42 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
January 10,1S95. 
PROFIT AND LOSS. 
In a review of crop and stock possibilities for the New Year 
we were reminded of the fact that some profit is still forth¬ 
coming from most farm produce under really good management. 
This thought was followed by the very natural one, What is 
good management ? Under test of our title of Profit and Loss, 
good management is certainly not simply making the best of 
things as we find them, but rather in a careful beginning and 
subsequent persistent effort to maintain a high standard of 
sound practical management on the whole of the farm. This 
does not point at all to fanciful high farming, but to land well 
tilled, well cropped, well stocked; to an avoidance of that 
which is inferior or at all doubtful in land, seed, and live stock. 
Home farmers have to make the best of it in the matter of 
land, but then they are generally able to carry out improvements 
with a free hand ; there is the fault, therefore, if poor land is not 
enriched, or heavy land not rendered permanently porous mixed 
soil. 
To tenant farmers who intend hiring a farm at Lady day we 
say, Start well by avoiding all farms having the land much out 
of condition, or with insufficient outbuildings at the homestead 
and in the meadows. Keep well within your means; never 
forget that it is the man having reserve force in a good balance 
at the bank, who is able to bide his time in selling and to take 
advantage of bargains in buying. It is precisely the having to 
sell farm produce at a sacrifice that first cripples and eventually 
ruins many a man. The proverbial £10 an acre may and does 
answer under favourable condit ons, but in a preliminary cal¬ 
culation of ways and means regard should be given to the pos¬ 
sibility of losses or sickness among live stock, and to an unfavour¬ 
able first season for crops. Bearing this in mind we would with 
say £600 of capital, rather hire 40 acres of really good land than 
60 acres of inferior land, or even if there was choice of as much 
as we liked of the best land, common prudence should lead us to 
keep to the lesser quantity. Start fair also by not “ taHng it 
out of the land'’ the first season, nothing is more foolish or 
suicidal in farm management than this. It is something in 
these hard times to get hold of land that is really in good heart. 
Having been so fortunate, we begin on the principle of 
sustained fertility, and knowing that no crop can be taken from 
the land without some diminution of its store of plant food, we 
take special care to replenish such waste by the judicious 
application of a dressing of manure for the next crop. This 
rule in cultivation, this safe guide to cropping, applies with 
equal force to every crop—not only on arable land, but meadow 
land too. “ But,” says the beginner, or rather our new tenant, 
“ how am I to enforce the rule at the outset, when the outgoing 
tenant leaves very few manure heaps behind him ? ” The answer, 
though simple, is worthy of being printed in letters of gold ; it 
is. Use pure chemical manure in well-balanced proportion, taking 
particular care to include the three essential elements of plant 
food—nitrogen, potash, and phosphoric acid—in the mixture as 
a safeguard, because you cannot be certain if the soil is more 
or less deficient in any or all of them. By all means use special 
mixtures for special crops, but for a general safe dressing use 
one-eighth nitrate of soda, one eighth sulphate of ammonia, one- 
eighth steamed bone flour, one eighth muriate of potash, and 
one-half mineral superphosphate, at the rate of, say, 4 cwt. 
per acre. 
Give equal care to the selection of live stock—avoid all 
inferior or badly bred animals. In cows, seek for deep milkers 
yielding rich milk ; in cattle, store beasts of reliable breeds; in 
horses, sound useful animals; sheep without taint of foot rot ; 
swine selected for a special purpose—either for bacon, or 
porkers, or both. Berkshire, Tamworth, small and middle 
whites all claim attention. For general purposes we have found 
black Suffolk sows crossed with a middle white boar excellent, 
just as good in its way as crossing Suffolk ewes with Hampshire 
Down tups. Both crosses afford a sturdy vigorous progeny, 
soon growing into money. The same rule of selection applies 
to poultry. Avoid mongrels all round, get young healthy stock 
of breeds of high repute, cross-breed with judgment, weed out 
all inferior stock persistently, keeping only that on which a 
profit is possible. Observe, we avoid mention of anything like 
pedigree stock, because it is only under exceptional circum¬ 
stances that an ordinary farmer can expect it to answer ; but a 
well selected pedigree animal may prove a profitable investment 
if turned to account in the right way for breeding purposes. 
WOEK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Mild weather till Christmas enables us to have numbers of new laid 
eggs without special care, but with the change to colder weather, warm 
food, and extra care for the laying hens became necessary. Avoid 
turning them out in cold weather. If a well sheltered run can be con¬ 
trived it is good for them, otherwise if they can have access to a covered 
light dry place, with plenty of short litter on the floor, they get ample 
exercise if some mixed corn is thrown among the litter. Some peat 
moss litter, with corn thrown among it every morning, is also an excel¬ 
lent thing for them, as they scratch it over for the corn ; they dust 
themselves among it, and it is an excellent deodoriser in a fowl house. 
Exclude all cold draughts, and do not forget to close openings along 
the eaves, through which cold air is often suffered to come in strong 
currents on the fowls when they are roosting. This is a suitable time 
of the year to look closely into the matter of table poultry, in view of 
any possible improvements this year. The cross of Dorkings and Indian 
Game, which we have so often recommended to our readers, has had 
special attention drawn to it lately at the exhibitions of dead poultry. 
Plump breasts, small legs, delicate flavour, the very perfection of table 
birds, are the result of this cross. Every home farmer ought to provide 
a full supply of such table chickens. Reference to the pages of 
“ Poultry ” will enable them to see where to procure both Indian Game 
cocks and Dorking hens. 
Go carefully through store cattle in the yards ; see if all are keeping 
up condition; consider if any change can be made advantageously in 
the dietary. Withdraw any beasts at all unsatisfactory; place them 
apart, and see that they have special treatment. If our advice at the 
beginning of winter as to grouping of store beasts (placing only animals 
of the same size together) had sufficient attention, each beast ought to 
have been able to hold its own, and to get ample food and shelter. But 
where any delicate, weakly, or undersized animal was thoughtlessly 
placed with larger beasts it will have probably fallen off in condition 
through being driven from its food by the other beasts. A little obser¬ 
vation will convince anyone that such bullying goes on very frequently 
when cattle are conflned to winter quarters. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
Oamden Square, London. 
Lat.51° 32'40" N.; Long. 0° 8' 0" W.; Altitude, 111 feet, 
Date. 
9 A.M. 
In the Day. 
d 
"S 
Pi 
1894-5. 
December and 
J anuary. 
i Baroneter 
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 
Sunday .. 
30 
29-340 
32-9 
30-4 
N.W. 
40-3 
38-0 
30 8 
47-9 
28-8 
Monday .. 
31 
29-645 
30-2 
29-3 
N. 
38-9 
36-8 
26-3 
55-9 
24-6 
— 
Tuesday .. 
1 
29 907 
29-9 
28-7 
N. 
37 9 
36-3 
27-3 
67-2 
25-0 
0-021 
W ednesday 
2 
29-885 
33-0 
32-3 
W. 
371 
41-6 
28 0 
68-4 
24-8 
0-156 
Thursday.. 
3 
29-493 
32-1 
31-9 
N. 
36 9 
36-1 
31-9 
46-6 
23-2 
0-019 
Friday 
4 
29-912 
34-9 
32-3 
N. 
36-7 
38-1 
31-7 
5V9 
29-0 
— 
Saturday ., 
5 
•29'975 
36-2 
34-9 
N. 
36-3 
37-8 
34-3 
43-7 
31-7 
— 
29-737 
32-7 
3T4 
37-7 
37-8 
30-0 
52-7 
27-4 
0-196 
RBMAKKS. 
30ila.—Sunny early; frequent sprinkles of snow from 10.30 A.M. to noon; bright sunshine 
all afternoon, and clear cold night. 
31st.—Generally sunny, but occasional intervals of cloud; clear cold night. 
1st.—Bright sunshine all day ; fine night. 
2nd.—Heavy snow from 7 A.M. to 8 A.M. ; bright sun from 10.30 A.M. ; snow lying in 
shade all day. 
3rd.—Wet snow from 2 A.M. to 5 A.M.; fine sunny day; cloudy at times in evening, 
and slight snow showers. 
4th.—Slight snow or sleet showers early and till 10.30 A.M.; bright sun with occasional 
intervals of cloud from 11.30 A.M. 
5th.—Overcast all day ; occasional flakes of snow falling. 
A cold and rather dry week.—G. J. Symons. 
