22 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ Jannar; 5, 1888. 
FBUIT. 
a. d. e. d. 
A )ple 0 , } sieve.1 6 to 3 6 
Nova Scotia and 
Canada barrel 10 0 IS 0 
C)b8, lOOlbs.,. 5-5 0 0 0 
Grspes, per lb. 10 3 0 
Lemons, case.10 0 15 0 
s. d. s. d. 
Orim^es, par 100 .. 4 Oto 8 0 
Petrs, dozen.10 16 
Pine Apple’, English, 
per tb .16 20 
St, Michael Pines, each SO 5 0 
OUR RENT AUDIT. 
Yes, even under the depression we hold an annual rent audit 
■dinner, and we still find it “ pays ” to do so in the full sense with 
which that term is used by farmers. This annual gathering 
answers our purpose in several important ways, and though the 
collection of rent is in these hard times a matter of primary im¬ 
portance, yet not for that alone do we consider it worth while 
holding an audit. We meet many of the tenants of property under 
Kjur control every week, and glad are we to know that our market 
stand is regarded by them as a sort of rallying point, where they 
can meet us and each other for cheery kindly greetings, and for 
the transaction of business, but at the rent audit we enter fully 
into an interchange of opinions—a discussion of the year’s work 
and its results, and of possible improvement of practice in the 
future. 
After dinner discussions are said to have the characteristic of a 
somewhat rosy tinge—a hopeful cheery view is then taken of 
life’s burdens, and we grant that it is so in a very considerable 
degree at our rent audit. To have paid his rent in full under 
existing circumstances is an achievement of which any farmer may 
well feel proud, and doubtless the happy sense of it imparts a zest 
to his enjoyment of the dinner which nothing else could do. But 
en the other hand the deed and the dinner impart the courage of 
•(spinions which are subsequently often outspoken in an unmistake- 
aible manner. Well, we like to hear the views of earnest practical 
men, and it is part of our experience that farmers are not a very 
demonstrative section of the community. We strive in the 
speeches which come after the dinner to excite discussion, and by 
the proverbial rubbing of heads together to impart and gain some¬ 
thing which may do some good to all of us during the ensuing year. 
Our readers hardly need to be reminded that our views upon 
the cultivation of the soil are clear, comprehensive, and we may 
add thoroughly practical ; we take advantage of the audit to lay 
those views clearly before our hearers, and we boldly challenge dis¬ 
cussion. The year, its work and results are all passed in review, 
the success or failure of crops, possible improvements in practice, 
new lights on any branch of farming are taken one by one, and 
details are treated of as fully as possible without becoming tedious. 
By imparting a popular tone to our address, by making slight 
personal appeals to any farmer whom we have found to possess 
special knowledge upon some important point of culture, we are 
able to fix and hold the attention of our hearers. We do not claim 
to carry them entirely with us, for there are dissentients among 
them who give as much “ chaff ” for our corn ; but then criticism is 
always useful, for it promotes discussion, and we often find that 
Ihe man who is most strongly in opposition to our views for the 
moment eventually adopts them and becomes our staunch sup¬ 
porter. This important fact is probably owing to our habit of 
avoiding any pretence to infallibility ; we give a plain statement of 
our work, and explain results whether good or bad. 
Perhaps we were a little egotistical when we told how our best 
Wheat field was that upon which only chemical manure had been 
used, with the satisfactory result of a crop of fully 50 bushels of 
corn and 2 tons of straw per acre, and we could not but invite 
attention to figures for one moment, as we explained that by the 
moderate computation of market values our corn and straw repre¬ 
sented a total valus per acre of £10 4s., or 323. per quarter for the 
corn, and 50s. a ton for the straw. We know that straw can be 
had in some places for a little less than this, but we also know that 
in dairy districts it brings very much more. Compare such a crop 
with the average yield of about 30 bushels per acre, and we may 
fairly claim that farm land generally is not made to yield anything 
like a full crop. Depend upon it, many or most farmers would 
find their calling much more profitable if they had less land and 
higher farming, not model fanciful farming, but downright good 
practical work, which is the embodiment of our oft-repeated 
lesson—sound land, clean land, well drained, thoroughly porous, 
and well stored with all the requirements of the crop it is under. 
We know in our own practice that so-called “ bad” fields are only 
bad because of bad treatment, and that when brought under high 
cultivation they often exjel other parts of the farm. We had two 
examples of this upon two of the farms we have in hand this year ; 
both were under Wheat, and we had little, if any. Wheat at all 
better than those crops, so that we were told the “ bad ” fields were 
for the first time bearing really good crops. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Frost and snow have made our shepherds busy, an extra amount of 
care being now required for the management of the ewe flocks. We 
are using no roots yet, nor shall we do so till the lambing, when some 
Mangolds will be given—a few at first and more later on. We are 
fi rt mate in having plenty of grass, which has been held in reserve for 
some months specially for the present time. The ewes are upon it in 
small folds, and they have as much Pea straw in racks, and Barley 
straw chaffed in troughs, mixed with a few Oats. We are deaf to the 
entreaties of the dealers in oilcake to purchase some now for the ewes. 
We cannot afford it, and if we could we do not require the cake. Our 
sheep are well nourished, and we have no doubt that their progeny will 
be fine healthy animals. There are a few cases of foot-rot among them, 
and now that they are heavy with lamb they cannot be thrown to dress 
the feet; but we have them taken out for a quiet turn upon a road 
every morning, which certainly tends to keep under that troublesome 
disease. Preparations of the lambing folds must now be put in hand 
in order to have our arrangements complete by the middle of the 
month, when we expect our first lambs. Judging from the appearance 
of the ewes we shall have many early lambs or many twins. We select 
a place for the fold as much sheltered from cold winds as we can. 
Luckily we have a deep belt of underwood on the north and east of 
our fold, which we make quite snug by a wall of straw between hurdles 
and with numerous coils all round it inside, for which hurdles thatched 
with straw are used both for the sides and roofs. The bottom of the 
fold is kept well littered with clean straw throughout the lambing, and 
with good wholesome food and kindly gentle treatment we hope to 
avoid anything like serious losses among sheep or lambs. We repeat 
our warning to flockmasters not to let pregnant ewes have Turnips nor 
to be folded upon heavy wet land ; if they do so losses are often serious, 
and the care and labour of a year rendered useless, to say nothing of 
the value of the sheep now. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
CAMDEN SQUAllB, LONDON. 
Lit. 61° 82' 40" N.: Ling. 0° 8' 0" W.; AltltaJe, 111 feet. 
Date. 
9 A.M. 
In the DAT. 
Bain 
1887. 
December. 
1 Barome- 
Iter at 32® 
[and Sea 
1 Level. 
Hygrome¬ 
ter. 
Direction 
of Wind. 
Temp, of 
soli at 
1 foot. 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Uax. 
Min. 
In 
snn. 
On 
grass 
Inches. 
deg 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
.*Ir. 
Sunday. 
25 
29.974 
304 
30.0 
S.W. 
374) 
37.7 
298 
42 6 
24.4 
Monday. 
26 
3i>.0:9 
28 5 
28 2 
37 6 
34.8 
27 9 
54.9 
22.4 
_ 
Ihiesday 
27 
30.110 
25.5 
24 5 
X. 
36.8 
34 4 
24 3 
57.2 
19.2 
Wednesday.. 
28 
599t6 
34 1 
33.1 
N. 
36.2 
34 9 
24.9 
51.9 
21va 
__ 
Thursday.... 
59 
30.234 
2'.5 
29.6 
X E. 
35 9 
35.4 
28 0 
5iJi 
21.9 
_ 
Friday . 
30 
3(tl93 
34.9 
34.2 
x.w. 
353 
38.4 
29.7 
6".2 
21.7 
_ 
Saturday .... 
31 
30.217 
33.7 
33.7 
X. 
85.2 
36.2 
32.9 
39.3 
28.6 
— 
30.103 
OU 
80.5 
36.4 
38 0 
28 2 
51.6 
22.8 
REMARKS. 
Fine morning, with bright sunshine and white frost; fair till about 9 pm, then 
drops of rain. 
2Gth.—Finethrousrhout and cold, 
27ih.—Sharp frost in iheni^ht; cold but very sunny, 
28th.—Fine rcorning; bright afternoon. 
i9th.—Fine and bright all day. 
30th.—Hright and fine, and a little warmer. 
8Lst.—Foggy morning • fair afternoon and evening. 
A fine and cold week, the mean temperature being almost exactly at freealng poin . 
Slight falls of snow, but not enough to measure.—Q.J. SYMONS, 
