76 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER 
[ January 2 C 1 If*"* 
PLAJiTS IS POTS. 
B. d, B. d. 
Aialia Sieboldi, dozen .. 
6 
0 to 12 
0 
Arbor vit® (golden) dozen 
6 
0 
9 
0 
„ (common),dozen.. 
0 
0 
0 
0 
Azalea, dozen . • . • ,. 
24 
0 
42 
0 
Begonias, dozen .. ,. 
0 
0 
u 
0 
Chrysanthemums, dozen 
0 
0 
0 
0 
Cineraria, dozen ., .. 
10 
0 
12 
0 
Cyclamen, dozen •. 
12 
0 
24 
0 
Dracsena terminalis, doz. 
SO 
0 
60 
0 
viridis, dozen.. 
12 
0 
24 
0 
BDiphyllcm. dozen .. 
10 
0 
18 
0 
Erica, various, dozen .. 
9 
0 
18 
0 
Enonymus, in var., dozen 
6 
0 
18 
0 
iflvergreens, in var., dozen 
6 
0 
24 
0 
Ferns, in variety, dozen 
4 
0 
18 
0 
Ficus elastioa, each 
1 
6 
7 
0 
Foliage Plants, var., each 
2 
0 
10 
0 
s. 
d. 
B. 
a. 
Fuchsia, dozen. 
0 
0 
to 0 
0 
Hyacinths, dozen ,. .. 
6 
0 
12 
0 
„ (Roman), doz. 
9 
0 
10 
0 
Hydrsngfa, dozen .. .. 
0 
0 
0 
0 
Lilies Valley, dozen 
18 
0 
24 
0 
Lilinm lancifolinm, doz. 
0 
0 
0 
0 
Marguerite Daisy, dozen 
9 
0 
12 
0 
Mignonette, dozen .. .. 
0 
0 
0 
0 
Musk, dozen . 
0 
0 
0 
0 
Myrtles, dozen. 
6 
0 
12 
0 
Palms, in var.,each 
Felargoniuihs, dozen 
2 
6 
21 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
,, scarlet, doz. 
Poinsettia, dozen .. . • 
8 
0 
12 
0 
12 
0 
15 
0 
Solanum, dozen . • 
9 
0 
12 
0 
Tnlips, dozen pots .. .. 
6 
0 
9 
0 
LAMBING TIME. 
No flock of ewes, however carefully they may have been 
selected, can pass through the lambing time without some risk of— 
we may say some loss. A flock of young ewes will sustain few 
losses, but yet there will, even in such a flock, be a few delicate 
animals, and some will prove troublesome—some die. It is 
obvious, therefore, that all possible precaution should be taken 
beforehand to prevent such losses, and much may undoubtedly be 
done to that desirable end. 
We have devoted our first two papers chiefly to remarks 
upon the dietary of pregnant ewes, just because experience has 
shown that careful feeding has very much to do with successful 
lambing. Shepherds will assume a pi-ofound air, and assure one 
that a certain daily quantity of roots before lambing are essential 
for the ewes’ safety. The aim of most shepherds is to induce one 
to regard their calling in the light of a “ mystery but we long ago 
resolved to ascertain what were the requirements of sheep and 
how best to treat them both at lambing time and at other seasons 
of the year. We thoroughly recommend young farmers especially 
to take a flock in hand for a year or two themselves, and learn 
thoroughly the management of ewes, lambs, hoggets, and crones. 
Once acquired, such knowledge will prove invaluable for life, and 
we hold that no farmer is really competent to control shepherds till 
he has practically become a shepherd himself. Acting upon this 
conviction we insisted upon our own bo 3 'S helping with all details 
of flock work when they became our assistants, with the result that 
one of them has alreadj' made his way to the honourable position 
of assistant agent in the management of two large estates, and de¬ 
pend upon it he will eventually be all the better manager for having 
held the plough and helped care for the sheep. 
Our work of preparation for the lambing consisted of having a 
warm snug fold made with hurdle set in a double line wide enough 
apart to admit of plenty of straw put in closely between them. In 
addition to this outer enclosure there are numerous cribs around the 
inside of it, formed of thatched hurdles at the sides and for the 
roof. There are also divisions of thatched hurdles intersecting the 
interior, so as to break the force of the cold winds and to render 
the entire fold as snug as possible. Close by the fold is the shep¬ 
herd’s portable hut on wheels with a rude couch and fireplace 
inside it. Such shelter we consider essential, and we certainly have 
no sympathy with those flockmasters who provide no shepherd’s 
hut because they think he may get inside and neglect the sheep. 
We know it for a fact that this harsh treatment is enforced by 
more than one owner of large ewe flocks, and we know also that 
they are wrong. To insist upon a shepherd being out with his 
flock through the long nights at this season of the j'ear without 
reasonable provision for his tomfort is absolute cruelty, and we 
should say it would lead to negligence rather than the exercise of 
vigilance. We do not make much provision of drugs and nostrums 
for the ewes. A few packets of Epsom salts, a bottle of castor oib 
a large bottle of Calvert’s carbolic oil and a syringe, some ergot 
of Rye, sweet spirits of nitre, and some brandy are all we require. 
WORK ON THE HOilE FARM. 
We have certainly been liighlj’’ favoured with fine weather for bring- * 
ing up arrears of work upon the land this winter, and up to the time of 
writing this note have been able to keep the ploughs going notwith¬ 
standing that we have had some sharp frosts. Most anxious have we 
been to do all we could before snow locks up the land and prevents 
such work from being done, for our work of bringing poor farms into 
good order is an arduous undertaking in which we have to make every 
stroke tell. Withal it is most interesting work to watch the change 
from poverty of condition and lean crops to fertility, plenty, a bounti¬ 
ful j'ield, and a profit upon our labour. We do not speak rashly in this 
matter, for year after year we have farms falling in under the agricul¬ 
tural depression, and we have to take farm after farm from the ineom- 
petent hands of bankrupt farmers, and to render them really fertile, 
elean, and profitable to the owner of the land. 
In this work we should like to proceed with deliberation, to drain, 
clean, and manure in due sequence of order, but the imperative necessity 
which exists to get something out of the land even during the first year 
compels us to make the best of things and to drain and manure for as 
speedy a return as may be. Faulty practice is it we know to crop land 
that is foul with perennial weeds. Well, we will have the drills wide 
apart to give free scope for the use of horse and hand hoes, but we will 
apply an extra dose of manure to enable the land to bear its double 
burden of corn and weeds, and once we get the corn off next harvest 
up comes the land to be got as clean as possible in autumn. 
We are already at work upon our scheme of manuring for the year, 
for we have to give much thought to this work, and to thoroughlj' 
digest the whole matter beforehand in order to ensure the timely and 
correct use of the manures upon each farm. Our root crops will this 
year be materially reduced, for the cultivation of such crops is an ex¬ 
pensive affair, and we only need them for sheep, as we have practical!}' 
given up keeping bullocks for making farmyard manure. 
OUR LETTER BOX. 
Intercropping' on Fruit Farm (^Tovr Tower ').—Your new farm is 
a veritable Kentish fruit plantation, and we warn j’ou not to exhaust 
the generous soil by trying to get too much out of it. Bush fruits at 
6 feet apart will soon require the whole of the space, and the spreading 
roots must not be destroyed or broken at all, and therefore as j'ou find 
them making way through the soil it must be left altogether undis¬ 
turbed, and not liroken up by ploughing or digging. For the first two 
years while the bushes are small j'Ou might have two rows of Beans 
down the centre of each 6-foot alley, gi'iiuling the Beans ami cutting the 
stalks into chaff for horse food. In the 21-feet alleys your plan of grow¬ 
ing Tares is a good one, provided j'ou keep them full 5 feet from the 
fruit trees. Eventually you will find it answer best to fill the entire 
space with bush fruits or Strawberries, and to purchase food for the 
horses. You require no seed drill for so small a farm. Any handy man 
can sow you Tare seed broadcast, but you must have a small harrow to 
cover it with. We are intimatelj- acquainted with j'our soil, and you 
may like to know that under good cultivation some j'ears ago Black 
Currants in your locality yielded a crop of 16 quarts per bush. We 
mention this in order to show you that fruit-growing shmdd lie your 
chief aim. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
CAMDEN SQUAUE, LONDON. 
Lat. 51° 3S'40"N.; Ling. 0° 8'0"'W.; AltituJe, 111 feet. 
DAT B. 
9 A.M. 
IN THE DAY. 
Hygrome- 
a • 
Shade Tern- 
Radiation 
c 
1888. 
ter. 
perature. 
Temperature 
a 
Ph 
January. 
In 
On 
EQfi .1 
Dry. 
Wet. 
5o 
Max. 
Min. 
sun. 
grass 
Inches. 
deg 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
dpg. 
Ir. 
Sunday . 
15 
30.50r» 
34.4 
32 4 
y.E. 
88 0 
35.2 
31.1 
198 
27.0 
_ 
Monday. 
16 
3ii.460 
32 7 
32,7 
K. 
37 3 
?4 1 
31.8 
363 
29.2 
_ 
Tuesday .... 
17 
30.547 
83.4 
31.6 
E. 
36 9 
S.').4 
S2‘i 
40.2 
27.0 
_ 
Wednesday.. 
18 
3* >.588 
3?.6 
31.8 
y.H*. 
36 4 
36 1 
27 8 
89.7 
23.3 
_ 
Thursday.... 
19 
SO (558 
35 8 
34.0 
S.E. 
36 1 
36 4 
32.1 
36.6 
80.4 
_ 
Friday . 
20 
30.520 
31.2 
30 8 
K. 
36 2 
45.7 
29 8 
48.4 
25.2 
0.11.8 
Saturday .... 
21 
30.124 
45 2 
45.2 
S.W. 
36.6 
49 9 
80.6 
51.4 
25.0 
0.130 
30,486 
350 
84.1 
36.8 
39.0 
30 8 
41 3 
26.8 
0.298 
REMARKS. 
l.itli.—Fine, bnl gusty, and rather bleak. 
ISili.—Oveniast all day. 
iTth.—Cloudy morning, fair afternoon, bright evening and night. 
Iftih.—(Boudy all day. 
19th.—Dull Willi hiKh foff. 
20 th.—Fine and bright, but with f^light fo^. 
2l8t.- Very wet morning, eampall day wiih no snn ; moonlight after 11 r.>f. 
A cloudy and somewhat dull week, generally dry, and practically free from fog. 
Temperature aLout b» low the average, and neaily 4^^ below tliat of the preceding 
week.-G. J. cYM N?. 
