THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Junk 7, 1859. 
141 
to health, than hoeing Turnips or digging Potatoes. “No end of 
work” is the complaint; and it is not an unreasonable one. On 
a dairy-farm the whole set of labours has to be gone through twice 
a day, nearly the whole year round ; and any one of our readers 
who has seen the vessels on a Cheshire farm, the width of the 
tubs, the capacity of the ladles, the strength of the presses, and 
the size of the cheeses, will feel no surprise at hearing from the 
doctors that dairywomen constitute a special class of patients 
for maladies arising from over-fatigue and insufficient rest. There 
is some difference between this mode of life and the common 
notion of the ease and charm of the dairymaid’s existence, as it 
is seen in a corner of a Duchess’s park, or on a little farm of 
three fields and a paddock. The professional dairywoman can 
usually do nothing else. She has been about the cows since she 
was tall enough to learn to milk ; and her days are so filled up, 
that it is all she can do to keep her clothes in decent order. She 
drops asleep over the last stage of her work; and grows up 
ignorant of all other knowledge, and unskilled in all other arts. 
Such work as this ought, at least, to be paid as well as the equi¬ 
valent work of men; indeed, in the dairy farms of the West of 
England the same labour of milking the kine is now very gene¬ 
rally performed by men, and the Dorset milkmaid, tripping along 
with her pail, is, we fear, becoming a myth. But even in Cheshire 
the dairymaids receive, it appears, only from £8 to £10 a-year, 
with board and lodging. The superintendent of a large dairy is 
a salaried personage of some dignity, with two rooms, partial or 
entire diet, coal and candle, and wherewithal to keep a servant— 
£50 a-year or more. But of the 64,000 dairywomen of Great 
Britain, scarcely any can secure a provision for the time when 
they can no longer lean over the cheese-tub, or churn, or carry 
heavy weights. In connection with agricultural labour we should 
consider the rearers of poult ry, pigs, and lambs ; the makers of 
cider and perry; and the bee-mistresses, who gain a living by 
their honey in many rural districts. The enormous importation 
of eggs from the Continent, and especially from France, shows 
that there is more work for women yet in this direction ; but the 
reigning passion for poultry yards must result in a great diffusion 
of the knowledge and skill which the upper classes are cultivating 
so diligently. In addition to the twenty thousand female farmers 
and land-owners of England, and the half-million and more of 
“ farmers’ wives and daughters,” a separate class of poultry- 
women will soon be able to make a good subsistence out of eggs 
and chickens. Then there are the market-gardeners,—thousands 
of women, most admirably employed. There are the florists and 
nursery-gardeners,—not unfrequently Quakers. It is a pretty 
sight,—a good nursery-ground and set of conservatories, under 
the charge of a sensible Quakeress, whose shrewdness penetrates 
the whole management. 'There are the flax-producers too,—not 
a small number, if wc include the care of the crop, the pulling, 
steeping, beetling and dressing, and bringing to market; and, as 
60,000 acres of Irish land aro annually under flax, and 500,000 
acres would yield no more than is wanted; and as millions of 
pounds sterling (£2,000,000 in ten years) have been wasted in 
buying an impure seed from abroad when it might easily be 
obtained at home, we may conclude that flax-producing is, or 
might be, an extending branch of female industry. Wo may add 
that the demand for labour will increase instead of diminishing, 
when the farmer consigns the preparation of the flax to establish¬ 
ments organised for the purpose, instead of insisting on doing it 
at home, and sinking in the market. At present the women are 
in one place, poking in the ditch or pond at home, amidst an 
insufferable stench, and waiting on the weather for days or weeks; 
and then beetling with the old-fashioned instrument; while in 
another place they are about the same work in scutching-mills, to 
far greater advantage. The steeping, done without the stench 
of decay, and in a few hours or days in vats, and the dressing 
by patent machinery, are proper work for women, and will, no 
doubt, employ more and more of them,—especially as a great 
deal of seed is saved by the process. It is worth while to spend 
£170 in labour to save £1,200 in seed ; and, as we spend 
£300,000 in importing seed, the prospects, of labour in the flax- 
producing department are well worthy of ^notice. When we have 
mentioned the itinerant classes of female agricultural labourers, 
—the hay-makers, reapers, and binders, and the hop-pickers, we 
have reviewed, in a cursory way, the whole of that division of 
female industry.—( Edinburgh lleview.) 
Ale would seem to have been the current name in England 
for malt liquor in general before the introduction of hops. This 
took place, according to Johnston (“ Chemistry of Common 
Life”), as late as the reign of Henry VIII., about the year 1524. 
As the use of hops was derived from Germany, the German name 
for malt liquor {bier) besr, was used at first to distinguish the 
hopped liquor from ale, the unhopped. The word ale had in all 
likelihood been introduced by the Danes and other Scandinavian 
settlers—for 61 (allied probably to oil) is still the same for malt 
liquor in the Scandinavian tongues—and must have driven out 
the beor of the Anglo-Saxons, which that people had in common 
with the other Teutonic nations. As now used, ale signifies a 
kind of beer (q. v. and Fermentation), distinguished chiefly by 
\ its strength and the quantity of sugar remaining undecomposed. 
Strong ale is made from the best pale malt; and the fermentation 
is allowed to proceed slowly, and the ferment to be exhausted and 
separated. This, together with the large quantity of sugar still 
left undecomposed, enables the liquor to keep long without re¬ 
quiring a large amount of hops. The Scotch ales are distinguished 
for the smallness of the quantity of hops they contain, and for 
their vinous flavour. They are fermented at an unusually low 
temperature. The ales of Edinburgh and Prestonpans have a 
high reputation. Burton ale is the strongest made, containing as 
much as 8 per cent, of alcohol; while the best brown stout has 
about 6 per cent., and common beer only 1 per cent. India pale 
ale differs chiefly in having a larger quantity of hops.— {Cham¬ 
bers’s Encydopcedia.) 
Rats. —- 1 tried tire effect of introducing into the entrance of 
their numerous holes, or runs, hiding places, small portions of 
chloride of lime, or bleaching powder, wrapped in calico, and 
stuffed into the entrance holes, and thrown loose by spoonfuls 
into the drain from the house. This drove the rats away for a 
twelvemonth, when they returned to it, again treated in the same 
manner, with like effect. The cure was most complete. I 
presume it was the chlorine gas which did not agree with their 
olfactories.— {American Gardener’s Monthly.) 
, TRADE LISTS RECEIVED. 
A General Catalogue of Plants and Trees offered by Milne, 
Arnott and Co., Wandsworth Poad, Vauxhall, London, is one 
of those nicely got up publications which are so characteristic of 
the best nursery and seed establishments of the present day, and 
contains, besides an enumeration of the articles offered for sale, a 
great deal of useful information respecting them. To the growers 
of Camellias this Catalogue will be particularly attractive, as 
emanating from a nursery so long celebrated for the cultivation 
of those magnificent plants. It contains, besides these, all the 
articles usually met with in the best nurseries. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Ants ( Jl. T.). —No further back than, page 98 of the present volume we 
answered this question, and recommended guano for banishing them. Wo 
believe that ants are more useful than injurious to plants. 
Boiler Heated by Kitchen Fire (G. Chapman). —We think that a 
plate of iron slid in between the fire and the boiler, so as to leave an empty- 
space of about three inches, would suffice to prevent the water becoming 
more than slightly warm when not needed. If you interpose India rubber 
between the glass and the iron, we think there will be no danger of break¬ 
ing. We answer thus promptly as you request, but have sent your letter 
to an authority whose answer you can await or not as you deem expedient. 
Mowing Machines (D.II .).—They all do their work well. We should 
buy the smallest size, as it is to be worked by a man and a boy. 
Cutting off Strawberry Runners (A. .T.). —We remove them from 
plants of ordinary vigour; but we allow them to remain, and prevent them 
rooting, if the plants are over-luxuriant. All such growths weaken the 
plants producing them. If the runners are pegged down early, they root 
soon, support themselves, and, consequently, weaken the parent plants less. 
Topsy A'erbena (A. A.). —It is in the catalogues of each of the chief 
London florists advertising in our columns. 
Motherwort ( J. Gipson). —Yes, this plant Leonurus cardiaca, is a 
native of this country, and the nearest place recorded to you, where it is 
found is on a hank at Ditcliingham, Norfolk. The leaves smell strongly, 
and taste bitter, something like Balm. 
Dioscorea Batatas (An Amateur). —You may either train the stems 
to sticks, or peg them down along the ground. If planted close together 
the first mode would be preferable. 
Plants for Aquariums (An Old Subscriber, Ledbury).—Tie sure and 
put nothing but clean pebbles for the roots to work among. Earth or sand 
is worse than useless. The common weed in ponds, Star-wort ( Cal/i- 
trichc), Water Ranunculus, Water Cress, and Flowering Rush (Butomus), 
will answer for both your aquariums. Water Plantain and Vailisnenti 
spiralis may be added to those in that for mere ornament. If you refer 
to our Numbers 484 and 502, you will find full directions and drawings. 
Do not have too many animals in proportion to the plants. 
Mushrooms (T. J.). —Your bed ought to produce Mushrooms. Water it 
with tepid rain water if it appears dry. It is not tile red spider, but some 
ucarus, or mite, that is in the dung. Tobacco water will kill them ; and 
