242 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER 
[ March 24, 1887. 
nature. Only a day or two before writing this article we 
met a clever and successful farmer, who at the ripe age of 
eighty-five still farms 1000 acres of land, holding his own 
under the depression in a manner that would put to shame 
many younger men. He had been to invest some of his 
surplus capital in the shares of a flourishing water com¬ 
pany. “ For,” said he, “ I knew I could not go wrong in 
that direction; water must always be wanted, and no 
invention can set aside or curtail its use.” Right enough, 
was he not ? and we doubt not that the shrewd intelli¬ 
gence and sound common sense brought to bear upon 
that investment have enabled him to hold his own in 
farming even in these hard times. 
We want to see more of sound business habits in rela¬ 
tion to the manufacture and sale of farm produce. How 
frequently do we see samples of inferior corn offered for 
sale! They are either dirty, light, or of a sort which 
buyers know to be inferior and will not give a remunera¬ 
tive price for. Now, to grow an inferior sort of corn or 
to offer badly cleaned samples for sale is suicidal. A little 
thought would soon show that the pure samples of our 
leading corn merchants are only to be had by careful 
selection and thorough cleaning. Said a farmer in our 
hearing recently, “Forty shillings a bushel was the price 
Webb would have given for my Red Clover seed , if there 
had been no Dock or Plantain seed among it, and I had 
to take 5s. a bushel less money for it,” or in plain 
English he suffered a loss of from .£1 to £3 an acre from 
foul seed. 
Let it not be forgotten, however, that the careful 
selection of seed must go hand in hand with the high 
cultivation of the soil. Quite in > ain is it to pay a high 
price for Giant or Pedigree Wheat if the soil is not dry, 
clean, and fertile; depend upon it fine Wheat ears are 
never grown in poor soil, and for farms fallen out of cul¬ 
tivation we avoid using choice sorts of corn during the 
first year or two of reclamation. This is a very simple 
matter not at all difficult to understand, yet we fear that 
much money has been wasted upon the purchase of choice 
seed for land so low in condition as to prove quite un¬ 
suited to its culture. Failure follows, leading to an 
unjust outcry about highly coloured descriptions of seed 
merchants. Well might they retort by showing how- 
faulty practice on the part of the purchaser led to 
inevitable failure. 
The same reasoning applies to the management of 
live stock. Procure only the best, fatten quickly, and 
sell at once when they are ready for market. Some five 
months ago we purchased some home-bred bullocks for 
£8 apiece ; by close attention to giving them full advan¬ 
tage of shelter, cleanliness, and a liberal diet consisting 
entirely of food grown upon the farm, we were able to 
sell them recently for £21 5s. a piece. The farmer of 
whom we purchased them has still got some of the same 
age, the best of which are not now worth more than £9 
apiece, simply because they have been kept in a state of 
semi-starvation all the winter. A diet of unchaffed 
Barley straw and winter quarters in a yard open to the 
north-east accounts for the low condition of beasts that 
should now be ripe for the butcher. Need we wonder 
that this farmer was loud in complaints about hard times, 
and is behind with his rent ? In pleasing contrast to this 
slovenly practice was the sight of some 300 pigs at the 
homestead of another tenant farmer who keeps forty 
breeding sows, and who told us that he got enough profit 
from his pigs to pay the whole of the labour expenses 
of his farm. The severe losses from swine fever which 
have been so general will, we hope, induce greater atten¬ 
tion to the importance of cleanliness in pig mmagement. 
Pigs may be said to answer better than any other live 
stock at the present time. Recent quotations of prices 
at Smithfield Market, per stone of 8 lbs. were: — 
Beef ... 
Mutton 
Veal ... 
Pork ... 
s. d. s. d. 
2 0 to 3 
2 4 „ 4 
3 8 „ 4 8 
3 0 „ 4 (3 
Of pork the skin, head, and feet are weighed in, but 
of other animals the hides, feet, and head arc not weighed, 
and therefore pigs have an advantage as a saleable com¬ 
modity which should not be overlooked, as that advantage 
is clearly on the side of the farmer and not on that of the 
butcher. It should also be remembered that pigs of 
the size known as “Londoners,” are under good manage¬ 
ment ready for market at ages ranging from four to five 
months, when they realise a better price than older pigs. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Advantage has been taken of the dry frosty weather to clear off a 
large quantity of faggots and timber from the park and meadows. 
Under ordinary circumstances this work would be done in midwinter, 
but we have had so much extra tree trimming and timber felling that 
the clearance could not be done sooner. So important is it to get timber 
off grass before growth begins that we had to make a special effort to 
finish such heavy extra work in time to avoid injury to pasture. The 
culture and general management of timber is a branch of estate work 
worthy of greater attention and care than is often given it. We regret 
to see mismanaged and neglected timber so frequently, for our work of 
estate management takes us far and wide, and we see much of other 
estates, and our own practice renders the eye critical. Planting, trim¬ 
ming, thinning, are of equal importance among trees, in planting there 
is a very general wish to produce a certain immediate effect; this is 
correct practice, provided care is taken to plant for the future as well. 
We must so plant permanent trees as to allow ample space for full 
development, as well as for shelter and picturesque grouping. In belt 
planting this winter diagonal rows of trees run through the entire length 
of each belt. Twenty-six sorts of trees have been so planted, one distinct 
sort to a row, and between such rows alternately we have a mixed row 
of Larch and Yew alternately with a mixed row of Box and Holly. 
This arrangement is continued throughout the entire belt, our object 
being to have the Larch as nurses, and Yew, Box, and Holly as game 
covert. The permanent trees used are Wych Elm, Scotch Fir, White 
Birch, Douglas Fir, Common Oak, Weymouth Pine, Horse Chestnut, 
Pinus Cembra, Lombardy Poplar, Spanish Chestnut, Austrian Pine, 
Tliuia gigantea, Pinus Laricio, Beech, Common Silver Fir, Robinia, 
Pinus excelsa, Norway Maple, White Spruce, Abies Morinda, Lime, 
Pice i Pinsapo, Sycamore, Picea Nordmaniana, Plane (P. occidental is), 
and Cedar of Lebanon. The last named tree was introduced in the belts 
to carry on a line of Cedars round the whole of the park. Some of the 
old Cedars have been much broken by snow this winter, and it is worth 
knowing that Cedrus atlantica suffers very little from damage in this 
way. From our experience of the three Cedrus, Libani, atlantica, and 
Deodara, we are convinced that atlantica is the most suitable for 
general planting. It is very ornamental, grows very fast, and under 
careful trimming its bole soon becomes massive an l imposing. 
METEOROLOGICAL 0 43ERVATIOXS. 
ClMDBS SiJUAKe, Losuos. 
Lat.51°32' 40' N.; L mg. 0° S' 0" W.; Altitule. Ill 'oat. 
DATE. 
9 A.M. 
IN TUB l>A.r. 
i 5N cfl —. 
Hygrome- 
a . 
OtJ 
. 
Shade Tern- 
Radiation 
a 
1887. 
0“^ > 
ter. 
♦a d 
O 
cL—• o 
ei-d o 
perature. 
Temperature 
X 
Mar.h. 
££ 
iu 
On 
33 3 as 
Dry. 
Wet. 
5 o 
Max 
Mm. 
8nu. 
laches. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
d*g 
deg 
deg 
In. 
Sunday .... 
.13 
30.163 
3L.0 
30.2 
N. 
37.1 
41.0 
24 2 
84.3 
17.4 
— 
Monday .... 
..14 
23.961 
29.9 
23.3 
N- 
36.3 
41.8 
22.4 
79 7 
18.2 
0.050 
Tuesday .... 
..15 
29.802 
3 *2 
32.8 
N. 
35.9 
84 3 
27.3 
33.6 
23 8 
0.373 
Wednesday 
..10 
23.945 
33.1 
32.7 
N-ifi. 
35.7 
42.9 
28 G 
87.3 
#61.8 
— 
Thursday .. 
.17 
30.i'99 
32.3 
31.9 
N.E. 
35.4 
38.4 
2 i.2 
67 6 
21.8 
— 
Friday . 
..18 
30.209 
33.6 
31.3 
N. 
oo.6 
41.1 
26 4 
82.9 
22 2 
— 
Saturday .. 
.. 11 ) 
30.315 
33 2 
31.3 
N. 
35.2 
41.4 
23.1 
82.6 
19 2 
— 
30.070 
32.3 
31.2 
35.8 
40.1 
25.5 
74 7 
• 22.0 
0.423 
» Tlie thermome.er was covered by the snow which fell early in the night. 
REMARKS. 
13th.—Cold, bright, and clear, 
ltth.—Bright morning, cloudy a little in alternoon, and enough snow fell about 4.31 P.M. 
to whiten the ground. A 
15th.—Snow about an inch deep at 9 A.M , and falling all day and part of night; depth at 
9 P.M. nearly 5 inches. 
isth.—Snow 5 incr es deep at 9 A.M.; glorious day, melting the snow very rapidly. 
17th.—Bright and fine early, frequent slight snow showers all day, solar halo in afternoon. 
18th.—Very bright early, sunshine with occasional slight snow showers during day. 
19th.—Fine and bright,’with flakes ol snow falling occasionally. 
An extremely wintry week, with au unusually heavy fall of snow. With one excep¬ 
tion the coldest wee c of the year, the average minimum temperature being the lowest for 
any week. Six degrees colder than the preceding week, and ten degrees below the 
average.—G. J. STMONS. 
