378 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDEEER. 
[ October 21, 1888. 
FRUIT. 
Apples. 
£ sieve 
a. 
1 
d. 
6 
8. 
tl 4 
d. 
0 
Melon . 
s. 
1 
d. 
0 
8. 
to 2 
d. 
0 
Cherri- s. 
| sieve 
0 
0 
0 
0 
Oranges .. .. 
6 
0 
13 
0 
Cobs . 
100 lb. 
eo 
0 
55 
0 
Peaches . 
perdoz. 
6 
0 
12 
0 
Currants. Black . 
£ sieve 
0 
0 
0 
0 
Pears. 
. dozen 
i 
0 
a 
0 
,, Red . 
| sieve 
0 
0 
0 
0 
Pine Apples English.. It). 
3 
0 
4 
0 
Flg3 . 
dozen 
0 
6 
0 
9 
Plums. 
£ sieve 
1 
0 
2 
0 
Graces. 
0 
6 
8 
9 
St. Michael Piues 
. .each 
4 
0 
6 
0 
Lemons. 
0 
15 
0 
Strawberries .. 
per tb. 
0 
0 
0 
0 
SHEEP-FOLDING. 
How to make farming answer is a question of vital 
importance that is not easily answered. We have repeatedly 
striven in these papers to explain various means to so 
desirable an end, in point of fact that is the end and aim of 
the whole of our wiitings on agriculture. We lay no claim 
to the possession of a panacea for the present very unsatis¬ 
factory state of agricultural affairs in this country, but we do 
hold that by close attention to every detail of practice, by the 
adoption of every possible means of improvement, by the 
exercise of rigid economy, it is still possible to make farming 
answer financially, and this is really the only sound test that 
can be applied to both theory and practice of this or any 
other commercial undertaking. 
Among questions of reform to which general attention has 
repeatedly been invited is that of the application of manure. 
That the easy going but costly process of the manufacture of 
farmyard manure still obtains upon many farms is, we regret 
to say, only too true, but it is, nevertheless, wrong as applied 
to farming generally, for the simple but forcible reason that 
we are able to apply manure to the soil in a manner that is 
much less costly, and to say the least that is equally efficient. 
Among the means at our disposal for doing this in the best 
way sheep-folding holds a leading place, and deservedly so, 
for not only is it thoroughly efficient but it is profitable—so 
profitable that we desire to invite closer attention to it as a 
means ready to our hands of helping us to render farming 
profitable once more. But we may be told this is no new 
thing, it is old as the hills, and has been handed down to us 
by our forefathers. Granted, but have we turned it fully to 
account, and dono all that is possible with sheep-folding ? 
Have farmers generally come to regard it as being among the 
means at our disposal to use as a substitute for farmyard 
manure ? We know that they have not done so—nay more, 
we know many a man who, under the stress of hard times, 
has sold his flock, but has still clung to his herd with strange, 
and we may add with suicidal persistency. How much we 
have to unlearn in farming ! and how slow we are in doing 
it. Yet there never was a time when accurate judgment 
and prompt decision were so important to us. Contrast the 
process of the manufacture of farmyard manure and its 
application to the soil with sheep-folding. The one involves 
the breeding or purchase of beasts, the free use of straw as 
litter, the cost of attendance and food throughout winter and 
spring, loading carts and carting to the manure heap, the 
turning over and mixing of the heap, carting again and 
spreading upon the land with a heavy per-centage of loss of 
ammonia, and we may add a slow return upon the outlay 
which we incur in the purchase of the beasts. The other 
certainly also involves an outlay of capital in the breeding or 
purchase of sheep, but then we have a much earlier return 
upon our outlay, and we avoid manure heaps and the costly 
outlay which they involve for labour with men and horses. 
Another objection which may be raised to sheep-folding 
is that it is not applicable to all farms, for upon heavy-land 
farms the soil is liable to become so saturated with moisture 
in wmter that to keep sheep out in folds upon it is simply 
impracticable. Well, we agree in part, and only in part, for 
there can be no doubt that the saturated condition of much 
heavy land in winter is owing to imperfect cultivation. For 
example, we know a case where some land had been under 
permanent pasture for many years. Now this pasture was 
so foul with weeds and so poor in really good sorts of grass 
that a gentleman who had purchased the land resolved to 
break up the old pasture and to lay it down afresh with a 
really good mixture of grass and Clover seed. He was told 
that he would fail, for the old pasture was both poor and 
wet because the soil was a heavy clay and nothing else. He, 
however, very wisely paid no heed to all this, but set a steam 
cultivator at work, and had the soil thoroughly broken up and 
stirred fully a foot in depth. This and drainage effected such 
a radical change in the condition of the soil that its wetness 
and poverty are a legend of the past, of miserable easy going 
slovenly practice, to which its present florishing condition is 
a standing reproach. We might go on and cite many other 
examples of faulty treatment of heavy land, but it will suffice 
for our purpose now to have shown how such land in one ot 
many instances has been rendered fertile and sound. 
(To be continued.) 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
For a full crop of Mangolds 4s. an acre is paid for pulling, topping > 
throwing into small heaps ready for carting, and if required covering the 
heaps with the leaves, which is only done when there is any risk of sharp 
frost. The carting of roots has proved a long and heavy business, for the 
crop is certainly a full one, and the roots have heen carted to make heaps 
either close by a gate and hard road or alongside a field where it is 
intended to fold sheep upon a green crop. Swedes are being put into 
small clamps upon sound land intended for Barley. These clamps of roots 
are arranged up and down the field at convenient distances apart for 
folding, so as to be able to follow the sheep closely with the ploughs. 
Ploughing for winter corn has been much retarded on many farms by the 
dry hard condition of the land ; recent showers have therefore been 
welcomed by heavy land farmers, and ploughing now goes briskly on. In 
such a dry autumn steam tackle is of especial value, as enabling us to break 
up the soil early and get a fine deep seed bed pretty well as early as we 
please. On an estate where steam tackle is turned to full account, and 
where much of the land is undoubtedly heavy, by the first week in October 
the whole of the Rye, winter Barley, winter Oats, and Wheat had been 
sown, the drills and harrows cleaned and put away for the winter, and 
most of the young plants were visible along the rows when we went over 
the farms a week later. Sown in the soil dry and warm, seed-germina¬ 
tion and brisk growth followed the first heavy shower. Where it is in¬ 
tended to follow the Mangolds with a crop of winter Tares no time 
should be lost in ploughing in the Mangold leaves and sowing the Tares, 
which are one of our most valuable green crops late in spring. We have 
had much trouble with foot-rot among one flock of sheep purchased 
specially for folding. There must be much negligence about this trouble¬ 
some disease by shepherds generally, or we should not see so much cf it, 
and yet the treatment is most simple. After all it depends upon genuine 
kindly care as to how soon it may be cured. Cutting the hoof, cleansing 
with warm water, and regular applications of Q-ell’s ointment soon restore 
the foot to health, and until this is done affected animals cannot put on 
flesh. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS’. 
CAMDEN SQUARE, LONDON. 
Lat. 51° 32' 40" N.; Long. 0° 8'0" W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
DATE. 
9 A.M. 
IN THE DAY. 
a . 
o-g . 
Shade Tem- 
Radiation 
p 
1886. 
a co a> a> 
" ter. 
9 
perature. 
Temperature 
£ 
October. 
2 05 -d <5 
*S fe 
a oS 
4)00.-, 
In 
On 
CQ2 aS 
Dry. 
Wet. 
3o 
Ph 
Max 
M1d. 
snn. 
gras* 
Inches. 
dee. 
deg. 
deer. 
deg. 
dci? 
dei?. 
dee 
In. 
Sunday . 
10 
29.731 
51.7 
48.1 
w. 
55.8 
61.2 
41.2 
99.2 
41.2 
0*0 10 
Monday . 
11 
29.862 
52.3 
47.9 
N. 
54.4 
61.4 
48 2 
97.4 
41.8 
O’ 9/ 
Tuesday. 
12 
29.682 
55.8 
54 9 
S.E. 
54.2 
60 9 
52.2 
72.0 
46 9 
0 46S- 
Wednesday . 
13 
29.380 
50.7 
47.9 
Var. 
49.5 
58 5 
47.0 
102.4 
44.2 
0*0 32 
Thursday ... 
14 
29.679 
4 *.8 
45 2 
Var. 
53.2 
58.7 
39.6 
92 6 
33 9 
01 8i> 
Friday. 
15 
29.105 
57.1 
54 7 
S. 
52 6 
58 2 
48.8 
67.4 
43.7 
0 298 
Saturday ... 
16 
29.640 
51.1 
48. L 
S.E. 
52.6 
56.1 
48 8 
714 
44.5 
0*152 
29.583 
52.2 
49.5 
53.2 
59.3 
47.0 
86.1 
42.0 
1*24 G 
REMARKS. 
10th.~Fine and b ight. 
llth.—A bright pleasant day. 
12 th.—Wet and dull throughout . . „ . „ 
13th.—Fine and bright, with slit'llt shower in early afternoon ; wet and dull evening’. 
14th.—A tine bright day : wet at night, 
loth.—Wet, windy, and cheerless. 
16th.—Dull morning and evening ; wet afternoon. 
A week of genu'ne October weather; bright sunshine, alternating with gloomy 
weather and heavy rain. Tempera*ure 3° above the average, and more than 6° below 
that of the previous week.—G. J. SIMONS. 
