466 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDER Eh. 
[ November 18, 1886. 
from a variety of causes. We have already shown how im¬ 
portant it is to have a special dietary for dairy cows, to have 
also a full supply of pure water, and to take care that they 
cannot get at horse dung or other foul litter. In addition 
to such precautions we must have perfect cleanliness, not 
only of the dairy itself and of every vessel and utensil used 
in it, but also of the atmosphere of the dairy. It must be 
clearly known that butter may be spoilt by exposure to foul 
odours, as well as by improper food having been given to the 
cows. Two things go far to insure a supply of good butter 
at this season of the year—a dietary of bran, the best meadow 
hay, carrots and crushed oats, and the milk of a cow that 
has just calved. It is for this reason that we try to have a 
cow or two to calve at intervals of two or three weeks through¬ 
out the winter. It was the plea of “ stale” cows by dairy- 
women as an excuse for bad butter in winter that caused us 
first of all to recognise the importance of having a few cows 
to calve at intervals from autumn till spring. The home 
farm manager must, however, after giving due heed to diet 
and cleanliness, also be on the alert to see that the whole of 
his orders are carried out. If h9 does not do so it is quite 
possible that some morning “the squire” or “my lord” 
may send for him, and, handing him a pat of the butter that 
is made daily for table use, request him to “ smell that.” 
Compliance with such a request is not unaccompanied by a 
sense of humiliation as well as of vexation ; and in order to 
avoid undergoing such an ordeal we are bound to see for 
ourselves that every detail of cow and dairy management has 
close and full attention. 
Quantity as well as quality of food must also have intel¬ 
ligent attention. We give no statement of weight or measure, 
but rather recommend thoughtful judicious treatment. Feed 
each cow according to its size, strength, and constitution. 
A little watchfulness and care here will soon enable us to 
feed the cows so as to keep up a healthy condition without 
waste. It is obvious that the huge frame of a shorthorn 
requires more sustenance than that of the smaller Jersey or 
Kerry. This mention of some of the different breeds of cows 
brings us to the important question of which are the best 
cows for dairy purposes. For a large home farm where 
distinct dairy and stock herds are kept Jerseys generally have 
preference, but for a small farm a cross-bred animal from 
a carefully selected Guernsey cow and a shorthorn bull bred 
from a deep milking cow is best, because in such an animal 
we have the best possible combination of an abundant yield 
of rich milk with that tendency to lay on flesh which enables 
us to turn a barren or otherwise faulty cow to best account 
by fattening it for the butcher. 
Avoid turning dairy cows out upon grass land during 
winter; they can derive no good from bare pastures, and 
when once settled in yard and sheds it does harm to disturb 
them. If they are turned out to roam over the grass occa¬ 
sionally they are never so quiet as they ought to be in the 
yards, and are always in a restless condition when let out of 
the cow house in the morning. We have found it answer 
best to give them the bran with minced Carrots or Mangold 
during milking. After milking they have hay in the racks 
and cribs in the yards, and while the hay is being eaten there 
is always more or less of bullying. Like boys at a public 
school, cows in a yard soon find their level, and keep it too ; 
for which reason we always keep small or weak cows apart 
from the others, and any very pugnacious cow has brass 
knobs screwed upon the tips of the horns. It may appear 
to experienced farmers that we needlessly enter upon trivial 
details. We must ask their forbearance for the sake of those 
beginners who, we always strive to remember, require every 
little matter to be made clear for their guidance. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
We have just removed the 'ewe flock at the home farm from turnip 
folds to grass. While the weather continued fine we gladly turned this 
flock to account for folding upon white Turnips with a strong growth of 
green tops ; but the first sharp frost made us anxious about them, and 
when heavy rain followed we gave the shepherd strict orders that if cold 
wet weather continued Turnip folding must cease for all pregnant ewes. 
To allow them to consume large quantities of such food in unfavourable 
weather is to risk a serious loss of lambs, for the mass of cold watery food 
causes a chill to the body, the daily repetition of which is most dangerous. 
Much harm is also done when ewes are kept in a very muddy fold, for 
there is much straining, as the feet—or. to be correct, we ought to say the 
legs—are lifted with difficulty out of the mud. We are so fond of sheep 
folding that we have kept both our ewe flocks out upon the arable land as 
long as was safe. Hoggets and crones will continue in folds almost 
without exception till they are ripe for market. When walking through 
an eleven-acre field of Rye upon the home farm a few days ago, we came 
upon a striking example of the value of sheep folding. About half the 
field was under Winter Tares in spring, and they were folded off by the 
ewes and lambs, well fed with corn and lamb food. The other half had 
a catch crop of Oats after Swedes, and now the Rye shows where the 
folding was done to an inch, the growth on that part of the field being 
twice as strong as it i3 on the other part. The lesson is to us mo e than 
usually important, from the fact that after the folding of the Tares was 
finished we were unable to have the land ploughed at once, as the hay¬ 
making was upon us ; so it was left untouched for several weeks fully 
exposed to a parching sun, and we feared there must be a consequent loss 
of fertility. If there was any such loss it was of so trifling a nature 
that it is not now perceptible, and we are bound to conclude that the 
fertilising constituents of the sheep manure, especially that of the urine, 
was absorbed and retained by the soil. As the tups are withdrawn from 
the ewes they will be fattened for the butcher, to whom they will, of 
course, be sold at a less price than we gave for them ; but when they have 
served our turn for breeding purposes we always dispose of them, as we 
prefer lamb tups to older animals. 
SMALL HOLDINGS. 
It may be of interest to many of the readers of the Journal of Horti¬ 
culture to know that a Society has been formed under the auspices of the 
Earl of Onslow, the Earl of Egmont, the Right Hon. Henry Chaplin, M.P., 
and other large landowners, the object of which is to provide every in¬ 
dustrious labourer, not with three acres and a cow, but with one acre and 
a cottage. There is no doubt this latter can be done, and well within 
the means of an agricultural labourer, and there is also no doubt that a 
man with an acre of at all decent land at the back of his bouse deserves 
to starve if he cannot feed himself and his family off it by working in 
his spare time. I look upon the “ three acres and a cow ” as an absurdity. 
As a general principle it is remunerative to grow what you want for the 
consumption of your own family, but if you have to market your produce, 
as is the case in cow-keeping, profit disappears, and your labour goes to 
pay railway charges and the expenses of brokers and other middlemen. 
I believe the price of fresh milk in most country parishes is 3d. a quart, 
and of good skim milk Id. Introduce into those parishes as many more 
cows as there are now, and it will pay nobody to keep them. On the 
other hand, a labourer comfortably housed, and tilling an acre of land 
adjoining his house, can grow enough corn to feed his family, and thus 
save his baker’s bill. He can also have a garden large enough to grow 
vegetables—Potatoes, Peas, Beans, &c.—for his own use and for fattening 
a couple of pigs, to say nothing of the poultry he could keep in condition, 
and feed on the produce of his land. In fact, sugar, tea, and clothing need 
he his only sources of outlay. The economical aspect of the question— 
viz., how can these things be provided on sound financial principles ? 
has been considered and solved satisfactorily, and the Society will be in 
full work in less than a month_W. M. 
OUR LETTER BOX. 
Storing Mangold Wurtzels ( Lankhitts ). — If the ground is perfectly 
drained they may be stored in a pit as iu your first sketch ; if there is any 
fear of water accumulating in the pit, store on the level and dig a trench 
right round, covering the heap with the earth excavated. 
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. 
p 
c! 
K 
1886. 
November. 
Barome¬ 
ter at 32« 
and Sea 
Level 
Hygrome¬ 
ter. 
Direction 
of Wind. 
| Temp, of 
Boil at 
1 1 foot. 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature. 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
Bun. 
Oa 
gras- 
Inches. 
dear. 
deg. 
deg. 
deer. 
dee 
dee 
dee 
In. 
Sunday . 
7 
29.546 
39.5 
37.7 
N. 
47.1 
48 1 
36 8 
72.3 
26.8 
— 
Monday. 
8 
29.786 
33.9 
33.7 
S.E. 
46.2 
479 
31.1 
78.2 
22.3 
— 
Tuesday. 
9 
29.308 
45.1 
43.3 
N.E. 
44.8 
4 ..9 
33 2 
50.6 
27.6 
0.238, 
Wednesday .. 
10 
29.314 
44.7 
44.6 
N.E. 
44 8 
472 
39.4 
50 8 
28 7 
0.508 
Thursday .... 
11 
29.509 
44.2 
44.2 
N. 
45.0 
46.7 
40.8 
49.4 
32 0 
0.367 
Friday. 
12 
29.’36 
43.1 
41.7 
S.W. 
4 L3 
48.4 
40 7 
48.4 
36 8 
0.083 
Saturday .... 
13 
29.486 
42.7 
41.4 
8. 
45.4 
49 6 
39.2 
75.1 
3J.8 
0.022 
29.502 
4L.9 
40.9 
1 
1 £ 
47.7 
37.3 
60.7 
29.6 
1.218- 
REMARKS. 
7th.—Fine bright cold morning, cloudy in afternoon, fine bright night. 
8th.—Fog early, bright cold day. 
9th.-Dull, with -pots of rain in morning; wet afternoon and evening, 
loih.—Very wet day, clear bright night, 
llth.—Wet from early morning till midnight. 
I2ih.—Overcast morning, damp afternoon, wet evening. 
13th.—Fine and pleasant, with some sunshine. 
A cold week with a considerable lull of rain.—G. J. SYMONS. 
