230 
JOURN'AL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
f March 15. 1B88. 
The reason of this is the failure of the Turnip crop upon so many 
larms last year, and we repeatedly hear it said that after all 
Turnips cannot be so necessary for ewes as was supposed ; and we 
are even told that Turnips may have been the cause of much of the 
heavy loss in past years. Those of our readers who have followed 
our teaching during the last few years will remember how per¬ 
sistently we have warned them against folding upon Turnips before 
the lambing, nor have we been content with a mere warning, but 
ave have shown how we and others have suffered heavy losses from 
their premature use. Even so late as last year we lost about a score 
of ewes from the disobedience of one of our shepherds, who was not 
sufficiently under the master’s eye for a thorough check to be kept 
upon his doings. His dismissal will, we hope, tend to enforce 
attention to our orders in future. We may here mention in passing 
how frequently we experience a feeling of envy against those 
farmers whose landpies well well together, so that they can see all 
that is necessary once or twice daily. We have a tenant who farms 
a thousand acres of land, most of which he sees twice every day, 
but two of the fai-ms we have in hand are nearly fifty miles apart, 
and the others are so scattered that we cannot see as much of any 
of them as we should like. Depend upon it, if farming is to be 
successful there must be constant and close supervision of every 
detail of the work done at all seasons of the year. 
Returning now to the lambing, we quote from a daily contem 
porary the following important statement:—“ From every quarter we 
hear that there have been fewer losses of ewes, as well as a smaller 
proportion of abortions and still-born lambs than usual, and this is 
universally attributed to the inability of flockmasters to feed their 
in-lamb ewes on any Turnips this season. Some theorists are, 
parrot-like, repeating the hackneyed phrase that farmers are learn¬ 
ing a serviceable lesson this year by making the discovery that 
in-lamb ewes should have few roots ; but the experienced and in¬ 
telligent among them learnt it long since. Owing to the great 
losses of ewes and lambs in the winter of 1876-7 Mr. Henry Woods 
of Merton sent out 500 circulars to the leading flockmasters of the 
kingdom to ascertain by unmistakeable figures how their experience 
■differed. In one case, from the county of Norfolk, he found that 
in a flock of 590 ewes there had been 130 abortions and 105 deaths 
of ewes, while in another flock of 344 from the same county not a 
single abortion or death was experienced. One Warwickshire flock 
of 340 suffered 98 abortions and 36^ deaths, while another of 
729 in the same county chronicled only four abortions and seven 
deaths. The greatest exemption from losses was probably that of 
a large flock of 1206 in Kent, in which there were no abortions 
and only five deaths. Mr. Woods, in making known the results, 
said, “ I have taken fifty cases where the feeding and results are 
most satisfactory, and fifty other cases just the reverse. The fifty 
good cases comprise 25,281 ewes, and in that number the cases of 
abortion only amounted to 126, and the deaths from all causes, up 
to the end of April, to be 222. The fifty unsatisfactory cases com¬ 
prise 21,682 ewes. Of these twenty-two do not report the actual 
number of abortions, contenting themselves with acknowledging 
heavy losses, but the remaining twenty-eight alone give the start¬ 
ling number of 1884. In ten the owners, while admitting great 
loss of ewes, are absolutely silent as to numbers, yet the remaining 
forty give a total of 1255 deaths.” 
Although these facts were thoroughly made public at the time, 
and farmers have repeatedly gone through ■worse seasons of scarcity 
for roots than the present one, in which they have invariably 
suffered less from deaths amongst the sheep than when Turnips are 
plentiful, the bulk of them still proceed in the beaten track of pur¬ 
suing costly culture and allowing their flocks to feed ad libitum on 
Turnips when they are plentiful. Even in the present season we 
■have seen ewes and lambs out on Swedes half covered with snow, 
the ewes greeddy eating the half-frozen roots, the lambs standing 
about in the mire caused by trampling the snow into the soft soil 
beneath it. Worse still, if possible, is it to see the pregnant ewes 
n other folds out upon Turnips with a sea of mud around them, 
where they cannot lie down, and into which they sink at every step, 
so that mere movement causes a severe strain upon the entire 
frame. Under such conditions is matter for wonder that losses of 
both ewes and lambs are numerous ? 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Frost and snow have left us, and we have March vvind and sunshine 
to dry up the land, so that by the time this note is printed we hope to 
be in the full swing of sowing the spring corn. First of all come spring 
Tares for the sheep, then Peas and Beans, followed by Barley and Oats. 
Clovers and Grasses will either be sown with the corn, or, as many 
wisely prefer, it will be sown when the corn is well above the surface, in 
order that the growth of such forage plants may be sufficiently retarded 
to keep it from growing so much as to prove a hindrance to the corn 
harvest. 
Glad indeed are we to find so many farmers coming to us for 
advice about the use of chemical manures with their spring corn. In 
every case they have been told not to expect good results unless 
other points of culture have full attention, for manure alone will not 
improve a crop if the land be wet or very foul. Where pasture was 
under snow throughout February, and a week or more of the present 
month, the manure was not applied. No time should be lost in using 
it once, for if it is not used while there is a probability of rain the 
results will be the reverse of satisfactory. As much as possible of the 
manure is drilled with the corn, so that the moist soil may render it 
soluble b 3 'the time the young plant requires assistance. In plants, just 
as in animals, we like to promote vigorous growth from the first, and 
we can only hope to do this by haying an ample store of fertility in 
the soil at the time of sowing. In some recent experiments the plan of 
withholding nitrogenous manures till the plant is in full growth has been 
tried with not very satisfactory results, for the simple reason that 
readily as such manures dissolve they cannot do so without moisture. 
To withhold them till late in spring involves so much risk of having 
little or no rain for such a purpose that we decidedly prefer sowing 
with the drill or before it, so as to ensure the manure being sufficiently 
blended with the soil to cause it to dissolve. In the excelsior drill we 
have an implement which sows seed and manure at the same time in a 
simple and expeditious manner. 
AGRICULTURAL BALANCE SHEET. 
Please permit me to thank most heartily the author of your agri¬ 
cultural article on page 18.o for his very courteous reply to my request 
re the above subject. I had not the slightest idea of in any way 
doubting his veracity when writing my note. If the wording suggested 
this it was not intentional. What prompted me to write just then was 
an observation made to me (when mentioning your correspondent’s 
note to him) b^' an experienced land agent—viz., that it was easier to 
write articles on scientific farming than to produce a balance at the 
bank after paying all the expenses of such farming. The cause of the 
said agent making this remark was in reference to a note in the Yorlt- 
stliire Post penned by the writer of this, which note I herewith forward 
for your inspection. You will see that part of the substance of my 
note in the Post was a repetition of some of your able coadjutor’s 
remarks in your columns. Had I personally doubted his veracity I do 
not think I should have repeated his sayings, which I practically did. 
As a further proof of my not doing this, I may remark in conclusion 
that for some time past I have had a wish that circumstances would 
only have allowed me to send a strong active lad of mine for a year or 
two as a worker under his tuition. This cannot be, though.—C. J. H. 
[The letter referred to, and a very good one it is, is of the nature 
indicated by “ C. J. H.”] 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS, 
CAMDEN SQDAllE, LONDON. 
Lat. 61° 82'40"N.; Long. 0° 8'0" W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
DATE. 
9 A.M. 
IN THE DAT. 
Hygrome- 
fl . 
Shade Tem- 
Radiation 
a 
1888. 
ter. 
13 a 
or* 
perature. 
Temperature 
a) 
March. 
iss 
In 
On 
Dry. 
Wet. 
So 
H 
Max. 
Min. 
sun. 
grass 
Inches. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
In. 
Punday.. 
4 
29.954 
32.4 
31.8 
s.w. 
84.2 
43.2 
28.0 
82.2 
23.1 
_ 
Monday. 
5 
S0.05S 
338 
30.4 
K. 
34.L 
42.6 
27.2 
79-4 
20.8 
IMeaday .... 
G 
30.0i9 
39.4 
38.3 
N. 
34.4 
49.2 
33.6 
89.7 
24.7 
Wednesday.. 
7 
30.104 
89.9 
38.0 
s.w. 
34.8 
60.1 
86.1 
84.7 
27.2 
0.010 
Thursday.... 
8 
29.83.3 
46.3 
45.6 
s. 
362 
61.2 
39.8 
57.2 
38.2 
0.262 
Friday . 
9 
20.47G 
608 
49.1 
s.w. 
38.2 
52.6 
46 I 
61.9 
45.2 
0.035 
Saturday .... 
10 
29.361 
48.6 
46.9 
w. 
39.8 
56.4 
46.3 
92.8 
42.8 
0.350 
29.830 
41.6 
40.0 
3G.0 
49 3 
36.7 
783 
8 .7 
0.657 
REMARKS. 
•nil.— Fair, with a good deal of sun, but cold wind. 
sill.—Cloudy early and at times in the afternoon, otherwise fine. 
fl:h.—Fine, but at times cloudy, especially in the afternoon. 
7th.—Beautiful morning, but generally c.oudy in the afternoon. 
Hth.—Stormy from S.W., dull and damp. 
Wth.—Rain in the small hours; dull day with occasional showers, 
luth.—null and drizzly till 10 A.M., then finer with a little sun, and bright afternoo i. 
Sudden change of temperature In the middle of the week, so that the weekly meani 
are very near the average for the season; and with the higher tC'nperjture came some 
very acceptable raln.-G. J. Symons. 
