286 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ September 24, 1885. 
may require seven or eight if there is a large family of 
children, and in a calculation of numbers, failures of cows 
must be taken into account. We cannot reckon upon having 
an unfailing supply of milk from a given number of cows, 
but must always allow a fair margin for shallow milkers, 
poor milk, barrenness, and sickness. There is no better plan 
than having one or two heifers to calve in spring, for they 
always command a ready sale, and can easily be sold should 
there be no failure among the old cows, if there is, how 
gladly do we take our best heifer into the herd and so pre¬ 
vent any lapse in our supply of milk. It is no light matter 
to be so pressed for milk as to be obliged to purchase a cow, 
for who will part with a really good cow at a reasonable 
price ? It is true enough that plenty of cows are to be had 
at every cattle fair, but few, if any of them, are worth 
having. In making a calculation of the number of cows 
required, we may take the daily yield of milk of an ordinary 
herd at an average of 10 quarts per head. If Channel 
Island cows are had, the per-centage of cream will be large, 
as much as 25 per cent, having been obtained from the milk 
of Jerseys ; but it is seldom that we obtain such results from 
other breeds. Yet we have had very rich milk from the 
hardy little Kerry cows. 
Of the general care of cows we may notice briefly the 
most important points. At the present time of year they 
should be gradually withdrawn from open pastures, being 
always taken into the yard at night, where there should be 
plenty of soft dry litter, both in the open yard and in the 
lodges. Delicate Jersey cows should be shut into close 
lodges at night from the present time until they are able to 
lie out again at night next summer. Nothing must be left 
to chance, or some so-called accident may cost us dear; 
illness or death among cows not unfrequently arising from 
some apparently trivial cause. Do not let cows eat walnut 
leaves as they fall in autumn, or an unpleasant flavour will 
be imparted to both milk and butter. Care must be taken 
at all seasons of the year that they have sweet and whole¬ 
some food. We never give them turnips or linseed cake, the 
dietary after they are taken off the grass into the yards 
for winter consisting principally of the best meadow hay, with 
bran, Carrots, Cabbages, Mangolds, and silage. As spring 
draws nigh they have Thousand-headed Kale, and then 
comes the early cut of Rye. Weak and delicate cows may 
require a few crushed Oats, but strong healthy cows do not 
want anything more than the simple fare enumerated. 
Undoubtedly they do like a change of diet, and it is good for 
them. Large, yet snug lodges, soft dry litter for bedding, 
pure water, wholesome food, careful milking, and, above all 
things, gentle kindly treatment, go far to insure good health 
and an abundant yield of milk. If a cowman is worth his 
salt he will be fond of the animals under his charge, and he 
will probably have certain little mysteries in his treatment 
of them into which it is unwise to penetrate farther than 
to assure ourselves that they are harmless. 
“ Calves thrive faster in May than in March on a given 
allowance of milk, simply because the weather conditions are 
more favourable.” The truth of this quotation is obvious 
enough, and we apply the lesson it conveys by taking espe¬ 
cial care to keep calves warmly housed in the early months 
of the year, and to keep them well fed, avoiding the long 
fasts to which they are subjected under careless, thought¬ 
less management, and which so frequently brings on indiges¬ 
tion and scouring. After weaning, when they are old enough 
to eat—say in May or June—they should be taken to a lodge 
opening into a little yard and paddock of good sound pasture, 
where they can have green food, exercise, shelter, warmth, 
and be subjected to no fright or harsh treatment from older 
animals. Bull calves and inferior cow calves should be 
fattened and sold for veal, as that is the most profitable way 
to dispose of them, a prime fat calf being worth almost as 
much as a yearling. 
Of pigs it is desirable that there should always be a 
certain quantity upon the farm, so that skim milk, butter 
milk, house wash, refuse vegetables, and roots may all be 
turned to account. There should always be a regular supply 
of home-cured hams and bacon forthcoming from the farm, 
for swine are unclean animals, eating such foul garbage if 
they can get it, that it is unpleasant to have to contemplate 
the possibility of having to purchase bacon or pork. Sheep 
can hardly be required here, except a few old ewes be pur¬ 
chased in August for folding on second growths of Clover, 
with corn and cake, being subsequently passed on to the 
butcher. 
Poultry of all sorts should be kept for a supply of 
chickens, turkeys, geese, ducks, and pigeons, as well as of 
eggs. Good management tells in this matter as in others, 
and with it there can be no question about poultry keeping 
being profitable. Perhaps the most vexatious matter in con¬ 
nection with poultry keeping is the having no eggs in winter, 
and yet we have only to save enough early poults to have an 
ample supply. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Wet weather hag caused much sprouting among late Barley that was 
mown and left in the swathe, and the grain is spoiled for malting. We 
shall turn it to account for home consumption, either whole or ground 
with other corn for sheep and pigs. G-rass and root crops have thriven, 
and our prospects of autumn and winter food are much improved. 
Harvest is now over on all our farms with the exception of some Rivett’s 
Wheat sown late on heavy land, and we are now doing our best to get the 
land clean and to sow green crops and winter corn. We have done our 
best to plough in as much White Mustard for manure as we could, hut it 
was only the early sowings of Mustard that were really successful, later 
ones having suffeied from drought. We got about half a crop to plough 
in of sowings made in May, and shall have to add a little artificial manure. 
Glad indeed are we to find more and more attention being given to this 
important matter of ploughing-in green crops, which, weight for weight, 
are almost equal to farmyard manure. We are now ordering our autumn 
supply of artificial manure to give half dressings to Wheat and Oats, the 
quantity per acre being a quarter of a hundredweight of nitrate of potash, 
three-quarters of a hundredweight of nitrate of soda, quarter of a hundred¬ 
weight of steamed bone flour, quarter of a hundredweight of super¬ 
phosphate, quarter of a hundredweight of coprolite, and the other half 
dressing will be applied in February when we put artificial manure upon 
the grass. The manure is now applied as a surface dressing by hand, 
broadcast, after the drilling-in of the seed, and before the harrows are 
passed over the land. It soon dissolves in the moist soil, which thus 
becomes charged with fertility for the roots of the young corn plants. 
Do not let the idea that there is some risk of loss of nitrogen from the 
soil in winter prevent you from the application of artificial manure in 
autumn. Depend upon it, if we are to have good corn crops the soil must 
be stored with a reasonable amount of fertility, so that from the germi¬ 
nation of the seed there may be an ample provision of food for the plants. 
We have put this to the proof year after year, and the result has invari¬ 
ably been so successful that we can now be positive in our assertions. 
Lamentable is the ignorance of farmers generally cf agricultural chemistry. 
“ Muck,” or farmyard manure is still in full force, notwithstanding the 
heavy outlay in its manufacture. When will dung mixens and carting of 
manure be a thing of the past ? There is still so much blind faith in 
bulb. Something that is substantial is what appeals to and lays hold of 
the mind ignorsnt of the laws which govern these things. We much fear 
that the ordinary farmer will for some time to come continue to solemnly 
cart his half-decayed litter saturated with moisture in the blind faith that 
what was good for his forefathers must be equally good for him. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
Camden Square, London. 
Lat. 61° 32-40" N.; Long. 0° 8- 0" W.; Altitude, 111 feet 
DATE. 
9 A.M. 
IN THE DAY. 
0 
a 
Pi 
1885. 
September. 
Barome¬ 
ter at 328 
and Sea 
Level 
Hygrome¬ 
ter. 
Direction 
of Wind. 
| Temp, of 
| Soil at 
1 foot. 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature. 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min 
In 
sun. 
On 
grass. 
Inches. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
In. 
Sunday . 
13 
30.015 
60.0 
54.8 
N.W. 
55 9 
667 
54.1 
95.9 
48.4 
0.010 
Monday. 
14 
29.974 
61.7 
60.7 
S.E. 
56.2 
69.6 
49.6 
105.4 
41.4 
Tuesday. 
15 
29.919 
63.0 
59.5 
S.E. 
57.3 
76.5 
58.3 
113.6 
54.0 
e.oi3 
Wednesday .. 
16 
30.109 
58.8 
55.3 
s.w. 
58.2 
68.4 
55.0 
95.8 
50.5 
0.782 
Thursday .... 
17 
29973 
53.5 
52.8 
.N. 
57.8 
60.9 
51.8 
73.4 
52 3 
_. 
Friday. 
18 
30.060 
52.7 
52.2 
N. 
57.0 
63.6 
47.1 
94.3 
40.4 
0.067 
Saturday .... 
10 
30.018 
55.3 
54.6 
S.E. 
56.6 
58.7 
49.1 
64.2 
40.2 
0.093 
30.010 
57.9 
55.7 
57.0 
66.3 
52.1 
91.8 
46.7 
0.965 
REMARKS. 
13th.—Vine and pleasant all day. 
14th.—Overcast with drizzles early; fine afternoon. 
15th.—Fine bright morning. 
16th.—Overcast early ; fair day; rain in evening and night. 
17th.—Very wet early ; rain till 10 A.M.; fine afternoon. 
8th.—Fair morning ; fine bright afteinoon and evening. 
19th.—Wet morning; fair after. 
Rather v»rw«r and much damper —G. J. STMONS. 
