48 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
January  13,  1898. 
at  present  would  cost  lOd.  per  14  lbs.  at  wholesale  farm  prices,  and 
at  this  price  the  grain  would  cost  £12  per  annum.  This  £12  would, 
of  course,  include  the  mixed  ration  of  meal  and  roots  to  he  used  as 
the  morning  meal  during  autumn  andjwinter.  The  roots  might  be  a 
little  cheaper  than  the  grain,  but  the  cost  of  grinding  the  latter  into 
meal  and  hoiling  the  roots  would  make  this  mixed  ration  cost  quite 
as  much  as  the  corn  pOTe  and  simple. 
Perhaps  125  eggs  per  hen  may  be  considered  a  low  laying  average, 
but  this  is  what  we  find  by  experience  that  hens  will  produce  when 
well  fed  and  with  an  unlimited  grass  run.  We  can  hardly  think  that 
limiting  the  run  will  increase  the  eggs. 
Good  pullets  of  laying  breeds,  such  as  Minorca,  Leghorn,  or 
Houdan,  or  first  crosses  of  these  kinds,  could  not  be  bought  for  less 
than  we  have  allowed — viz.,  3s.  each,  and  the  culls  would  not  make 
more  than  half  this  price  in  an  ordinary  market.  There  could  hardly 
fail  to  be  deaths  amongst  the  stock,  and  twenty  pullets  would  have  to 
be  bought  each  year.  It  does  not  therefore  appear  that  33  per  cent, 
is  an  extravagant  allowance  for  interest  on  original  cost  and  deprecia¬ 
tion  annually. 
One  very  important  question  that  will  have  to  be  answered,  if  such 
success  attend  the  outcome  of  this  test  that  English  farmers  are 
induced  to  reconsider  their  position  as  regards  egg  production,  and  to 
increase  the  supply  on  any  large  scale,  is  this  :  “  If  Great  Britain  were 
to  increase  her  egg  production  by  1,300,000,000  annually  would  the 
price  remain  what  it  is,  and  would  the  importation  of  foreign  eggs 
cease  ?  ” 
We  have  suffered  from  over-production  of  breadstufifs,  we  are  now 
threatened  with  over-production  of  meat ;  will  the  same  thing  apply 
to  poultry  and  eggs  ?  The  glut  in  poultry  is  already  with  us ; 
dressed  fowls  and  ducks  could  hardly  be  sold  at  some  of  the  Christmas 
markets.  The  frozen  poultry  from  abroad  has  probably  a  close 
connection  with  that. 
When  we  consider  the  lowness  of  freights  from  abroad,  and  the 
ease  with  which  eggs  can  be  conveyed  when  properly  packed,  it 
seems  idle  to  suppose  that  our  foreign  egg  supplies  would  be  even 
appreciably  reduced  by  any  competition  that  can  possibly  be  organised 
in  this  country.  By  all  means  let  us  encourage  home  production ; 
but  we  must  not  delude  ourselves  into  the  belief  that  we  can  keep  our 
egg  market  to  ourselves.  We  might  as  well  try  to  supply  ourselves 
entirely  with  home  made  cheese;  in  fact,  there  would  be  quite  as  good 
a  prospect  of  success — nay,  a  better  one. 
It  will  be  observed  we  have  charged  nothing  for  labour,  as  it  is  so 
difficult  to  estimate  without  trial. 
WORK  ON  THE  HOME  FARM. 
We  have  had  to  finish  leading  manure  over  soft  roads  and  lands,  and 
the  work  has  been  heavy,  but  all  is  cleared  off  for  the  present,  and  we 
are  glad  of  it. 
Potatoes  have  risen  in  price  and  are  being  sold  in  moderate  quantities 
for  immediate  delivery.  The  work  of  dressing  up  and  weighing  finds  occu¬ 
pation  for  spare  hands,  and  delivery  to  rails  for  a  pair  of  horses.  We 
have  also  been  thrashing  and  delivering  Wheat,  which  has  also  hardened 
in  price  ;  the  rise  has  not  been  great,  but  it  has  been  gradual  and  steadily 
persistent,  which  should  be  a  good  augury  for  the  future. 
Sellers  of  Potatoes  just  now  have  no  trouble  in  making  good  prices  at 
home,  and  will  be  well  advised  to  avoid  sending  any  away  to  be  sold  on 
commission.  “Sell  at  home  and  do  not  be  afraid  to  ask  a  high  price,”  must 
be  the  motto  this  spring. 
As  Potatoes  are  rather  small  this  year,  the  higher  prices  tempt  us  to 
make  the  ware  sample  smaller  and  thus  to  rob  the  seed  of  just  the  size 
which  ought  to  be  its  best  feature  ;  thus  we  spoil  both  ware  and  seed. 
This  argument  will  be  all  the  stronger  if  the  seed  size  are  not  required  for 
planting  purposes  ;  for  in  a  dear  time  there  is  always  a  demand  for  good 
sized  seed  at  a  fair  price  for  eating  purposes,  but  the  tubers  must  not  be 
too  small  or  they  will  be  useless  as  such. 
Turnips  did  not  suffer  from  the  brief  frost,  and  are  splendid  food 
for  both  sheep  and  cattle.  Sheep  lair  is  now  good,  and  the  animals 
are  doing  very  well.  The  same  may  be  said  for  cattle  which  have 
abundance  of  capital  food.  Straw  certainly  is  a  little  short  of  bulk,  but 
the  quality  is  splendid,  and  Turnips  being  now  plentiful,  supplies  all 
round  will  be  ample  to  see  us  through  to  the  young  grass. 
Sheep  of  all  kimls  have  been  very  healthy  the  last  three  months,  losses 
having  been  almost  nil.  Hoggets  to  be  fit  for  killing  in  March  must 
have  a  good  supply  of  cake,  which  may  now  be  gradually  increased  until 
1  lb.  per  head  per  diem  is  reached.  A  little  sulphur  mixed  in  the  dry 
food  once  a  week  is  a  very  good  thing  to  keep  the  blood  in  good  order 
whilst  the  animals  are  undergoing  this  forcing  treatment.  A  supply  of 
rock  salt  must  be  always  within  the  animals’  reach. 
BRITISH  EGG  PRODUCTION. 
I  HAVE  read  the  remarks  upon  this  subject  in  a  recent  issue  from  the 
pen  of  Mr.  Baghot-De  La  Bere,  and  whilst  I  am  fully  alive  to  the 
importance  of  the  matter  to  which  he  draws  attention,  I  cannot  support 
the  methods  by  which  he  would  prove,  or  disprove,  the  profitableness  of 
keeping  poultry.  The  second  condition  which  he  lays  down,  “  Each 
flock  of  forty  shall  be  wired  in,  and  confined  upon  an  acre  of  grass  run,” 
condemns  the  whole  thing.  Firstly,  it  is  unnatural,  and  consequently  not 
a  fair  test ;  and  secondly,  the  cost  of  enclosing  will  be  a  serious  item.  Is 
it  to  be  charged  as  an  expense  ?  If  so,  the  result  is  a  foregone  conclusion 
— viz.,  failure. 
That  fowls  pay,  and  pay  well,  under  proper  management  is  easy  to 
prove,  but  so  far  as  my  experience  goes  fowls  never  did,  and  never  could, 
pay  if  enclosed  with  wire.  I  of  course  except  fancy  Geeds,  where  the 
eggs  are  sold  at  high  prices  for  sitting.  The  great  point  in  the  manage¬ 
ment  of  fowls  is  that  they  shall  have  fresh  sweet  land  to  run  on,  and  a 
second  point  of  great  importance  is  shelter.  When  fowls  are  confined 
in  a  wire  run  it  is  difficult,  and  often  impossible,  to  give  them  shelter  from 
hot  sun  and  storm,  such  as  they  can  obtain  when  running  at  large  under 
trees  and  buildings  ;  and  my  experience  is  that,  putting  this  matter  aside, 
it  is  only  a  question  of  time,  when  fowls  are  confined,  before  disease 
makes  its  appearance. 
The  mistake  that  many  writers  upon  poultry  make,  and  which  has 
wrecked  so  many  poultry  farmers,  seems  to  me  to  show  itself  in  this 
passage:  -  “If  satisfactory  results  can  be  shown  from  a  single  flock  we 
have  something  to  warrant  an  increased  number  lieing  kept,  four  flocks 
upon  4  acres,  or  eight  upon  8  acres,”  and  so  on.  My  experience  is  quite 
opposed  to  this;  torty  fowls,  with  a  free  run  on  grass  and  shelter  of 
buildings  and  bushes,  thrive  and  pay  ;  double  the  number,  with  the  same 
advantages,  still  pay,  but  not  nearly  so  well,  and  with  forty  fowls  running 
at  large,  and  forty  in  wire  pens,  those  in  the  pens  lose  just  about  as  much 
as  the  others  gain. 
This  is  a  brief  summary  of  my  experience.  It  is  perhaps  not  lair 
to  compare  my  runs,  where  ten  to  fifteen  fowls  had  some  600  square 
yards  of  grass,  divided  into  two  yards  so  as  to  give  change,  with  a  run  of 
an  acre  for  forty  fowls  ;  but  I  think  the  extra  cost  of  wiring  an  acre  of 
land  for  this  number  of  fowls  would  be  more  adverse  to  the  balance  sheet 
than  the  fact  of  the  run  being  somewhat  restricted. 
To  prove  that  fowls  pay  under  proper  conditions  is  easy.  They  paid 
sixty  years  ago,  when  corn  was  one-third  to  twice  the  present  price,  and 
eggs  just  about  one-third  cheaper  ;  and  if  it  can  be  shown  that  eggs  were 
produced  at  a  profit  under  those  conditions,  we  need  scarcely  go  further. 
I  have  many  a  time  heard  my  father  state  that  for  years  when  he  was  a 
boy  he  kept  himself  entirely  with  the  produce  of  his  poultry,  and  would 
accept  no  pocket  money,  or  even  journey  money,  unless  every  penny  were 
accounted  for,  so  that  he  might  prove  the  fact.  He  had  some  six  or 
seven  flocks  of  fowls,  housed  in  brick  hen  roosts,  and  scattered  all  oxi  r 
the  parish  on  grass  orchard  land,  about  100  acres  ;  each  orchard  had  a 
cottage  attached  to  it  for  protection,  and  the  women  at  these  cottages  fed 
his  fowls  and  collected  the  eggs  at  2d.  per  score  ;  the  corn  he  paid  for, 
and  only  used  the  best  quality.  How  much  he  received  he  never  told  his 
boys,  probably  fearing  they  might  demand  an  increase  of  pocket  money, 
nor  did  he  know  the  amount  of  tax  the  eggs  had  to  pay  to  the  collectors 
before  they  reached  him.  The  fowls  he  kept  were  pure-bred  Gold  and 
Silver  Pencil  Hamburghs,  and  a  few  (  ochins  for  mothers. 
Coming  down  to  later  days  and  my  own  experience.  For  some 
years  my  wife  kept  fowls,  having  a  flock  of  from  forty  to  sixty  about 
the  buildings,  and  having  a  6-acre  grass  field  to  run  in.  Beyond  a 
few  scraps  from  the  kitchen  (and  with  pigs  kept  these  do  not  amount 
to  anything  serious)  the  fowls  have  no  possibility  of  obtaining  any 
artificial  food  gratis,  the  only  stacks  near  being  of  hay  ;  and  under 
these  conditions,  paying  for  all  food,  she  supplied  the  house  with  eggs 
for  nothing  and  made  a  yearly  profit  of  from  £8  to  £12.  I  need  not 
say  that  the  eggs  eaten  much  more  than  paid  for  the  time  expended  by  a 
man  in  feeding  and  cleaning  out  the  hen  house. 
Into  the  details  of  our  failure  when  we  attempted  the  multiplication  of 
profits  I  need  not  go,  it  has  been  hinted  at  above,  and  my  only  reason  for 
penning  these  lines  is  to  prevent  others  being  led  away  by  the  same 
fallacy. — A.  H.  Pearson,  Manor  House,  Chilwell,  Hotts. 
METEOROLOGICAL  OBSERVATIONS. 
Camden  Square,  London. 
Lat.  51°  32'  40"  N.;  Long.  0°  8'  0"  W.;  Altitude  111  feet. 
Date. 
9  A.M. 
In  THE  Day. 
Rain. 
1898. 
January. 
Barometer 
at  32°,  and 
Sea  Level 
Hygrometer 
Direc¬ 
tion  of 
Wind. 
Temp 
of  soil 
at 
1  foot 
Shade  Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Tempera¬ 
ture. 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
Sun 
On 
Grass 
Sunday  ....  2 
Monday  ....  3 
Tuesday  ....  4 
Wednesday  5 
Thursday  . .  6 
Friday .  7 
Saturday ....  8 
inchs 
29-655 
30  ••246 
30  ••271 
29-998 
29- 943 
-29-991 
30- 079 
deg. 
42-1 
37-1 
37-2 
48-9 
52-6 
46-8 
39-1 
deg. 
42-0 
37-1 
37- 2 
48-4 
51-3 
45-3 
38- 4 
W. 
Calm. 
W. 
S.W. 
W. 
N.  W. 
s. 
deg. 
42- 0 
40- 4 
39-2 
41- 0 
43- 9 
44- 3 
41-6 
deg. 
44- 8 
42-6 
48-7 
52- 9 
53- 4 
47-1 
45- 7 
deg. 
41-0 
32-6 
32-8 
37-9 
48-4 
46  "2 
31-1 
deg. 
55-3 
46-8 
49-7 
53-8 
67-3 
69-6 
49-8 
deg. 
37-4 
28-7 
28-4 
37-4 
45-9 
42-4 
27-2 
inchs. 
0-090 
0-295 
0-104 
- 
30-026 
43-4 
42-8 
41-8 
47-9 
38-6 
55-9 
35-3  i  0-489 
1 
2nd.— Rainy  early  ;  bright  sun  from  11  a.m.  to  sunset  ;  fog  at  night. 
3rd.— Fog  nearly  all  day,  but  a  little  sun  about  2  P.M. 
4th.— Dull  and  humid  throughout. 
5th.— Almost  incessant  rain  from  5  a.m.  to  4  p.m.,  and  showers  after. 
6th.— Mild,  with  much  bright  sunshine  after  10.45  a.m. 
7th.— Rain  from  2.30  to  5  A.M.  ;  bright  sunshine  almost  all  day. 
8th. — Fair,  with  gleams  of  sun. 
Temperature  much  the  same  as  in  the  previous  week,  and  unseasonably  high. 
— G.  J.  Symons. 
