70 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ July 21, 1892. 
number of cheeses made was much below the average. With 
more herbage, and warm, not hot, weather in June, the milk 
yield improved so much that the cheese average was closely 
approached by the end of the month. July, with its sultry 
afternoons, when gadflies bore into the cows’ hides, is a very 
trying month, the pain from the terrible blood-suckers causing 
the frantic animals to rush about with tails erect, the excite¬ 
ment of their efforts to escape from the flies telling so seriously 
against milk secretion that there is always a considerable falling 
off in quantity on such days. 
The remedy for the mischief is simple and obvious enough. 
Keep cows in covered yards or cowsheds on very hot days, with 
water, rock salt, and racks well supplied with any such nourishing 
green food as Tares, Clover, Lucerne, Sainfoin, the best meadow 
grass, or “ seeds.” If mixed meal is used by all means give them 
some while they are kept in. With such shelter and plenty to eat 
there will be a full yield of milk at the evening milking, after 
which the cows are turned out to graze, and repose in comfort 
through the night. 
It is strange indeed that any and every available means of 
shelter are not turned to account in this way, but they are not. 
We built commodious cowhouses replete with every convenience 
in a central position out on the pasture, close by a pool of 
good water, for two of our tenants in June, yet we are told 
they are not required for use till autumn. It is not the custom 
of these particular graziers to try and protect cows from gadfly 
attacks. They came to us complaining of deficient accommoda¬ 
tion for cows on their holdings, yet have not sense enough to turn 
the new cowhouses to account which hape been provided by a 
generous landlord with such promptitude and liberality in response 
to our appeal. The only idea such men appear to have of shelter 
is to have the cows indoors during very rough weather in winter ; 
the possibility of turning shelter to profitable account in summer 
is too novel and high a flight for their prosaic imaginations. 
Good management includes every point at all likely to affect 
the health of the cows. They show plainly enough how much 
they suffer from the gadflies. We ought to know that by keeping 
them in during sultry weather the worry and consequent loss of 
milk is avoided now, as well as the subsequent suffering from 
warbles in winter and spring. Complaints of the long hard winter, 
late spring, and consequent short commons for the cows have been 
frequent enough of late ; let us see that we are not wanting in 
anything—any point of management at all calculated to affect the 
cows for good. No doubt they possess great powers of endurance, 
but are we wise to test them as we do ? Surely it would be 
altogether better for the cows and better for us to act more upon 
the principle of prevention, and so avoid the waste of vital force, 
which goes on throughout the year more or less in so many herds. 
The term waste is singularly appropriate and comprehensive in 
relation to ordinary cow management. We certainly waste the 
powers of a cow by mismanagement, by unwholesome or 
insufficient food, by exposure to extreme cold, or heat, or flies, and 
by unsanitary buildings. In striving to amend let us not only do 
our best for the cows now, but also look forward a little and see 
what can be done for the better promotion of health and comfort 
in winter. No time could be better than this. We are engaged 
in making provision of food and litter for winter now ; let us see 
if food, water, litter, and buildings are such as are calculated to 
answer them in the best way. 
In the buildings we require thorough drainage and ventilation, 
hard dry floors, and the exclusion of cold draughts. The food 
should be heat-giving if we would have it fully nourishing. A 
winter dietary of roots, or into which roots enter largely, is most 
costly both to cultivate and use. No crop is so expensive as a root 
crop ; nothing can be more trying than a meal of half-frozen 
roots, which lowers the temperature of the cow’s body so much 
that most of the actual nourishment of the food goes to restore 
the vital heat which has been wasted by our folly. Of course the 
roots are not always frozen, and they are sometimes used with 
moderation and judgment. Granting this, we would have root9 
regarded as only an adjunct to the winter dietary and not as its 
chief constituent. 
Beware of unsanitary buildings. It is notorious how much 
more disease there is among cows than in any other class of farm 
stock ; nor is it surprising, when we see such filthy, foul hovels 
as are so frequently to be met with. The poor animals stand and 
lie down in filth all the winter, they breathe the foul air of an 
ill-built, badly ventilated shed till their lungs become as diseased 
as their hides are foul with filth. This is one reason why a 
medical friend of ours has all milk received in his house sterilised 
by boiling before it is used. He is positive that the cause of 
many a case of consumption in human subjects can be traced to 
drinking impure milk. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Where root crops are grown upon the home farm for market as well as 
for supplying the household, early and second early Potatoes should hold 
a leading place, especially in southern counties. Early field Potatoes in 
Essex were being lifted briskly on July 11th, when the price was a 
penny a pound in the retail shops ; if growers realise half that amount 
upon a crop of say 10 tons an acre, they certainly have no occasion to 
complain of hard times. With the Potato crop off the land so early it 
is ready for Celery and Lettuce, or Turnips, or better still for autumn 
Onions, which ought always to be sown by the third week of July 
instead of the sowing being left till August, as it often is. With the 
haulm fully 2 feet in height the Potatoes have to be lifted with light 
steel forks. Men and boys were all working with a will, and would 
evidently not be long in clearing a few acres of the fine crop of tubers, 
which were without a blemish. That is another advantage of growing early 
Potatoes; they are off the land before the disease appears, and the 
growers require no bouillie bordelaise or any other nostrum. Their 
chief care is to have rich land and carefully prepared seed, then a full 
and early crop is a certainty. There must be no heaping up of the seed 
or burying undergound ; rather should it be spread out upon the surface 
for the skin to harden, and then placed on trays or shelves in Bingle 
layers in a frost-proof building. 
Much good hay continues to be made, and so far the season bids fair 
to be more favourable to the farmer than the last three have been. 
Late springs and wet haysels have brought bankruptcy upon many a 
man, hence our frequent advice to keep the head of live stock well 
within due bounds. So far hay has had preference to silage, but if the 
weather becomes broken the wise course would be to revert to ensilage 
at once. Before all things we must have plenty of wholesome food for 
winter use. Silage is wholesome, and cheap food too, which ought 
always to be to the fore in a moist climate. Implements for hay¬ 
making are useful on all farms, they are especially so on small farms 
where with a two-horse mowing machine, a tedder, and horse rake, we 
recently saw father and son practically independent of hired labour. 
Such independence has gradually come to be a necessity since settled 
labourers became so scarce. It is true there are always “ gentlemen of 
the road ” to be had, but such aid as they afford is a very doubtful 
blessing indeed. 
Do not forget to use a sack stuffed with straw drawn up the middle 
of the hayrick to make a funnel to admit the free escape of hot air from 
hastily built ricks, or where the hay has been carted before it was quite 
dry. 
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. 
Rain. 
1892. 
July. 
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 .. 
10 
30-027 
59-5 
54-4 
W. 
60-7 
71-3 
51-6 
120-7 
46-1 
— 
Monday .. 
11 
30-019 
61-3 
56-1 
E. 
60-2 
71-1 
53-9 
129-0 
46-2 
— 
Tuesday .. 
12 
29-648 
64-2 
57-6 
E. 
60-1 
68-0 
52-0 
113-0 
46-0 
0-166 
W ednesday 
13 
29-592 
60-4 
57-7 
N.E. 
59-9 
62-7 
55-2 
94-0 
52-3 
0-030- 
Thursday.. 
M 
29-821 
550 
53-8 
N. 
59-1 
58-6 
521 
69-4 
52-1 
— 
Friday 
15 
30-060 
57-2 
52-6 
S. 
580 
67-6 
51-6 
89-6 
47-3 
— 
Saturday .. 
16 
29-851 
63-2 
58-3 
s.w. 
58-0 
73-0 
50-1 
102-9 
438 
0-05& 
29-860 
601 
55-8 
59-4 
67-5 
52-4 
102-7 
47-7 
0-254* 
REMARKS. 
10th.—Overcast morning, frequent sunshine in afternoon. 
11th.—Overcast morning, but trequent sunshine in afternoon ; cloudless evening. 
12th.—Occasional sunshine in morning, showers in the afternoon. 
13th.—Heavy rain between 2 and 3 A.M., overcast all day, rain at night. 
14tli.—Overcast throughout, with drizzle in morning. 
15th.—Dull and gloomy throughout. 
16tli.—Generally overcast in morning, frequent sunshine in afternoon. 
An average week, but very little sun in the latter part.—G. J. SYMONS. 
