482 
[ November Z2, 188 . 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
•only while the lambs are with them with not suffice ; they must be 
&ept in good condition the year round if their progeny is to be as 
robust as it ought to be. Let us see how this can be done. "When : 
the lambs are weaned in June the ewes are turned upon pasture 
that is poor rather than rich, the object being to keep them upon 
a low diet till milk ceases to How, and the risk of swollen, sore, or 
broken udders is past. By that time, too, any wounds caused by 
the wool-shearing will be healed, and they are dipped in Cooper’s 
Dressing, which not only destroys ticks and other insects, but 
■renders the sheep comparatively safe from the attacks of fly during 
■the hot summer months. However well and carefully we may Ued 
suckling ewe3, a strong lamb or twins will bring down conditi m, 
;and we must try and restore it as soon as may be, for the ewes 
have barely two months before they are again put with the tups. 
Upon arable farms they are folded upon Tares, Clover, Sainfoin, 
Lucerne, or Mustard, and where there is sufficient pasture nothing 
•can be better for them than a full diet of grass. They receive no 
other food till after harvest, when they are taken upon the corn 
;stubbles. Some care is requisite in doing this, more especially upon 
Barley stubbles, for the sheep eat the corn so greedily that losses 
•occur from stoppage if they are allowed to eat the fallen ears of 
•corn to repletion. 
With the exception of the stubble corn they have nothing but 
rgreen food, nor do they require it till a month before lambing 
begins, when they receive half a pound of crushed Oats pe r 
■bead daily. After the lambing, and till the lamb3 are weaned 
the quantity of crushed Oats is increased to a pound per head 
daily. A piece of rich pasture is kept in reserve specially for 
tfc’ie lambing, and there is a careful addition to the dietary of 
Mangolds, chopped Barley or Oat straw, and Pea straw in racks 
according to the weather and condition of the pasture. Cattle 
Cabbage and silage may then be included in the dietary with 
advantage, but neither white Turnips nor Swedes are used till 
after the lambing. We never allow pregnant ewes to be folded 
•on Turnips, knowing how frequently the practice leads to serious 
losses of the ewes, and also of lambs by abortion. The evil of 
■Such folding is threefold. The effect upon the ewes of I he con¬ 
sumption of large quantities of food containing so large a per- 
•cenfage of water—80 per cent—always then at a low temperature, 
•often half frozen, is to lower the temperature of the body to a 
•degree that is hurtful to the ewe, and often fatal to the foetus. 
The second evil arises from the strain made upon the animal in 
making its way through the muddy fold where the soil often 
becomes churned into mud, reaching half way or more up tl e 
sheeps’ legs, and in heavy land such mud is so tenacious that they 
can hardly withdraw their legs from it, and certainly cannot lie 
■down to rest, for if they were to do so they would hardly be able 
to get up again. The third evil is the exposure and the heavy 
•sham upon the entire system of the ewe precisely when it requires 
protection from everything at all calculated to prove injuiious to 
health. No doubt the sheep is a hardy animal, but there are limits 
to its powers of enduiance, ar.d it is wiser by far, instead of running 
the risk of less from such exposuie, to avoid it, at any rate to a 
hurtful degree. 
Before proceeding farther with ewe treatment, we may usefully 
here revert to the question of d'pping. No doubt the dipping 
should always be done in summer after the shearing and weaning, 
both to ewes and lambs as we have explained, but it is by no means 
so certain that there should be a second dipping in autumn. We 
have had it done with material advantage when the wool is at all 
infested with parasitical insects, and this can be ascertained by a 
close inspection ar.d a little watchfulness. We once purchased a 
flock of sheep so lat3 in the year that dipping was out of the 
question, yet they were so badly infested w r ith ticks that they were 
constantly rubbing themselves, anl they did not get int > a thriving 
condition till we were able to get rid of the ticks, which was net for 
some months. 
WORK OK THE HOME FARM. 
The wisdom of keeping a fair proportion of the land under-Wheat 
is well illustrated just now, for most of the Barley was so much dis¬ 
coloured by the rain which fell so frequently after the grain was fully 
developed, that prices are exceptionally low. The highest price we have 
obtained is 32s. per quarter. We have a large quantity to sell, and put 
our average price for it as low as 26s. This to us is a serious matter, 
yet we have the satisfaction of being able to sell good samples of white 
Wheat at from 36s. to 40s. per quarter. Much care and caution has to 
be exercised in Wheat threshing now, and any stack where the corn 
proves at all soft should not be threshed till spring. This may even¬ 
tually prove advantageous, for prices are almost certain to improve with 
the advance of the season. Those who possess facilities for kiln-drying 
corn will ctrtainly find it answer the purpose now when hard foreign 
Wheat is from Gs. to 8s. per quarter higher than home grown Wheat. 
As the sowing of winter corn is finished the ploughs are put upon 
other land in order to get as much as possible ploughed before severe 
weather sets in. Some land ploughed during harvest has now been 
cross-ploughed with doubled breasted ploughs and thrown into ridges, 
where it will remain till it is required either for spring corn or roots. 
Land that is so treated now always comes to hand in splendid order 
in spring, and the process of sowing spring corn in it is a speedy and 
satisfactory undertaking. It is said that land so exposed to the influence 
of winter weather loses a certain or uncertain per-centage of nitrogen. 
If this be so, the advantages, on the other hand, are so great that 
autumn culture commends itself io all good farmers. Only have sufficient 
drainage to carry superfluous moisture off quickly, throw up the land 
roughly to expose it to the action of the weather, and we can then 
easily and profitably restore any small loss of fertility. Economy is 
good, by all means let us practise it, but depend upon it there is very 
little to be gained in trying to reduce loss or gain upon the land to 
fractions. A little common sense here is just as desirable as it is in 
most things ; do not let us forget this. 
Webb and Sons’ Root Crop Competition. -A large number of 
agriculturists competed for the valuable prizes offered by Messrs. Webb 
and Sons, of the Royal Seed Establishment, Wordsley, Stourbridge, for 
roots grown from their seed and with the aid of their special manures. Mr. 
Edward Bennett, farm steward to the Right Hon. the Earl of Dart¬ 
mouth, Patshull Farm, Wolverhampton, who officiated as Judge, has 
made his awards as follows :—-Class 1.—For 5 acres of Webbs’ Imperial 
Swede grown with the aid of Webbs’ special manure in the counties of 
Salop, Hereford, Montgomery, Stafford, Warwick, Oxford, or Leicester. 
First prize, value £15 15s., Mr. A. Streeton, Wichnor, Burton-on-Trent ; 
weight per acre, 37 tons, 0 cwt., 2 qrs., 24 lbs. Second prize, value 
£10 10s., Mr. W. Humphreys, Evenall, Oswestry; weight per acre, 
31 tons, 5 cwt,, 2 qrs., 24 lbs. Third prize, value £5 5s., Mr. F. Kibbler, 
Wellesbourne, Warwick ; weight per acre, 31 tons, 5 cwt. Class 2.— 
For 3 acres of Webbs’ Mangolds—any one variety—grown with the aid 
of Webbs’ special manure in the same counties as class 1. Prize, value 
£5 5s., Mr. R. Harvey, Darlaston, Stone ; weight per acre, 45 tons, 
13 cwt., 2 qrs., 8 lbs. Class 3.—For 5 acres of Webbs’ Imperial Swede 
grown with the aid of Webbs’ special manure in the counties of Wor¬ 
cester, Gloucester, or Cheshire. First prize, value £10 10s., Mr. A. G. 
Potier, Leigh Court, Worcester ; weight per acre, 35 tons, 5 cwt., 2 qrs., 
24 lbs. Second prize, value £5 5s., Mr. A. Hocknell, Newtown, Audlem ; 
weight per acre, 30 tons. Class 4. —For 3 acres of Webbs’ Mangolds— 
any one variety—grown with the aid of Webbs’ special manue in the 
counties as class 2. Prize, value £5 5s., Mr. J. Pocock, Twig worth, 
Gloucester ; weight per acre, 58 tons, 18 cwt., 2 qrs., 8 lbs. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
CAMDEN SQUARE, LONDON. 
Lat. 51° 82' 40" N.; Long. 0° 8'0" W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
DATE. | 9 A.M. I IN THE DAY. 
1888. 
November. 
Barome¬ 
ter at 32® 
and Sea 
Level. 
Hygrome- 
ter. 1 s a 
t or* 
Temp, of 
, soil at 
1 foot. 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperatuie 
a 
3 
Dry. 
>» 
Wet. So 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
sun. 
On 
grass 
Inches. 
(leg 
dee. 
dee. 
dee. 
deg. 
dee. 
dog. 
In. 
Sunday . 
11 
29-841 
40.1 
45 9 N.E. 
43 3 
48.2 
39 4 
50.0 
34 8 
— 
Monday. 
12 
5r9 75L 
47 3 
47 0 fr.E. 
415 
53 0 
45 0 
54.6 
39 3 
0. • 7 i 
'I'uesday .... 
13 
19.406 
52.6 
50.5 1 S.E. 
46 0 
55 6 
48.2 
75.0 
4 .7 
— 
Wednesday.. 
14 
29 929 
49.5 
49.2 S. 
46.0 
76.2 
44.0 
76.0 
36 0 
o.np 
Thursday.... 
15 
30.14 > 
51.9 
50 3 S. 
46 8 
58 8 
49.4 
60.2 
44 5 
0.06 ! 
Friduy . 
16 
J <).< 8 4 
.'8 3 
55.9 S. 
48 2 
59.9 
51.4 
64.0 
5«.2 
— 
Saturday .... 
17 
30.067 
51.2 
47 2 S.W. 
1 48 6 
54.7 
46.7 
72.4 
40.f> 
0 93! 
29 839 
510 
49.4 
4tV2 
55.2 
4(>.4 
64.4 
4 s 2 
0.283 
REMARKS. 
ll«h.— Dul\ fogzy, and damp throughout. 
I 12ili.—Drill cloudy day, wet evening. 
13th.-Fair morning, with occasional glea ns of sun, bright tfternoo.i and night. 
! 14th.—Fine and generally bright. 
15th.—Dull nnd rainy. 
16th.—Overcast and windy morning, 8 ’gh c . shower ; b »nt 2 P.M., fine fer wards. 
17th.—Fine and generally bright day, shov er n e\e -ing. FI i- lunar halo t midni t. 
A cloudy ard r^.per damp week. Temperature t>° «.bove th it of the preceding w< ek, 
end 6° above it «ver ge. This is the *.reatest excess in any week since February.— 
i O. J. SYMONS. 
(Ti be continued.) 
