8 
14.9 
21.2 
26.2 
20.1 
25.7 
6.9 
In. 
0.058 
0.010 
0.212 
0.078 
0.164 
29.781 26.1 j 25.7 34.4 
31.2 : 21.8 
31.0 
18.4 0.512 
REMARKS. 
14th.—Brilliant throughout. 
15th.—Snow from 9 to 10.30 AM., and ice needles at intervals all day. High fog all 
afternoon, and at times darkness like night. 
16th.—Overcast, but free from fog. 
17th.—Overcast morning ; slight snow all afternoon; fair evening. 
18th.—Overcast and gloomy all day ; intensely dark from 9.30 to 11 A.M. 
19th.—Snow commenced in small hours, and by 9 A.M. was 2.3 inches deep; another 
inch had falltn by 0.30 P.M., and occasionally a few crystals fell in afternoon; fair 
evening. 
20th.—Occasional srow in morning, and ai almost continual fall in afternoon and 
eteiing. 
A week of extiemely sharp frost, unequalled since January, 1681, G. J. SYMONS. 
