466 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ June 16, 1892. 
gloomy outlook. To sell at present prices is practically to live 
upon capital, and it is only from dire necessity that any such 
farm produce, with the exception of swine, is now olfered for 
sale. Wheat has been held over for a rise on many a farm in 
vain, the average price now being lower than it was at any time 
last year ; the returns for 1891 show that the value of Wheat and 
flour imported was £39,500,000. 
This hard dry foreign Wheat is in high favour with bakers, 
because it absorbs so much water that they get ten more loaves 
per sack from it than from the flour of home-grown Wheat. This 
extraordinary absorption of water implies 10 per cent, less nutri¬ 
tive value in the bread, and the total loss to consumers has been 
estimated at £1,600,000 per annum. As this really goes into the 
bakers’ pockets it has been termed a fraud, but we fail to see how 
a remedy is possible. On the contrary, it will act as an incentive 
to bakers to give more and more preference to flour made from 
imported “ water-drinking Wheats,” as they are aptly termed. 
This will tend to keep down the price of home-grown Wheat, and 
it should also lead to a further curtailment of the Wheat area here. 
Well will it be if it does so, and if greater attention is paid to home 
production of other things. There is ample scope, for the total 
value of the importations of breadstuffs, meats, butter, cheese, eggs, 
poultry, and vegetables in 1891 was £92,305,556. Of these things 
very much more of the last five might be had here without any 
great change in practice, and assuredly to the advantage of pro¬ 
ducer as well as of consumer. It is indeed a shame that really 
good British butter is a rarity among us. We admit that improve¬ 
ment in dairy work is going on, but it does so slowly, and in a 
fitful manner, very different to the national importance it 
assumed long ago in Denmark. Not till we have co-operative 
dairy factories established in considerable numbers shall we have 
good butter selling briskly at top market prices. The butter 
imported in 1891 reached a total value of £11,591,181, the average 
price per pound being above Is. 
We explained some months ago how to establish butter 
factories, and may now assure our readers that an attempt to 
compete with foreign dairies by means of our farmhouse dairies 
could only lead to failure. To succeed we must have dairy 
centres, where there are enough cows to afford a full supply of 
milk. Then, and not till then, will a better price for milk be 
possible. At the present time town retailers have milk forced 
upon them by farmers who appear to have no other available 
means to dispose of it. This naturally lowers the price. Com¬ 
plaints are frequent enough, yet the remedy really rests with 
the farmer. Only let factories be set going, and they will absorb 
so much milk that the price must rise. 
Another thing to hope for is a higher standard of excellence 
in general farm practice. We want the land to be tilled better, 
and fad better. A glance at crops now they are in full growth 
shows clearly how faulty very much of the tillage is. The weak 
pale growth of very much corn and pasture tells its own tale of 
poverty of soil and imperfect drainage. The remedy is obvious. 
Not one acre more should be in the hands of any farmer than 
he can cultivate thoroughly ; all beyond this is a burden to him and 
a loss to the country. If the size of holdings were ruled by such 
a standard prospective agriculture would be a much more hopeful 
matter than it now is. 
Where fruit farming is taken in hand it should be upon the 
sensible safe lines of mixed plantations. We know such a planta¬ 
tion where the trees—standards—are approaching full size, and 
they should be in full bearing, but for three years the crop has 
been practically a failure, yet the undergrowth of Grooseberries, 
Currants, Raspberries, and Strawberries has each year yielded a 
fair crop, which has paid the rent, and afforded a good profit 
besides. The tenant of this farm is a thriving man, who works 
hard, and despises no available means for making both ends meet. 
A few acres of mixed fruits, a few good young breeding sows. 
a well-bred herd of cows, some sound cart mares, each with its- 
annual foal; excellent pasture, rich in fertility, as indeed all his 
land is ; enough arable land to afford green crops. Potatoes, 
moderate breadth of roots, enough corn and straw for home con¬ 
sumption, and a few acres of corn for sale too ; some portable- 
poultry houses, each with its full complement of carefully selected 
poultry—this is the sort of holding of which we hope eventually 
to see thousands of among us, in the hands of intelligent industrious 
men, who hold the plough themselves, both in the literal and 
figurative sense of the term. The habits and customs of the people 
change—new tastes, new wants come and grow. For example, the 
consumption of fruit and vegetables increases yearly, the dietary 
of the masses is more wholesome and more exacting than it ever has 
been, and farmers will do well to set themselves to supply it, and 
not suffer the alert foreign producer to meet every new require¬ 
ment, or to wrest so much of their business from them as he has 
hitherto been allowed to do. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Glorious weather followed the warm showers which “ set all things 
in tune ” at the beginning of the month. Growth has sprung up with 
marvellous rapidity, and the herbage of all rich pasture came so quickly 
into bloom that mowing for hay was begun sooner than at one time 
appeared possible. It is far better to mow early, even with a moderate 
crop so as to take full advantage of the bright weather, than to wait and 
run the serious risk of broken weather for the haysel. The hay now being 
made in the second week of June will be of the best quality, and any 
July showers will be a boon indeed for the aftermath. This is in a 
southern county, but we have had evidence this year in the midlands, 
that the custom there of waiting till July before mowing is altogether 
unnecessary. A piece of new permanent pasture which we had laid 
down last year in Leicestershire was quite ready to mow by the 8th of 
June, most of the grasses showing the flower heads, and the crop 
being a fine one, affording a striking contrast to some old poor pastures 
near it. 
The mowing of Clover, Trifolium, and mixed seeds is being pushed 
on, with an excellent prospect of some fine stacks of stover. Clover 
intended for seed has been folded by sheep, the second growth is 
starting well, and will be the better for some rain in the course of a 
week or two. This crop should be harvested before there is any risk of 
damage from autumnal showers, as the second growth is earlier than it 
would be if the first crop had been mown. 
Mangolds are a full strong plant, and have been singled and hand- 
hoed. The horse hoe has been kept going briskly among them too ; never 
has the land been cleaner both among corn and roots. The weather in 
May was very favourable for cleaning the land, and though we had a 
dripping time when June came in the weeds have been kept well under. 
Growth goes on so freely now that it will smother any other weeds which 
may spring up. Turnip fly is likely to prove troublesome among late 
sown Turnips, which should have plenty of nitrogenous food in the soil 
to induce free growth and enable the plant to grow quickly out of 
harm’s way. One of the best mixtures for sowing broadcast over 
Turnips infested with insects consists of 10 cwt. of soot, 8 cwt. of nitrate 
of soda, and 1 cwt. of sulphate of ammonia, well mixed and applied at 
the rate of 1 cwt. per acre when the foliage is damp. Insects are then 
checked and growth much accelerated. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
Camden Square. London. 
Lat. 51° 32' 40" K.; Long. 0° 8' 0" W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
Date. 
9 A.M. 
IN THE Day. 
Rain. 
1892. 
June. 
Barometer 
\ at 32°, and 
Sea Level. 
Hygrometer. 
Direc¬ 
tion of 
Wind. 
Temp, 
of soil 
at 
1 foot. 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
Sun. 
On 
Grass. 
Inchs. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
Inchs. 
Sunday .. 
5 
29-761 
58-3 
54-9 
W. 
58-2 
68-7 
51-3 
120-0 
48-8 
0-201 
Monday .. 
6 
30-186 
65-4 
57-6 
W. 
57-9 
75-9 
47-9 
128-8 
41-1 
— 
Tuesday .. 
7 
30-403 
57-3 
54-3 
B. 
58-9 
72-4 
52-9 
116-9 
49 0 
— 
Wednesday 
8 
30-436 
58-0 
52-9 
E. 
59-1 
75-0 
48-1 
117-1 
42-7 
— 
Thursday.. 
9 
30-289 
70-0 
61-6 
E. 
60-1 
79-3 
53-4 
123-6 
48--1 
_ 
Friday 
10 
29-983 
71-9 
64-1 
S.B. 
61-6 
82-7 
54-1 
122-8 
46-4 
_ 
Saturday .. 
11 
29-805 
63-2 
56-3 
S.W. 
61-9 
71-3 
54-9 
119-8 
52-6 
— 
30-123 
63-4 
57-4 
59-7 
75-0 
51-8 
121-3 
46-7 
0-201 
REMARKS. 
5th.—Many heavy showers, and once or twice a little hail, but occasional sunshine, 
especially in afternoon. 
6th.—Brilliant day, cloudy at times in late afternoon and evening. 
7th.—Overcast till about 10 A.lt., sunny after. 
8th.—Almost cloudless throughout. 
9th.—Warm and sunny throughout. 
10th.—Bright early, generally overcast from 10 to noon ; sunny again in afternoon and 
early evening. 
11th.—Overcast till 11 A.M., sunny at midday, and frequently cloudy in afternoon. 
Another fine bright and generally warm week.—G. J. Stmoms. 
