374 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
r May 3, 1888 
•went also minutely into various processes, stating that green fruits 
•might be safely stored in a cold dry air chamber, and kept in a 
fresh condition for from two to four months at a temperature of 
from 40° to 45°. For fruit evaporation he said that the numerous 
vast houses in the Hop districts could be utilised as evaporators at 
times when they at present remained unoccupied. He also briefly 
described the machinery necessary to be provided for the canning, 
bottling, and crystallisation of fruit, and for its conversion to jam. 
The discussion which ensued took a practical turn, and the necessity 
of such a co-operative association as suggested being established 
was thoroughly admitted. 
We have given the foregoing paragraph from a report of the 
■Canterbury meeting as tending to enforce the teaching of our last 
nrticle. It is also important as affording additional proof of the 
great want of thoroughness and knowledge of their business on the 
part of many farmers, and this is all the more remarkable because 
it has reference to actual fruit farmers, men to the manner born, 
yet wbo have hitherto been content simply to cultivate their fruit 
tind dispose of it solely as raw produce without a thought of turn¬ 
ing part of it to account as a manufactured article. Glad are we to 
know, however, that the heavy losses of ripe fruit the year before 
last has induced several farmers to turn their attention to jam 
making and other methods of fruit preservation. We would urge 
them e.specially to see that such preserved fruit is really a pure 
first-rate article. If they do this so as to build up a reputation and 
■sustain it unblemished by any trick of trade they may feel assured 
of a demand for it. We mention this because we find it as difficult 
io purchase pure jam as it is to obtain really good butter. The jam 
generally has a slimy consistency which betrays the presence of 
gelatine, and there is a poverty of flavour 'which points to heavy 
adulteration, and of butter quite two-thirds is unpalatable either 
from cows having improper food or from the foul odours taken up 
Iiy the milk in cow house and dairy. 
Perhaps the greatest helps to success are painstaking and 
thoroughness, no matter to what branch of farming they are 
applied. In the great corn-growing districts farmers are very apt 
io pooh pooh advice about fruit or dairy farming, yet how many of 
them are worthy to take rank as first-class corn farmers ? Do we 
require a test plain and unmistakeable ? Take the returns of corn 
averages in any part of, or for the entire country, and there you 
will see that .SO bushels per acre is a full aver.age for the Whe.at 
■crop ; yet we regard that fact as proof positive of the general 
deficiency in cultural knowledge of Farmers, and may insist upon it 
that the average should be at least 10 bushels higher. We occa- 
■sionally see reports of extraordinary crops of this or that which .are 
the outcome of special efforts. Why, we ask in the name of 
common sense, do we not make special efforts every season and 
with every crop ? (^o be continued.) 
WORK ON THE HOWE FARM. 
S.atisfactory progress continues to be made with work on the land. 
Mangold sowing followed Barley sowing closely, and the -work was 
done exjieditiously and well. The preparation for Swedes was next 
taken in hand, and we hope to have them sown shortly. On the home 
farm a small field next the large Jfangold field, which was also intended 
for Mangolds, is so foul with couch grass that we decided not to sow it 
with Mangold, but to give it a bastard fallow, and sow White Turnips 
for spring feeding. April has certainly had more tears than s'.'niles this 
year, and corn hoeing has really been out of the question. Charlock is 
now visible, .and the hoes must be m.ade to move briskly by having all 
the work done by the acre, and by a slight advance in price to encourage 
the men to exert themselves. One of our bailiffs, in his zeal to excel, 
had h.ad the hoes at work among winter Beans in showery weather when 
we last went to inspect the harm in his charge, and wc had to caution 
him not to waste labour. We have had all the couch grass upon the 
surface of the Barley fields picked off by the rook boys, who are better 
so emi)loyed th.an sitting under a hedge. M'e hold that everything 
possible and reasonable should be done to get rid of weeds. We cannot 
afford to let weeds rob the soil of one grain of fertility, and we had much 
better spend ,Ss. or 4s. an acre now upon weed eradication than to see 
the flaunting yellow Charlock or scarlet Poppy later on as an unmis¬ 
takeable sign of our want of energy and c.are. We have an old allotment, 
which we have taken in hand, so badly infested with Chiekweed that in 
this showery April now stirring -ivith "duckfoot or other h.arrows would 
destroy, and we have decided to plough, harrow, and sow with Lucerne, 
so that the Lucerne plant may get a sufficient start of the inevitable 
Chiekweed to enable us to get the land clean. 
The loss of a couple of the best lambs from ■I'rhat the shepherd termed 
strong inflammation led to an inquiry, which showed that he had been 
trying to force them on by using too much lamb food. The lusty 
animals eat it greedil.y, become too full in condition, and the result was 
a fit of apoplexy ending m death. We have taken much pains to 
cx))lain the cause and effect of this to the shepherd in order that he may 
not again err through overmuch zeal. Depend upon it there is nothing 
like the master’s eye to frequently overlook and check the doings of 
ignorant workmen. 
THE FAEMERS’ CLUB AND FARM INSECTS. 
At the monthly meeting of the Farmers’ Club held on Monday 
evening at the “Salisbury Square Hotel,'’ Mr. A. Pell in the chair, Miss 
Ormerod of Torrington House, St. Albans, read to a 'arge audience, in¬ 
cluding several ladies, and with the aid of diagrams, an interesting paper 
on “ Farm Insects.” In commencing the reader expressed her belief 
that during the last few years there had been a great increase of insects 
both in farm .and orchard crops, though very little in the number of 
kinds that troubled them, and said that increase appeared to be an un¬ 
avoidable consequence of lessening the amount of wild ground by the 
march of cultivation, and also by the spread of towns and villages. 
After careful search of records she thought the injurious insects here at 
the present da.y—that was those that were seriously hurtful to their 
living field and orchard crops, and vast numbers besides less commonly 
known—had been here for fifty, seventy, or a hundred .years, and except 
the Hessian fly she did not know of any insect pest to growing crops 
which were newly introduced into this country. The enormous green 
and blue-and-white striped caterpillars of the death’s head moth, which 
especially preyed on Potato leafa e, were pre.sent in great numbers, and 
in all parts.of the kingdom in 18211. After alluding to various modes of 
arresting the ravages of insects she said they were now steadily ad¬ 
vancing in knowledge of the habits of crop pests and of practical 
measures which could at a paving rate be brought to bear upon the 
yearly causes of loss. Good cultivation and such preparation of the land 
as would destroy the shelters of pests under clods above the surface, or 
in cells beneath it, were amongst the best ways of avoiding muc'n mis¬ 
chief from a commencement of attack. Among the causes of the evil 
Miss Ormerod mentioned the scrceningsof foreign corn, which she thought 
should either not be spread, or before being spread should be rendered 
innocuou.s. In concluding she declared herself very emphatic<ally 
against the sparrow as a pest to the farmer. Taking ,a broad view of the 
st.ate of affairs all over the country, she observed, they saw increase of 
l’.asser domesticus (to distinguish him clearly from his h,armlcss name¬ 
sake the hedge-sparrow), and they also saw increase of tarm insects. 
Besides the downright mischief to corn and other things farmers were 
suffering now, and would suffer severely unless the matter were taken in 
hand, by the sparrow driving away the truly insectivorous birds, and 
notably the martin. The numbers of this bird were demonstrably 
lessening, and if the small proportion of caterpillars that the sparrows 
take were considered by the sparrow-lovers to be such .an important help 
to us, it must be a ver.y much more important evil to have the martins 
driven away which destro.yed the perfect insects by legions just when 
they were about to lay their eggs. They had. Miss Ormerod said, a 
strong warning before them in the United States of the mischief follow¬ 
ing the unchecked multiplication of the English sparrow ; and she 
estimated the total loss from insect ravages in farm crops and fruit 
farming, .and among farm stock, at froin £8,000,000 to £10,000,000 per 
annum. A discussion ensued, and on the motion of Mr; Herbert Little, 
seconded by Mr. T. Carrington Smith, a vote of thanks w.as given to 
Miss Ormerod for her paper. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
CAMDEN SQUARE, LONDON. 
Lit. 51° 32'40''N.; Long. 0° 8'0" W.; Altitade, 111 feet. 
Date. 
9 A.M. 
In the DAT. 
a 
■3 
1888. 
April. 
^ Jr 
«j 
Hygrome¬ 
ter. 
Direction 
of Wind. 
1. _ 
Temp, of 
soil at 
1 1 foot. 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature 
Dry. Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
sun. 
On 
grass 
Inches. 
deg 1 deg. 
1 deg. 
deg. 
dee. 
deg. 
deg. 
In. 
Pnnday . 
tn.^87 
412 41.9 
E. ! 45 2 
48.4 
37.(5 
65 0 
341 
0,127 
Monday. 
. 23 
20.741 
42.7 1 415 
XE. : 44.4 
4S7 
40 4 
53.6 
39.7 
0.419 
Tuesday ... 
. :4 
5-0 840 
4(J.5 ] 48 3 
K. 1 412 
47.1 
41.0 
i 
40.6 
— 
Wednesday. 
. 2.5 
3,).' 04 
40 8 39.5 
X.E. 438 
50.9 
37.1 
89.8 
86 7 
— 
Thursday... 
. 28 
8".167 
40.8 36 3 
X.E. ' 45 .5 
48.3 
36.4 
101.3 
34.4 
— 
Friday . 
. 27 
10 12 
43 2 38.8 
\y. 1 42 8 
57.3 
30 9 
98.(5 
25(5 
— 
Batar’day ... 
. 28 
8U.O.j6 
.54 9 51.5 
W. 412 
G2 0 
42-1 
lOl.G 
43.2 
— 
29.049 
44 7 42.3 
. 44.0 
518 
38.0 
80 8 
£0.3 
n.546 
EE MARKS. 
22n8.—Cloudy mornin?: wet from 0.30 P M till 7 P.M. 1 dull evening. 
23rd.—Dull end damp till 2 P.M., then -ivet till midu ght. 
2Uh.—Dull and damp all day. 
2.')th.—(.'loudy and cool moruine, bright afternoon, 
ilrith.—Fine, and at times bright, t^iough tenerally dnll. 
i7th.—Fine bright morning, though cold, with alight frost early J cloudy, with slight 
ahowera in e -rlv afternoon ; tine and bright again from 2.3'' P.M. 
28tb.—Fair morning, bright early,and much warmer; not so tine in afternoon, with 
drop‘s of min. , ..a. * 
Another ctild week, being about 4° below the previous one. It is rather curlona that 
In each month of this year one week, and only one week, has been of more ibnn the 
average temperature. Slight frost in air and a sharp one on grass on the 27th.— 
G. J. JSYMO^S. 
