386 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
May  3,  1900. 
are  also  certain  echolarships  open  to  Kentish  and  Surrey  youths' 
There  is  also  a  scale  of  fees  for  tho  e  who  reside  at  home  or  with 
friends,  but  who  attend  the  classes  ;  day  pupils  we  might  call  them. 
These  fees  are  extremely  moderate,  and  they  make  us  rather  wonder 
why,  it  the  actual  teaching  can  be  afforded  at  so  cheap  a  rate,  the 
board  and  lodgings  should  be  so  'nigh  ?  Surely  never  were  provisions 
BO  cheap  as  at  tho  present,  and  the  larger  the  party  the  more  easily 
catered  for.  The  full  course  is  for  two  years.  The  students  must  be 
over  sixteen  years  of  age,  and  able  to  pass  a  test  examination  to 
show  they  have  received  a  fair  middle-class  education,  such  as  would 
ta  lad  for  Cambridge  or  Oxford  local  senior  examinations. 
For  the  first  year  the  student  is  expected  to  devote  himself  to 
such  subjects  as  bear  on  soil,  subsoil,  rotation  of  crops,  manures, 
implements,  drawing  and  building  construction,  surveying,  chemistry, 
botany,  zoology,  geology,  physics,  and  mechanics.  We  think  an 
unbias-ed  reader  will  say  there  cannot  be  much  time  wasted  if  all 
these  subjects  are  thoroughly  gone  into.  Then  the  second  year 
leads  on  to  the  management  of  live  stock,  dairy  work,  farm  hygiene 
and  management,  engineering,  surveying,  levelling,  drawing  and  build¬ 
ing  construction,  agricultural  chemistry,  agricultural  botany, 
entomology,  veterinary  science,  est<ate  management,  law,  forestry* 
poultry  and  bee  keeping.  Hop  and  fruit  growing. 
Now  we  hardly  suppose  it  possible,  or  even  desirable,  that  a  youth 
should  take  up  ail  these  subjects.  He  will  be  guided  by  circum¬ 
stances,  and  devote  himself  more  especially  to  those  branches  for  which 
he  has  the  greatest  aptitude;  at  any  rate,  he  gets  a  chance  of 
developing  what  talents  he  has.  He  comes,  or  should  do,  straight 
from  school,  where  work  has  been  done  in  ah  orderly  manner,  and  he 
takes  up  new  studie.s  before  he  has  lost  the  powers  of  application. 
We  know  by  ourselves  how  soon  we  get  out  of  gear,  as  it  were, 
and  we  have  always  advocated  going  straight  from  school  to  the 
training  grounds  for  the  life  work.  Desultory  habits  are  quickly 
acquired,  and  not  so  quickly  got  rid  of,  and  indeed  a  lad  of  sixteen  or 
seventeen  has  not  much  time  to  lose.  The  sooner  he  has  gone 
through  his  college  course  the  sooner  is  he  fitted  to  earn  a  little 
towards  his  own  living.  We  think  these  studies  are  essentially  fitted 
for  farm-bred  boys.  They  get  to  know  the  why  and  the  wherefore 
of  processes  they  have  seen  carried  on  at  home,  and  if  they  have 
anything  at  all  about  them  will  soon  bo  wanting  to  experimentalise 
on  the  paternal  acres,  and  it  is  these  lads  who  will  make  the  future 
farmers.  For  lads  other  than  those  bred  on  farms  we  fancy  the  two 
years  will  be  hardly  enough.  They  will  probably  want  rather  a 
longer  course,  or  an  apprenticeship  on  a  large  mixed  occupatioa  under 
a  master  in  the  art. 
Work  on  tlje  Home  Farm. 
The  wind  and  rain  of  Easter  have  been  followed  by  a  week  of  bright 
sunshine,  with  abnormal  day  temperature  and  fairly  warm  nights. 
There  have  been  two  frosts,  but  only  slight  ones;  the  result  is  a  rapid 
growth  of  everything  sown.  Farmers  agree  that  they  never  knew 
Barleys  come  up  so  quickly  from  the  drills  as  have  those  lately  sown. 
The  warmth  is  having  a  splendid  effect  on  grass  and  seeds,  and  if  it 
were  only  possible  to  give  pastures  a  short  period  of  rest  they  might 
soon  be  really  good.  The  improved  prospect  has  a  very  hardening 
effect  on  prices  of  fat  stock,  as  farmers  are  not  too  fully  stocked,  having 
perforce  thinned  their  flocks  and  herds  during  the  winter,  and  they  are 
now  anything  but  willing  sellers.  With  a  continuance  of  genial 
weather  we  anticipate  somewhat  of  a  boom  in  the  stock  markets. 
We  fear  that  there  is  no  chance  of  a  similar  boom  in  grain.  Last 
week’s  corn  averages  show  an  increase  over  the  averages  of  twelve 
months  ago  of  Is.  4d.  per  quarter  in  Wheat  and  4d.  per  quarter  in 
Barley,  whilst  there  is  a  decline  of  2d.  per  quarter  in  Oats.  Since  last 
April  we  have  had  on  our  hands  one  of  the  biggest  wars  in  our  history, 
and  an  enormous  draiu  on  our  stores  of  foodstrrffs.  Apparently  the 
orders  have  gone  to  other  countries,  for  our  markets  have  been 
practically  undisturbed,  and  it  seems  now  quite  hopeless  for  any 
miracle  to  occur  that  can  give  the  British  farmer  any  material  help. 
Here  we  see  the  coal  owners  practically  coining  money  as  the  result  of 
combination  at  a  pinch,  but  farmers  have  made  no  attempt  to  bring 
about  a  similar  benefit  to  themselves  through  the  scarcity  of  Potatoes. 
A  splendid  opportunity  has  here  been  lost  simply  from  lack  of  cohesion. 
When  will  farmers  cease  to  act  individually,  and  really  combine  for 
their  mutual  benefit  ? 
Mangolds  being  all  sown,  we  are  now  preparing  for  Turnips  ;  the 
land  is  in  good  trim,  and  manures  must  be  got  ready  for  use  when 
required.  Superphosphate  is  the  sheet  anchor  for  bith  Turnips  and 
Swedes,  and  if  a  good  dressing  of  spit  manure  can  be  provided, 
phosphate  is  the  only  artificial  required.  Without  manure  for  Swedes 
we  should  use  2  cwt.  steamed  bonemeal  at  9.5  per  cent,  and  3  cwt. 
superphosphate  per  acre.  Also  1  cwt.  nitrate  of  soda  after  singling 
if  the  land  be  in  poor  condition. 
Farmers  are  talking  of  growing  Rape  partly  instead  of  Turnips  on 
account  of  the  probable  difficulty  of  getting  Turnips  hoed  and  singled. 
This  idea  may  be  carried  too  far,  and  we  ours-'lves  would  make  great 
efforts  to  avoid  such  a  disaster  as  the  loss  of  the  Turnip  crop  would 
involve.  We  should  have  thought  that  the  want  of  roots  had  been 
sufficiently  felt  this  season  without  willingly  undergoing  a  repetition  of 
it  through  lack  of  energy  under  difficulties.  We  remember  a  widow 
lady  (a  farmer)  during  a  strike  in  the  early  seventies  going  out  to  hoe 
Turnips  day  by  day,  and  surely  present  day  farmers  will  not  'give  up 
growing  roots  whilst  such  a  thing  as  a  singling  machine  is  possible  of 
Invention  and  horses  are  not  extinct. 
■  —  t  I - 
The  American  Wheat  Crop. — According  to  the  April  report  of  the 
Department  of  Agriculture,  the  average  conditions  of  the  Wheat  crop 
on  the  first  day  of  the  month  was  82  1  per  cent,  of  a  full  crop  condition, 
as  compared  with  77'9  for  last  April,  and  86  7  for  April,  1898.  In  most 
recent  years  it  has  been  the  spring  crop  which,  for  its  part,  has  done 
best,  not  only  because  it  has  yielded  better  than  the  winter  division, 
but  also  because  its  acreage  has  shown  the  greatej*  increase.  This 
season,  however,  the  lateness  of  sowing  may  possibly  tell  against  the 
extent  of  the  spring  crop. 
The  Indian  Wheat  Crop. — ^A  very  disappointing  account  of  the 
Wheat  crop  of  India  is  given  in  the  Second  General  Memorandum  on  it 
issued  by  the  Indian  Statistical  Department.  The  only  province  in 
which  an  average  yield  is  expected  is  Bengal,  which  is  one  of  the 
comparatively  small  Wheat-growing  provinces.  In  the  greatest,  the 
Punjaub,  where  the  area  sown  is  29  per  cent,  less  than  that  of  last 
year,  only  about  half  an  average  yield  is  expected  on  land  not 
irrigated,  and  no  more  than  62  per  C3ntof  an  average  on  irrigated  land. 
In  the  North-western  Provinces  of  Oudh,  which  stand  next  to  the 
Punjaub  in  area  of  Wheat,  the  outlook  is  not  so  bad,  75  to  80  per  cent, 
of  an  average  being  anticipated.  In  the  other  provinces,  however,  the 
outlook  is  even  worse  than  it  is  in  the  Punjaub,  the  area  being  greatly 
reduced  and  the  yield  expected  very  small. —  (“  Agricultural  Gazette.”) 
Aspatria  Agricultural  College. — The  annual  prize  distribution 
at  this  institution,  which  was  unavoidably  postponed  at  Christmas, 
took  place  on  Wednesday  last  week  at  the  college,  on  the  conclusion 
of  a  successful  winter  session,  during  which  the  college  has  been  full 
up — numbering  over  forty  students  in  residence.  Principal  and 
Mrs.  Smith  Hill  entertained  the  staff  and  students  to  supper,  and  at 
its  conclusion  the  college  prizes  and  diplomas  were  handed  to  the 
successful  students  by  Miss  Todd.  The  external  honours  gained  during 
the  past  year  by  Aspatria  students  are  to  be  presented  at  the  next 
public  distribution,  which  is  a  well-known  established  feature  of  the 
college,  when  it  is  hoped  that  Mr.  J.  Bowen-Jones,  J.P.,  member  of  the 
Council  of  the  Royal,  and  chairman  of  the  Shropshire  C.C.,  will  make 
the  presentation. 
An  LL.D.  on  Female  Farm  Labourers  — Extremes  meet.  While 
the  Countess  of  Warwick  is  heading  a  crusa.de  for  getting  women  of 
culture  to  take  up  “lady  crofting”  as  an  intellectual  and  refined 
pursuit,  and  not  as  “  mere  turmit-hoers,”  Mr.  Ferguson,  LL.D.,  of 
Kinmundy,  is  equally  anxious  to  get  women  “  banished  from  the  field  ” 
of  agricultural  labour  altogether.  Speaking  at  an  agricultural  meeting 
in  Aberdeen  last  week  Dr.  Ferguson  said,  “  One  interesting  thing 
connected  with  machinery  was  the  completeness  with  which  it  had 
banished  female  work  from  the  harvest  field,  and  he  thought  that  was  a 
very  good  thing  in  itself.  He  should  like  to  see  all  female  labour 
banished  from  the  harvest  field.”  Apparently  this  LL.D.  thinks  that, 
although  “corn  rigs  and  Barley  rigs  are  bonnie,”  yet  they  are  not  a 
suitable  scene  for  female  labour.  The  doctor  gives  no  reason  for 
considering  the  healthful  and  pleasant  work  on  the  “  corn  rigs  ”  unsuit¬ 
able  for  women.  Potato  harvesting  would  come  under  the  same  ban 
from  the  LL.D.  of  Kinmundy,  and,  as  a  matter  of  course,  if  the  harvest 
field  be  an  unsuitable  scene  for  the  labour  of  women,  the  cleaning  and 
seeding  of  the  land  would  be  equally  unsuitable  as  women’s  work.  No 
doubt  Dr.  Ferguson  has  in  his  time  delivered  numerous  speeches,  in 
which  he  deplored  the  evils  of  rural  depopulation  and  the  miseries 
caused  by  overcrowding  in  the  great  cities,  where  women  are  forced 
through  sheer  necessity  to  work  long  hours  every  day  under  conditions 
which  are  a  terribly  sad  contrast  to  the  healthful  and  pleasant 
conditions  of  work  in  the  harvest  field.  But  did  it  never  strike  the 
learned  doctor  that  the  evils  of  rural  depopulation  would  be 
tremendously  intensified  if  female  labour  were  to  be  banished  from 
the  field  of  agricultural  work  ?  Or  does  the  laird  of  Kinmundy  think 
that  every  woman  ought  to  aim  at  being  an  LL  A.,  just  as  he  is 
an  LL.D.  Far  be  it  from  us,  however,  to  attempt  to  chop  logic  with  a 
doctor  of  laws  and  logic  [of  the  calibre  of  “  Kinmundy.” — (“  North 
British  Agriculturist.”) 
