58 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ January 19, IfSS. 
and food are perhaps the two most important factors worthy of 
attention as affecting final results. Givenienough of both wm cannot 
well have lambs too early, but our system of flock management 
must be well digested and our plans elaborated for the entire year. 
We saw a large flock of ewes a few days ago upon an absolutely 
bare pasture, where they were having trough food and Mangolds, 
but they could get no grass, for the herbage was eaten off closely, 
and the ewes had evidently been on short commons. If this was 
the case at the beginning of January, what will it be if we have a 
late spring ? Why, the flock will either have to be sold outright, 
er both ewes and lambs will be very low in condition. We have a 
large surplus quantity of Mangolds, and we have ample reason to 
expect 20s. a ton. for them by the end of February, when many a 
fiockmaster will be eager to buy. Anything like a fair profit upon 
the progeny of underfed ewes is a very doubtful matter, or rather 
we should say iS not doubtful, for we know it is not to be had 
Again we say, if the animals of the farm are to be bred profitably 
they must be well fed from the birth. Let any of our readers 
having a flock look closely into the condition of it, and if it proves 
to be too numerous for the means at their disposal there should be 
a reduction in the number when it can be done without a serious 
sacrifice. Season after season do we see ewes with very young 
lambs sent to the auction mart to be sold for what speculators 
care to give. The loss upon such a transaction is greatly to be 
deplored, because it might so easily have been avoided by the 
exercise of a little forethought. 
There can be no doubt that many farmers are much concerned 
just now about the provision of food for the flock, and it is equally 
certain that many of them have an ample store of food by them of 
which they do not avail themselves simply through ignorance of its 
value. 
Roots, roots, is their cry for sheep food in winter, yet we know 
by analysis that straw contains twice the proportion of fat and 
flesh-formers to that contained in any root crop, and we have only 
to chaff it to render it suitable for sheep food. If we have occasion 
to render the dietary a little more nourishing, a moderate addition 
of Oats will answer the purpose admirably, for, subject to the 
crucial test of analysis. Oats are known to contain at least ten 
decimal parts more of fat and flesh-formers than the best linseed 
cake. If, then, we require a perfect nourishing sheep food we 
have only to chaff unthreshed Oat sheaves, and we have it. In 
point of fact both economy and utility tell us to mix some 
chaffed Barley straw with the chafled Oats to avoid waste by 
the use of too nutritious food. Why will farmers continue run 
ning up heavy cake bills when they have it in their power to 
avoid them ? Why, also, should an undue proportion of farm 
land be under roots ? It is weU known that root crops are exceed¬ 
ingly costly and speculative, and if we can avoid much of the 
outlay hitherto incurred in the cultivation of such crops we are 
bound to do so. So many bullocks and sheep and so many acres 
of roots has been an article of faith with farmers for a long time. 
We may now advantageously discard the bullocks and dispense 
with two-thirds of the roots. Only let us take care to increase the 
acreage of pasture and green crops sufficiently to insure enough 
green food at all seasons of the year for the sheep, and then with 
plenty of the trough food we recommend we may very well dis¬ 
pense with most if not all of the roots. 
The lessons of adversity are teaching us many useful things. 
We may fairly claim to be successful in farming even now, but we 
are not content with bare success, and are constantly on the alert to 
effect really useful reforms in our practice. The present lambing 
season is certainly an opportunity for doing so, and we intend 
taking the dietary of the lambs entirely into our own hands. We 
have shown that it is our practice to begin giving the lambs some 
trough food as soon as they can take it, and we intend trying a 
mixture of coarse Oatmeal and bran, with a slight addition of salt 
at the outset this season. All that the lambs require is sound, 
finely divided, nourishing farinaceous food, and by the aid of a 
little common sense we think a farmer ought to be ab'e to prepare 
such food from home-grown produce. It is claimed for special 
mixtures that they possess important medicinal properties which 
tend to keep the lambs sound and healthy. We know that a little 
Fenugreek imparts a savoury aromatic flavour to such mixtures, and 
we strongly suspect that some such addition is all that specialists 
use in the way of drugs. 
(To be continued.) 
WORK OK THE HOME FARM. 
So far the winter has proved to be favourable for work on the land. 
But little snow has fallen, frost has not been severe, and the land is not 
sodden by rain, so that ploughing has gone on with but little inter¬ 
mission save when the horses have been required for the carting of corn. 
For us this is most fortunate, as in addition to our onlinary farm work 
some three hundred acres of exhausted land came upon our hands at 
Michaelmas, and we have still got much of it to plough. W^e have, 
however, finished ploughing the home farm, and have sent off all the 
horses and ploughs thence to help plough the poor land. Unfortunately 
for us this poverty-stricken farm is also very foul with couch grass, and 
our work upon it this year will be of an arduous nature. It is almost 
disheartening to have to take such land in hand, more especially for us, 
as we had just got the farms in hand into good order, and they were 
showing a handsome margin of profit. Landlords’ farming is often 
spoken of by tenant farmers as certain to fail, and we shall have some¬ 
thing to say about that very soon. AVe as a landlord’s agent have 
proved farming to be so profitable that it is a moot point whether U) 
let any more farms at the very low rents now offered by prospective 
tenants. This thought occurs to us with especial force just now, as we 
have had the accounts of all the farms under our care balanced, and 
we find a decided improvement during what has been termed the worst 
year that farmers of our day have known. 
Our readers know full well how we have repeatedly pointed out for 
their guidance what to avoid and what to do in farm management. We 
now mention something of the result of our work to show how tho¬ 
roughly in earnest we are, for before all things we are bound to be 
practical, and we cannot afford to indulge in untried theories which 
may or may not succeed under the test of practical application. With 
bacl or good land we have done all we could to turn it up roughly to 
the action of frost, snow, rain, and wind. AA'e began doing this imme¬ 
diately after harvest, and when the winter corn was sown the ploughing 
was pushed on as fast as possible, but we could not get all of it done 
before the end of the old year as we so much wished to do. AVe have 
said that the land is not sodden by rain ; in proof of this we may 
mention the fact that soil ploughed a few weeks ago has quite recently 
been thrown into ridges without any difficulty. 
THE HESSIAN FLY AND ITS PARASITES. 
Observations upon the Hessian fly, so-called, or properly Ceci' 
domyia destructor, made in North Britain, brought to light the fac 
that it has not reached our island without being accompanied (or folt 
lowed) by several of its minu.e parasitic enemies. Probably it is in 
some measure due to the proceedings of these that it has not extended 
itself over a larger area in those districts where it first appeared. One 
of the most curious facts is, that these parasites have been verified as 
occurring in Russia chiefly, at least four of the species ; the fifth has been 
recorded in America, but in Germany aLso. This rather supports the 
theory that the recent visitation came to us through imports from 
Russia.— Entomologist. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERA’’ATIONS. 
CAMDEN SQ0ABB, LONDON. 
Lat. 51° 32' 40” N.; Long. 0° 8' 0” W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
date. ’ 9 A.M. I In the Oat. 
1888. 
Hygrome¬ 
ter. 
fl • 
Ot3 
"z a 
Hi 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature 
a 
January. 
Bai 
ter 
anc 
L 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Go 
H 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
sun. 
On 
grass 
Sunday 
8 
Inches. 
3()..5ll 
deg 
47.1 
deg. 
46 8 
w. 
deg, 
31.9 
deg, 
61.8 
deg. 
43 3 
deg. 
61.1 
deg. 
39.4 
Ir. 
Monday. 
0 
30 
43 6 
43 6 
N.W. 
40 7 
45.8 
43.4 
54,8 
4'.S 
Tuesday .... 
lu 
30 738 
3;L9 
?'3.9 
Calm. 
40.6 
4.5 6 
83.2 
48.1 
29.4 
Wednesday.. 
u 
3'*.<18.5 
3.5.3 
a5.3 
Calm. 
39 3 
38.2 
32,0 
38.4 
29.1 
Thursday .... 
12 
30.049 
34 7 
34 7 
N E. 
39.0 
38 3 
303 
3H.3 
S4.1 
Friday . 
13 
30.37,5 
.^6 2 
36.0 
N.E. 
389 
87.9 
34.1 
38.8 
Saturday .... 
14 
30.5(1 i 
31.3 
31.1 
Calm. 
38.7 
36.6 
29 7 
36 2 
3n.i 
- 
3').641 
o 
87A 
39.5 
41 9 
35.6 
44 2 
S4.n 
0.012 
/ 
REMARKS. 
(xonernlly overcast,but fair nt times. 
Ofh.—Thick white fo^ except at mid-day. 
10th.—F ok more or le^s all day ; deuse till IL A.M., and very dense in tlie eveiilaj. 
11th.—heu'-e fojf all day, ® 
12 th.—Fo^, dense at times In the morning ; fa’r afternoon. 
J3fh.—Overcast d iv.slightly foggv at tiuie.^. 
14th,—Dull, with varying fog. 
A verv dull and rather fogey week, with very h’gh barometer, and, of course* 
little wind, niid eqaable temperatures. Xo ralufall but aeposltiju qI wet and dirty fog. 
—G. J, SYM 'N'8. 
