80 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ January 8, 1891. 
a ready sale at from 9s. Gd. to 11s, Gd. per ten dozen. Other con¬ 
signments followed promptly, and nearly 2,000,009 eggs have 
arrived in Liverpool since the McKinley Tariff became law. After 
paying freight and commission the sellers find their profits are 
better than when they supplied the United States markets, and so 
'the trade is likely to attain enormous proportions. 
Turning to fruit culture, the speaker dwelt at considerable 
'length upon the enormous importations of fruit into this country, 
•much of it coming from countries where the climate is no better 
than our own, which gave force to the assertion that we can and 
ought to grow much of it for ourselves, A quotation from Mr, J. 
Wright’s prize essay on “ Profitable Fruit Growing” showed that 
the obstacles which stand in the way are “ lack of knowledge on 
the subject, of enterprise in producing fruit in its best form, and 
of art in placing it before the public.” Examples of successful 
'fruit culture were given from the same work, and mention was 
also made of the remarkable fact that the fruit from Lord 
'Sudeley’s fruit farm of 500 acres realised £10,000 last year. We 
entirely agree with the suggestion that landlords should not only 
find fruit trees for their tenants, but also have the planting and 
pruning done by their gardeners. Farmers generally are entirely 
'ignorant of the art of pruning and planting fruit trees, as well as 
of the best sorts to plant. The landlord has a vested interest in 
'this work, for it unquestionably eventually augments the value of 
the land very considerably, and, therefore, it is for him to have it 
done in the best manner. 
There can be no doubt that a gradual change is being made in 
our farm management, but farmers are slow to change ; and although 
'Sir James Whitehead’s address is altogether admirable and well 
timed, and is calculated to act as an incentive to increased exertion, 
it must not be forgotten that almost up to the eighties corn 
growing was the most profitable occupation on farms, and that 
when corn fell in price it was difficult to realise the fact of the 
•permanent and serious character of the reduction. That action 
was taken in the right direction the following summary, made in 
1888, of the average annual amount realised by the sale of the 
’farm products of the United Kingdom, calculated upon the average 
•of the seasons of the three previous years, will show : — 
Corn crops . 
Green crops ... 
Hay, Flax, Hops, Orchards, and Market 
Gardens. 
Meat, Hides, Skins, and Wool . 
Horses ... 
Dairy produce, &c. 
£36,7G3,834 
17,441,555 
20,701,274 
84,885,492 
5,197,500 
42,043,912 
£207,033,5G7 
‘The &c. in dairy produce ,is £7,090,000 for poultry, pigeons, and 
eggs, so that dairy produce then compared favourably with corn 
-crops, and it is certain that accelerated progressive reform in the 
same direction has been going on in the last two years. 
The agricultural returns for 1890 show a remarkable increase in 
the average of orchards, market gardens, and small fruit. For 
small fruit alone—that is. Strawberries, Easpberries, Gooseberries, 
■ Currants, &c., there were 4300 more acres employed than in 1889, 
and there never were so many acres of orchards recorded before. 
Tn 1873 there were not 150,000 acres of orchards in Great Britain, 
I now there are 202,305. These returns were made last June ; those 
of next June will probably show a still more remarkable advance 
-in both branches of agriculture, and at the end of another decade 
•the balance of farm crops will have become fully adjusted, the corn 
area will have reached its minimum of contraction, much faulty 
, permanent pasture will have been brought under a course of 
alternate husbandry, and the land thus rendered far more profitable 
dor dairy farming than it is now. Old orchards of worthless fruit 
'will have been destroyed or grafted with really good sorts, new 
■•orchards will be in full bearing, and the efforts of Sir James 
Whitehead, as Master of the Fruiterers’ Company, and his co- 
workers of the British Fruit Growers’ Association will, we con¬ 
fidently predict, be crowned with that large and full measure of 
success which they so richly deserve. 
WOKK ON THE HOME FARM. 
To the home farmer this severe weather offers an opportunity to 
push forward much of the estate work which so frequently proves a 
hindrance to him at busy seasons of the year. The carting of timber, 
faggots, gravel for roads, building materials and drain pipes should now 
be pushed on. If the estate owns a traction engine the agent should 
be asked to allow it to be used for timber haulage, and horses be kept 
to lighter work. An order for horses to be sent from the home farm 
for timber work is never a welcome one, especially when roads are 
slippery, for however carefully horses are roughed there is much risk 
of injury from falls in hauling heavy timberings. The harness suffers so 
much damage too, that extra chain traces and straps are always taken 
out for such work. If it is unavoidable make the best of it, and send 
old and steady horses and experienced men accustomed to the work, as 
that makes all the difference between smooth progress and much 
blundering and unnecessary straining of tackle. 
This cessation of work on the land also affords a favourable chance 
for repairing yards. We are carting gravel and chalk on an off-hand 
farm to the rick-yard which has long been in an unsatisfactory condi¬ 
tion, and we now hope to make a thoroughly hard, firm surface to it, 
sufficiently raised to throw off rain water quickly to the delight of our 
bailiff there, who has repeatedly called our attention to it—so frequently 
that he must have lost faith in our promise to bear it in mind. But 
under the unfavourable conditions of farming in recent years expenses 
have had to be curtailed in every way. The hardening of soft roads, 
too, should also be done, and we are doing this at another farm, which 
though an old part of the estate has never had a hard road from the 
public road to the homestead. There, also, the horse yard much 
required a coating of hard materials, and we hope to finish all such 
work now, even to hardening the margins of the horse and cattle 
ponds as we recently explained. 
How anyone can keep horses out on pasture in this severe weather 
passes our comprehension. We recently saw about a dozen large trees 
in a conspicuous clump in a park off which the horses had eaten every 
particle of bark from the ground up as high as they could reach ; nor 
could we wonder, for with pasture covered with frozen snow, and only 
a bite of hay once a day, the poor brutes must be ravenously hungry. 
The trees will die, and we should not be surprised if the horses died too, 
after such exposure. 
OUR LETTER BOX. 
Prize Roots (H. It. IF.).—To have roots of an extraordinary size 
the soil must be worked deeply, manured extravagantly, and kept full 
of the best plant food and moisture throughout the period of growth. 
To this end keep to the spade culture in which you have been so suc¬ 
cessful, work in as much rich farmyard manure as you can cover well in 
a wide trench, sow the seed so that the plants may be from 30 to 
36 inches apart every way, then saturate the soil with liquid manure. 
When the plants are well up and are singled apply a surface dressing of 
the chemical manure mixture we gave on page 22. Wash it well into 
the soil with sewage or other liquid manure, and at once follow with a 
surface dressing of 2 or 3 inches of farmyard manure, taking care to 
afford the plants ample space in it. Continue using liquid manure 
freely twice a week, watch the progress of growth closely, and give any 
fillip to it as becomes necessary by surface dressings of nitrate of soda 
before using the liquid manure. Take especial care that the leaves 
sustain no injury when the liquid manure is used, as damaged foliage 
really means checked growth. If the soil is well drained and you have 
plenty of liquid manure some may be advantageously applied three 
weeks or a month before sowing, and it may then be given much 
stronger than afterwards. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
CAMDEN SQUARE, LONDON. 
Lat. 51° 32' 40" N.; Long. 0° 8' 0" W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
DATE. 
9 AM. 
IN THE DAY. 
1 Bain 
1 
1890-91. 
December 
and 
January. 
Barome¬ 
ter at 32? 
and Sea 
Level. 
Hygrome¬ 
ter. 
Direction 
of Wind. 
'Temp, of 
soil at 
1 foot. 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature. 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
sun. 
On 
grass 
Inches. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
In. 
Sunday . 
f8 
30.205 
30.8 
30.2 
N.E. 
31.0 
32.3 
27.9 
32.9 
23.8 
— 
Monday. 
29 
30.2-19 
28.1 
27.7 
N.E. 
33.9 
28.4 
27.6 
29.8 
27.2 
«— 
Tuesday .... 
SO 
30.274 
21.7 
24.2 
E. 
33.9 
26.3 
23.7 
30.3 
23.3 
0.010 
Wednesday.. 
31 
3'.206 
20.8 
26.2 
E. 
33.9 
34.9 
19.7 
36.3 
2 -2.3» 
— 
Thursday..., 
1 
30.201 
34.7 
34.1 
F. 
33.9 
37.3 
26.4 
41.0 
25.0 
— 
Friday . 
2 
30.221 
26.8 
26.8 
N.E. 
33.9 
80.3 
24.1 
30.2 
19.2 
— 
Saturday .... 
3 
30.281 
29.3 
29.3 
N.E, 
33.7 
36.2 
24.2 
87.0 
19.9 
0.(52 
30.236 
28.7 
28.4 
33.9 
32.2 
24.8 
33.9 
23.0 
0.062 
* Covered by fresh snow. 
EEMAKK3. 
23th.—Fine, but without sunshine. 
29th.—Overcast, with frequent siight showers of sleet. 
aoth.—Overcast, with iow temperature and biting east wind ; snow in afternoon. 
Slst.—Overcast throughont; slight sprinkle of snew in afternoon; thaw in the evening, 
fst.—Duil morning, fine afternoon with some sunshine. 
2 nd.—Fog ali day, dense In the morning. 
3rd.—Peg generally dense In the morning, dull afternoon, with thaw and sprinkling of 
rain. 
Barometer remarkably steady, temperature very low, but not quite so severe as in 
the previous week,—Q. /. Stmons. 
