296 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ September 29, 1893. 
DAIRY FARMING. 
The series of reports just issued by the Board of Agriculture 
on dairying in Denmark, Sweden, and Germany contain many 
valuable hints and much useful information for British farmers. 
It is a disgrace to us that we have allowed Denmark and Sweden 
to wrest so large a share of our business from us. While we 
have been grumbling about hard times, and-cherishing the blind 
conceit of a fanciful superiority, treating hints of the possibility 
of profitable change or improvement in farm management 
with contempt, they have been striving for improvement in 
everything and in every way. Have they succeeded? They 
have, but with all their success the one thing that still makes 
us hopeful of the future of dairy farming in this country 
is the fact of the best English or Irish butter being better than 
any we import. The importance of this is obvious ; equally im¬ 
portant is it also that first class home made factory butter is in 
such high demand that there is never enough of it. Managers of 
factories are outspoken enough about this, but they cannot help it, 
simply because there is a limit in the capacity of any factory to 
produce best butter. Milk must be delivered fresh to the 
factory to afford the best results, it suffers when sent from long 
distances ; butter does not if it is carefully packed. 
Plain and forcible is the teaching here. We have not applied 
it, but Munster farmers are doing so. With them co-operative 
factories are fast bringing about a revolution in farm manage¬ 
ment and farm profits. Only a short time ago the Iri<h lump 
butter which they sent to market reeking with filth, was practi¬ 
cally profitless ; now their factory butter competes successfully 
with any imported butter. The capacity of each factory is 
limited to the milk of eight hundred cows Mark this, for it 
affords invaluable data for the guidance of English farmers. 
Not simply in the establishment of factories lies our chance of 
restored prosperity. Jf farmers are to derive all the benefit from 
them that is possible they must become shareholders, must have 
an interest in the whole of the concern, and not be mere supp’iers 
of milk at so much per gallon. They have a splendid oppor¬ 
tunity if they grasp it and retain the matter in their o*n hands. 
The price of milk will improve strictly according to its quality, 
but if they allow dea'ers to forestall them, and factories to become 
a trade speculation, then the price of milk will be forced down by 
competition of which the keen dealers will take full advantage. 
But we may be told that farmers have no capital to float 
speculative butter factories. We hold that they possess ample 
means for do ng so. The maximum amount required is £1 per 
cow, which is paid gradually by calls of 2s. or 3s. for buildings 
and plant. Once convince them that the scheme is sound and 
profitable and they will find the money fast enough. Many a 
farmer might advantageously take a hint from the life of a 
successful Cheshire farmer who began in a small country shop, 
then hired a small farm, taking six cows in valuation. Finding 
the farm did not afford suffi lent food for that number of cows, 
he at once sold one of them, purchased corn and manure with 
the money, fed both cows and land better, and soon made twice 
as much cheese as his predecessor had done. Ways and means 
are plentiful, the great want • generally is intelligence to use 
them. We waste our strength in trying to do too much, we go 
beyond the scope of our means, are altogether too diffuse. Con¬ 
centration and centralisation should have much more attention 
than has hitherto been accorded them by farmers. Their con¬ 
cession to the centralism of the day is to send farm produce to 
large centres of population. That is right so far as it goes, but 
it is for them to see that their produce Poes to market in the 
right form. Beciuse it answers to send milk to London from 
Essex, Kent, or Surrey, it by no means follows that it can be 
sent profitably from farms outside the radius of the home 
counties.^ It would be better for all southern and midland 
fa inters if the metropolitan milk supply were confined, say, to 
a radius of twenty miles; then if outside that radius other 
centies were formed by the establishment of co-operative butter 
oi cheese facto: ies requiring all the milk from surrounding 
faims, the price of milk would be higher, all factory share- 
hold :rs at least would have a wholesome incentive to breed or 
select cows for both quality and quantity of milk. There would 
tnen be a general improvement in dairy cows, profits would be 
higher, farmers would not be so much at the mercy of foreign 
competitors, and the chief industry of the country would be 
more prosperous, and less liable to periodical depression. All 
this calls for organisation and business capacity. We hope next 
week to show how much of the success of Swede and Dane is 
owing to this. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Wheat has been harvested so well that threshing machines are in 
constant use, notwithstanding the low prices. The farmer has now 
something to sell for which he is paid at once ; he is short of ready 
money, so he sells—it can hardly be said at a profit. The best sorts of 
Wheat for seed are in demand in the market, a good sample of well- 
known sorts meeting with a brisk sale at a few shillings per quarter 
above market price. In most districts there are now some growers of 
seed corn who find it answer fairly well to purchase a certain quantity 
of seed from the great seed firms, to raise a stock of seed for sale. If 
they are thus able to place a good sample of seed on the market it goes 
very well, because they sell at a comparatively low price ,• but competi¬ 
tion is now so keen that an inferior sample has no chance. 
Sow a good sample of winter corn, and sow thickly; thin seeding 
and bare fallows have had their day. Thick seeding for a full crop and 
to smother weeds is now answering. No corn hoeing, no bare fallows, 
and a thick plant of corn all tend to keep down expense. A pound or 
two per acre saved in crop production, another pound or two trained by 
having more produce to sell, just make the difference between success 
and failure. Sow no corn on poor or inferior soil, manure well, and be 
satisfied with nothing less than a full crop. If there is a doubt about 
having enough green food in spring, do not hesitate to sow move Rye ; 
it will come into use quickly after the first sowings, and will serve 
admirably to keep the flock going. Near large towns all green fodder 
answers well for sale. It may either be sold on the land or sent direct 
to consumers. The latter plan is preferable, because the work may just 
as well be done by the farm men, and the carts can always load back 
with manure. Peat moss and sawdust from town stables are both 
excellent fertilisers ; saturated as they are with urine and containing a 
large admixture of horse dung they are useful both as top dressings and 
for ploughing-in. Nothing answers better for fruit plantations and 
Strawberries as a top dressing. Have a sufficient quantity of either 
or of short farmyard manure at hand by November for top-dressing 
fruit trees and bushes as they are planted. Never forget that all our 
best farmers—the successful men—invariably keep the soil well stored 
with fertility, for only by doing this is it possible to have full crops. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
Camden Square. London. 
Lat. 51° 32' 40" N.; Long. 0°8'0" W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
Date. 
1892. 
September. 
Sunday .. 
Monday .. 
Tuesday .. 
W ednesday 
Thursday.. 
Friday 
Saturday .. 
18 
19 
20 
21 
22 
23 
24 
9 A.M. 
In the Day. 
.2 
05 
| Barometer 
at 32°, and 
1 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. 
30’250 
54*5 
48-2 
S. 
55-7 
66-7 
36-4 
102-3 
28 0 
_ 
30-026 
60-0 
55-2 
S.W. 
54-9 
73-6 
49-1 
118-2 
42-2 
0.048 
29-951 
609 
67-9 
E. 
56-3 
70-7 
52-7 
99-3 
46-2 
0.028 
29-979 
60.1 
59-1 
E. 
57-2 
67-9 
55-7 
100-2 
48-5 
0.363 
30-202 
57-9 
56-3 
N.E. 
57-2 
60-9 
55-6 
67-0 
54 9 
3J-134 
5»-4 
54.2 
N.E. 
67-0 
650 
52-4 
99-1 
53-8 
0.049 
29-914 
59-9 
58-3 
W. 
57-1 
67-0 
55-9 
112T 
50-2 
30-065 
58-4 
556 
56-5 
67-4 
51-1 
99-7 
46-3 
0-488 
. REMARKS, 
loth.—Sunshine throughout. 
19th. Bright sunshine almost throughout. 
20th. Heavy shower at 6.45 A.M., then alternate cloud and bright sunshine; generally 
overcast afternoon. 
21st.—Overcast and gloomy early ; heavy rain from 9.30 to 10.30 A.M., and occasional 
oo i -Showers after ; some sunshine at midday, and thunder about 3.30 r.M. 
22nd—Overcast with occasional drizzle. 
23rd. Occasional sunshine, but generally cloudy. 
24th. Overcast, with frequent slight rain early ; sunny after 11.30 A.M. 
SyMoir ally alltuma week, with temperature rather above the average.— G. J. 
