486 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
June 14,18?4. 
CHANGING AGRICULTURE. 
Is there, then, no alternative ? is the question which very 
naturally arises when we are told that Essex is a Wheat¬ 
growing county, and that a majority of its farmers are ruined. 
Said Mr. Hunter Pringle, the Commissioner of the Board of 
Agriculture, in his recent report, “The ensuing year (1894) will 
witness a downfall more disasti’ous in its consequences than 
any stranger to Essex could possibly apprehend. If three- 
fourths of the farmers who have served notices to quit in 1894 
act upon them, thousands of acres will be left tenantless, and 
it requires a stretch of imagination more than I can make to 
suppose that new tenants will be found.” He says also that 
“it is no longer a question of rent, but simply an example of 
the cost of cultivation exceeding the value of produce.” But 
this is no new thing. For considerably upwards of a decade 
Wheat growing has been unprofitable; the fact has been within 
the knowledge of every farmer, and yet many of them persist 
in sowing Wheat. Surely, to say the least, such persistence 
is as unwise as it is reckless. Again, we ask. Is there no 
alternative P 
The Commissioner suggests a readjustment of the incidence 
of taxation, and taking in hand the agricultural education of 
the rising generation, or, in other words, relieve the land of 
burdens which it is so obviously unable to bear, and instruct 
those who cultivate it to do so to better purpose. While point¬ 
ing out that the milk trade is overdone, he adds that butter and 
cheese making are gi’eatly neglected. Why ? From ignorance 
or prejudice, or both, would probably be a correct answer. The 
fact that the value of dairy produce imported into this country 
last year was £21,571,375, should act as an incentive to exertion 
in extending the home trade ; in the production of a superior 
article of uniform excellence both in cheese and butter. Hitherto 
such statements have stirred up the foreign rather than the 
home producer, and the foreign trade is extending every year. 
Take that of Australia, for example. This was initiated in 
1889-90, when the value of butter sent to this country from 
Victoria was £51,300. Since then the figures for the consecutive 
seasons have been £91,200, £225,000, £404,432, and in the last 
season which ended on April 28th, the amount was £761,273 for 
7315 tons of butter, the wholesale value of which was lid. per lb , 
41,524,000 gallons of milk being required to produce it. 
This is such a remarkable example of the growth of a 
trade by leaps and bounds that we give the figures in full. It 
shows how much good butter is in demand, how highly the 
Victorian butter is esteemed, how practically limitless are the 
possibilities of the trade. No wonder it has grown, when the 
retailer can make from 25 to 30 per cent, profit upon this 
butter, which is of such high uniform excellence. 
Meanwhile we hear of more and more land at home going 
out of cultivation because Wheat-growing is unprofitable, and 
the milk trade is overdone. Of course Wheat-growing is 
unprofitable ; how could it be otherwise when in 1885 the 
world’s total production of Wheat was only 800,000,000 bushels, 
whereas it is now 2,400,000,000 bushels? As for the milk trade, 
the remedy is as simple as sure. It has been pointed out 
repeatedly in our Home Farm articles; we repeat it once more. 
Let milk only be sent to great centres of population from a 
given radios of twenty or thirty miles. Outside such radii 
divert the milk to butter and cheese factories, established and 
kept going by co-operation of the farmers themselves, upon the 
lines of similar factories in the south of Ireland. A first-class 
article of uniform excellence would then be a certainty; it is 
equally certain to command a prompt and steady sale. If a. 
gigantic trade can be established so quickly and with such 
certainty for colonial butter, it can be done even more easily 
for the home-made article of equal or even better quality. 
That Essex clays can be speedily adapted to dairy 
farming has been proved to demonstration by the keen Scotch 
farmers who have migrated there in such considerable numbers. 
During our residence in that county we found that though 
southern farmers were wont to sneer at the thrifty Scotchmen 
they were in many an instance only too glad to copy their 
practice and make Wheat give way to milk. That was a simple 
enough matter; butter making is quite another thing, and had 
they tried it in farm houses on a large scale— i.e., making it the 
main industry of the farm—they would most probably have 
failed. There are conditions in the making of first-class butter 
beyond the scope of many a farmer—or shall we say the farmer’s 
wife ? 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Potatoes cut down to the ground by the severe frost of May 19tb 
have quickly started into growth again, several side shoots appearing in 
place of the lost single-stem growth. This so clearly points to an 
inferior crop of under-sized tubers that the extraordinary measure of an 
immediate top-dressing of from 1 to 2 cwts. of nitrate of soda per acre 
to stimulate growth has been decided upon. This will both accelerate 
and invigorate growth of haulm and enlargement of tubers. Prompt 
action is clearly called for, as the growth of the next three or four weeks will 
determine bulk of crop and size of tubers. Remember that when once 
there is a cessation of the main or leading stem growth the tubers never 
grow any larger, so that June and the first fortnight in July is the 
golden time of development of the main crop. The advantage of thin 
planting was never more apparent than now. With the rows a yard 
apart, and the Potatoes 15 inches apart in the rows, growth can hardly 
be crowded, even with the multiplicity of stems that must follow the 
cutting-off of the leading stem by frost. 
Apple tree caterpillars appear to be even more abundant than usual 
this season, and the sprayer will have to be used repeatedly to eradicate 
them. Vermorel’s copper knapsack pump, holding 3 gallons, and 
costing 35s., is a very handy implement for this work. The mixture 
consists of quarter ounce of Paris green (a deadly poison) dissolved in 
5 gallons of water. The sprayer coats the whole of the leaves with the 
poison, and the caterpillars are then destroyed by eating the leaves. 
Do not forget that the whole of the caterpillars are not hatched at the 
same time. By watchfulness and persistent use of the sprayer the whole 
of them can be destroyed. 
Showery weather has kept back hoeing, while the much higher 
temperature causes weeds to grow as fast as the legitimate crop. By 
getting as much singling of root and Cabbage crops done now we shall 
be ready to clear off arrears of hoeing with the first few bright days. 
It is no small thing to have the plant of such crops singled and growing 
so freely as to be out of reach of harm from insect pests. With such 
a dripping June the Turnip fly has very little chance of doing serious 
harm. 
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. 
Bain. 
1894. 
June. 
1 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. 
Sunday .. 
3 
30-004 
60-4 
56-0 
S.W. 
53 0 
66 0 
49-3 
85-4 
44-0 
0-430 
Monday .. 
4 
Z9-822 
57-7 
57-2 
E. 
53-9 
68-3 
52-6 
92-8 
46-1 
0-090 
Tuesday .. 
5 
29-820 
57-8 
62-6 
S.W. 
54-1 
64-0 
51-6 
106-1 
46-2 
— 
Wednesday 
6 
29-817 
51-2 
49-9 
N E. 
54-1 
57-1 
50-1 
70-4 
50-6 
0-418 
Thursday.. 
7 
29-776 
52-0 
43-1 
N. 
53-2 
62-7 
47-7 
108-9 
47-3 
— 
Friday 
8 
30-002 
55-7 
51-9 
W. 
53-8 
63-7 
45-9 
101-2 
40-6 
0 052 
Saturday .. 
9 
29-870 
57-0 
54-3 
S.W. 
54-0 
65-4 
53-0 
107-1 
51-0 
— 
29-873 
5/0 
52-9 
53-7 
63-9 
50-0 
96-0 
46-5 
0 990 
REMARKS. 
3rd.—Generally overcast, with spots of rain once or twice; but occasional sunshine. 
4th.—Heavy rain Irom 6.31 A.M. to 10 A.M, with thunder at 6-30 A.M. ; overcast and 
damp till noon; fair aftf moon, with some sunshine. 
5th.—Bright early, and occasional sunshine in morning; overcast afternoon; slight 
drizzle at nignt. 
6th.—Overcast, with occasional slight drizzle; rain from 5.30 P.sr., and steady heavy 
rain irom 6 P.M. to 9.30 P.M., and showers later. 
7th.—Overcast early: gleams of sun from 10 A.M., and generally sunny after 2 P.M. 
8th.—Overcast almost throughout, with spots of rain at times, and gleams of sun ia 
afternoon. 
9th.—Overcast early, and rainy from 6 A.M. to 7.30 A.M.; sunny from 11 A.M. to noon, 
generally cloudy after. 
A rather wet week, with no shade temperature reaching 70”.—G. J. Symons. 
