284 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
Marjh S8,1895. 
STRUGGLING FARMERS. 
Dictionary definitions of struggling are singularly appro¬ 
priate in reference to the efforts of farmers to overcome 
difficulties that are an outcome of circumstances beyond their 
power to prevent or even to control. Here are some of them. 
To use great efforts, to strive, to contend, contest, effort to 
obtain an object, or to avoid an evil. These are generally 
applicable, and wherever full force has been given in the 
struggle to the pithy sense which they embody, in combination 
with judicious change, such earnest efforts have been rewarded 
by success, which if not full and entire, has at any rate staved 
off actual failure. 
Any effort in this direction is worthy of the attention which 
it commands, very much in proportion to the degree of success 
obtained. It is so especially because there is no panacea, no 
general method of action, no single crop that can take the place 
of Wheat. If there were, our difficulties would soon be at an 
end. Instead of resting on its old broad basis, and retaining its 
clear lines of demarcation between dairy and corn farming, 
agriculture is now split up into sections or groups in accordance 
with local requirements, or the prospects of a profitable market 
for special farm produce. A wise man is he, surely, who, bowing 
to the inevitable, sets himself to obtain a clear grasp of the 
situation and its possibilities, and then resolves to adapt his 
practice to the change which has been forced on him. Had 
this been done—perhaps we shall do well to say. Had it been 
possible for ordinary farmers to have done this more generally, 
there would have been less of distress, less of failure. But such 
efforts to be successful must be an outcome of more than 
ordinary ability, springing as they do from a combination of 
shrewdness, energy, enterprise, and in some instances certainly 
from a spirit of adventure, tempered by caution. 
Let it not be supposed that the immigration of Scotch 
farmers to south eastern counties was undertaken without due 
inquiry and deliberation. At the very beginning of the move¬ 
ment it fell to our lot to go over several Bast Anglian farms 
with a certain Scotch deputy—one of a group of Scotch fai'mers 
intending to come south. The searching inquiry and cross¬ 
questioning we had to undergo in connection with the inspection 
was certainly an experience, and if any of them went wrong 
subsequently it was not for lack of due precaution. 
In connection with this the recent lecture delivered in 
Glasgow by Mr. Allan 0. Young, who came south and settled 
in Hertfordshire, is both interesting and instructive. He told 
how Hertfordshire farmers, having sufficient capital, and 
paying 30s. an acre inclusive of tithes and rates, were doing 
well; but he insisted on the absolute necessity of sufficient 
capital. To take a farm of 400 acres with only enough capital 
for 200, was the direct way to disaster. With a holding 
well within the scope of his means, at such a rent, the Hert¬ 
fordshire dairy farmer was, he said, more prosperous than 
farmers in the west of Scotland. Most of the farmers forming 
the “ Scotch colony ” in Hertfordshire have sufficient grass for 
from forty to 100 cows. Contracts for the milk are made for 
the summer and winter with London dairy companies or 
milkmen. The prices mentioned were, for the summer Is. 2d. 
per barn gallon, or a shade less than 7d. per imperial gallon, 
carriage paid to London; and for winter Is. 7d. per barn 
gallon. Mr. Young said the winter milk paid best. When he 
was farming he had an average of Is. 8d. per barn gallon all 
the year round, and the profit from his dairy of fifty cows 
for the twelve months was £253, or say £5 per cow. This is 
satisfactory so far as it goes, but the lecturer then went on to 
the profits of the middleman, saying that for every £100 paid 
for milk by the consumer £40 only went to the producer, the 
middleman absorbing £60. 
After making due allowance for the risk of bad debts and 
other losses of retailers, he pointed to the farmers’ risk of 
disease and death among his cattle, and to the aberrations of 
weather as being as great. The retail trade has gone from 
the farmer to his serious loss. Single-handed he is powerless 
to touch it; only by co-operation on a large scale, and in a 
thoroughly systematic manner, would it be possible to wrest it 
from the keen retailers, who are now in such active competition 
for the easily earned profits poured daily into their hands by 
the heedless, easy going, grumbling producer. We shall return 
to Mr. Young's lecture in another article. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Small, late-sown Swedes, came through the weeks of 20® or 30° of 
frost practically unscathed ; it was the large, earlier-sown roots that 
suffered. Of course large roots ought not to be exposed to such risk of 
harm from frost. Hay, too, is abundant, and with present prospects of 
rapid growth there should be no difficulty in keeping up condition in 
store cattle and milk yield in dairy cows. 
Glad were we to find that Lucerne had due prominence given it in 
Mr. Martin J. Sutton’s paper, read recently before the Farmers’ Club. 
He recommends drilling 20 lbs. of seed per acre in rows 6 or 8 inches 
apart in April, and not later than July, or four months, for choice. We 
have found the earlier sowings answer best, and though some of the 
highest authorities advise sowing broadcast under exceptional conditions, 
we never do so, because the crop then becomes so foul with weeds as to 
be worthless in a year or two. Drill Lucerne wide enough apart to 
admit of a free use of a horse-hoe between the rows ; take especial care 
to drill in soil free of perennial weeds ; hand-hoe two or three times 
at the outset, and subsequently there should be no difficulty in keeping 
down weeds. 
Mr. Sutton’s advice to mow the Lucerne three times, and to fold 
ewes on the weaker fourth growth, is excellent. Every home farm should 
have its field of Lucerne near the homestead wherever it is possible. 
Certainly its culture should not be abandoned till the soil has had a fair 
trial. Often have we expressed surprise that this splendid fodder crop 
of such enormous bulk, so persistent in growth, so unaffected by drought, 
is not in more general cultivation. 
Lent corn, as well as fodder crops, has been got in with ease, in a 
splendid seed bed, the soil, ploughed in the autumn, breaking down fine 
as coal ashes under the harrows, the drills working so true that seed 
germination will be speedy, growth quick, and a full, even plant, a 
certainty. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS, 
Oamdbn Squarb, London. 
Lat.51° 32'40" N.; Long. 0° 8/ 0" W.; Altitude 111 feet. 
Date. 
9 A.M. 
In the Day. 
Rain. 
1895. 
March. 
1 Barometer 
1 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 .. 
17 
30'307 
45-3 
42-4 
N. 
40-0 
64-3 
38-2 
68-9 
31-9 
— 
Monday .. 
18 
30-232 
36-2 
36-2 
N. 
38-9 
58-2 
30-6 
82-8 
26-1 
— 
Tuesday .. 
19 
30 053 
43-1 
41-1 
W. 
38-9 
54-2 
35-2 
73-0 
30-1 
0-061 
Wednesday 
20 
29-841 
50-3 
48-9 
N.W. 
40-4 
67-0 
44-1 
83-9 
43-8 
0-091 
Thursday., 
21 
29-966 
47-9 
47-6 
N.W. 
41 9 
60-9 
43-1 
85-9 
42-5 
Friday 
22 
29-966 
49-1 
47-2 
N. 
42 2 
63-7 
38-8 
102-6 
31-9 
Saturday .. 
23 
29-964 
48-4 
46-4 
W. 
42-9 
56-9 
38-8 
97-3 
32-4 
0-086 
30-047 
45-8 
44-3 
40-7 
57-9 
38-4 
84-9 
34-1 
0-228 
REMARKS. 
17th.—Slightly foggy the greater part of the day. 
18th.—Fog rather thick till about 10 A.M.; bright sunny day. 
19th.—Overcast all day ; spots of rain after 5 P.M., and showers in evening and night. 
2Uth.—Overcast and mild with spots of rain in morning; frequent sunshine in after¬ 
noon; dull and drizzly after 6 P.M. 
21st.—Fiequent rain in small hours, and dull and drizzly all morning; sunshine all 
afternoon. 
22nd.—Unbroken sunshine from sunrise to sunset. 
23rd.—Alternate cloud and sunshine in morning, cloudy afternoon; rain in night. 
Fine mild week, with temperature above the average. It seems diflBcult to believe 
that only a few weeks back the maximum temperatures were far below the recent 
minima. The following shows how rapid the rise of mean temperature has been. 
Mean Temperature op Week Ending 
February 9th, 22'4°. 
„ 16th, 26T®,a rise of 3'7° 
„ 23rd, 34-4° „ 12-0° 
March 2nd, 36-i° „ 14'3® 
—G. J. Symons. 
March 9th, 37'1°, a rise of 14'7“ 
„ 16th, 43-1" „ 20-7° 
„ 33rd, 43-2° „ SS'S® 
