98 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER, 
August  4,  189s. 
IN  CASE  OF  FAMINE. 
Surely  that  is  a  contingency  for  which  we  need  not  provide. 
Famine  has  an  unfamiliar  sound  in  our  ears.  We  associate  the  word 
with  Ireland  and  India.  Irish  famines  are  manageable ;  Indian 
famines  are  met  by  glorious  contributions,  and  if  some  thousands  ol 
our  dusky  fellow-subjects  come  to  an  untimely  end,  they  are  so  far 
off,  so  little  known  to  us,  that  their  ultimate  fate  affects  us  hardly  at 
all.  It  is  not  that  we  are  callous,  but  the  world  is  so  wide,  and  oui 
sympathies  so  cut  up,  as  it  were,  that  the  greatest  calamities  only 
call  from  us  a  passing  tear  or  si-^b. 
But  what  if  grim  famine  invaded  our  hearths  and  homes  ?  What 
if  our  dear  ones  lacked  their  daily  bread  ?  The  thing  is  impossible, 
say  many  ;  but  we  are  not  quite  so  sure  of  that.  Our  isolated  position 
has  its  advantages  and  its  disadvantages.  There  was  a  time  when,  as 
a  writer  of  1737  said,  “England  fields  all  things  necessary  for  life.” 
Now  she  does  not — she  cannot  keep  pace  with  her  teeming  millions. 
She  sends  them  from  her  shores  in  numbers  to  populate  her  colonies, 
and  yet  her  homes  are  full  to  overflowing. 
We  are  now  living  from  hand  to  mouth.  We  require  annually 
not  less  than  millions  of  tons  of  Wheat  and  flour — we  produce  of 
that  quantity  l£  million  tons.  If  every  acre  of  land  in  this  country 
were  sown  with  Wheat,  to  the  exclusion  of  all  other  crops,  we  should 
be  very  little  nearer  a  solution  of  the  difficulty. 
What  do  we  do,  then  ?  Why,  we  depend  on  supplies  drawm  from 
foreign  lands.  And  how  are  those  foreign  lands  reached — by  overland 
route?  No,  indeed;  “ex  ship’’  is  on  every  consignment.  Our 
nearest  supplies  come  from  Russia.  Russia  suffers  from  periodic 
famine.  India  has  a  complaint  of  a  similar  nature.  The  United  States 
and  Canada  are  fairly  handy,  but  there  is  a  wide  expanse  of  sea 
between  Liverpool,  New  York,  and  Halifax. 
Argentina  has  good  supplies  in  time  of  plenty,  but  the  voyage  is 
long,  though  not  so  long  as  from  Australia.  Hitherto  we  have  ruled 
the  seas;  will  this  be  so  in  the  future  ?  How  do  our  fleets  compare 
with  those  of  other  nations  ?  What  might  happen  in  time  of  war? 
Our  corn-cirrying  vessels  are  not  of  the  fleetest;  any  man-of-war 
could  outsail  them.  And  is  our  navy  strong  enough  to  make  us  feel 
perfectly  secure  ? 
It  is  so  long  since  we  were  engaged  in  any  naval  encounters, 
that  we  can  hardly  gauge  our  own  strength,  and  our  vaunted  strength 
may  be  weakness.  Is  it  not  possible,  nay  probable,  that  in  case  of 
outbreak  of  war  with  either  America  or  the  Continent  the  first  step 
of  the  belligerents  would  be  to  cut  off  our  food  supplies  ?  We  think 
so.  And  armed  cruisers  would  soon  make  things  very  uncomfortable 
for  usv  We  could  grow  nothing  here  to  take  the  place  of  bread  stuffs, 
and  it  would  be  a  case  of  peace  at  any  price. 
Y  e  do  not  want  to  contemplate  the  chances  of  war,  but  it  is  not 
wisdom  to  lull  ourselves  into  a  state  of  apathy  and  false  security. 
There  is  corn  in  Egypt,  but  we  want  it  in  Canaan.  We  have  the 
money  and  the  ships,  and  corn  is  a  commodity  that  will  bear 
warehousing.  In  suitable  granaries,  and  with  just  ordinary  attention, 
Wheat  will  keep  sound  and  good  for  years,  and  one  year’s  provision  in 
store  would  make  us  laugh  our  foes  to  scorn.  A  full  man  can  fight 
and  make  his  own  terms ;  a  fasting  man  is  literally  in  the  power  of 
his  enemies. 
This  is  not  a  matter  for  the  private  speculator,  it  is  Government 
business,  and  we  think  that  if  once  we  could  get  the  nation  to  grasp 
the  gravity  of  the  situation,  this  scheme  of  public  Wheat  stores  would 
become  a  burning  question.  What  is  the  cost  of  building  and 
equipping  a  man-of-war  ?  Ask  my  Lords  of  the  Admiralty. 
W  hat  would  be  the  cost  of  a  reserve  of  10,000,000  quarters  of 
Wheat  ?  Something  like  £1.250,000,  might  possibly  be  less,  and  the 
feeling  of  security  from  famine  would  be  worth  the  outlay.  Bread 
has  been  cheap  so  long  that  any  material  rise  in  the  price  would  be 
badly  received  by  the  denizens  of  our  large  towns.  Their  power  is 
such  that  they  could  force  the  hand  of  any  government,  however 
strong;  and  hunger  prompts  to  vigorous  action. 
We  should  condemn  a  government  as  supine  in  the  extreme  who 
failed  to  store  an  adequate  supply  of  ammunition,  but  what  about  a 
government  which  fails  to  provide  an  adequate  food  supply. 
Mr.  R.  B.  Marston  in  “Nineteenth  Century”  for  June  suggests  a 
plan  by  which  our  Government  might  keep  a  reserve,  and  yet  not  to 
constitute  themselves  corn  merchants,  except  in  time  of  famine.  This 
is  his  proposal.  That  after  Government  has  once  bought  a  store  it 
should  “renew  its  reserve  by  taking  shipments  of  newly  imported 
corn  and  giving  the  importer  an  order  on  the  Government  stores  for 
a  corresponding  quantity  (value  for  value)  of  the  Wheat  imported 
twelve  months  previously . The  basis  of  exchange  would 
simply  be  the  quality  and  quantity  of  bread,  an  equal  weight  of  the 
new  Wheat  and  of  the  Wheat  a  year  old  would  make.” 
This  seems  to  us  a  feasible  plan,  and  we  believe,  that  year-old 
Wheat,  if  well  stored,  makes  better  flour  than  the  new.  A  supply  in 
hand  would  give  ns  a  pleasant  sense  of  security;  and  when  the  time 
comes  when  arbitration  takes  the  place  of  actual  warfare,  and  the 
armour  plates  of  all  nations  are  turned  into  trading  craft,  we  may 
disperse  our  stores  and  live  in  the  happy-go-lucky  state  of  hand  to 
mouth. 
WORK  ON  THE  HOME  FARM. 
We  are  having  a  spell  of  very  hot  dry  weather,  and  though  we  hear 
of  showers  flying  about,  we  have  not  been  favoured  with  any.  Every¬ 
thing  is  suffering  except  Wheat,  which  is  already  showing  signs  of  chang¬ 
ing  colour. 
Barley  on  light  land  is  burning  up  very  rapidly  ;  some  places  are 
turning  brown,  whilst  others  keep  their  colour,  the  crop  being  almost 
heavy  enough  to  go  down  without  rain.  The  fields  have  thus  a  very 
curious  appearance,  and  whatever  the  weather  may  be,  the  samples  of 
grain  must  be  very  uneven  in  quality. 
Second  early  Potatoes  are  dying  fast,  and  rain  could  now  do  them  no 
good.  Late  kinds  want  a  good  soaking  if  they  are  to  be  a  satisfactory 
crop.  The  heat  is  suiting  the  Turnips — in  fact,  we  can  hardly  get  them 
hoed  fast  enough.  The  plant  is  a  fair  one,  and  with  rain  later  on  the 
crop  should  be  good  ;  at  any  rate,  the  plant  is  a  very  healthy  one  now. 
Weeds  have  been  so  easily  killed  lately  that  the  second  hoeing,  or  rather 
weeding,  should  require  very  little  in  the  way  of  labour,  and  there  will  be 
no  excuse  for  filthy  Turnips  this  season. 
Rain  is  wanted  very  badly  for  the  aftermath.  The  piece  of  Clover, 
the  crop  from  which  has  been  safely  in  the  stackyard  for  three  weeks,  has 
not  made  enough  growth  for  a  rabbit  to  hide  in.  Lamb  meat  looks  like 
being  very  scarce,  and  the  result  is  already  seen  in  congested  sheep 
markets. 
The  other  day  we  attended  a  cattle  market,  and  saw  sheep  sold  at 
£1  each.  On  the  afternoon  of  the  same  day  we  saw  a  sheep  knocked 
down  by  auction  for  1000  guineas.  It  was  of  the  same  breed  as  the 
others,  the  only  difference  being  that  it  was  the  best  of  its  kind. 
The  old  pastures  have  a  fair  amount  of  meat  in  them,  but  it  is  so]  dry 
that  sheep  are  very  bad  to  keep  at  home,  and  break  fence  repeatedly.  It 
has  been  two  men’s  work  repairing  fences  this  week. 
When  Turnip  hoeing  is  completed,  which  we  hope  will  be  next  week, 
there  should  be  a  clear  week  before  harvest  to  devote  to  muck-leading 
and  hedge-trimming. 
METEOROLOGICAL  OBSERVATIONS. 
Camden  Square,  London. 
Lat.  51°  32'  40"  N.;  Long.  0°  s'  0"  W.:  Altitude  111  foot. 
Date. 
9  A.M. 
In  the  Day, 
Rain. 
1898. 
July. 
Barometer 
at  32°,  and 
Sea  Level 
Hygrometer 
Direc¬ 
tion  of 
Wind. 
Temp, 
of  soil 
at 
1  foot 
Shade  Tern, 
perature. 
Radiation 
Tempera¬ 
ture. 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
Sun 
On 
Grass 
inchs 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
inchs. 
Sunday  . . . 
24  29-999 
62  ”2 
55  "5 
N.W. 
62-8 
75"6 
50-7 
117-1 
46-8 
— 
Monday  . . . 
25  30-084 
65-6 
59-5 
N.W 
63-6 
75-1 
54-3 
96-5 
50-9 
Tuesday  . . . 
26  30-134 
63-8 
62-1 
S. 
63-9 
73-1 
61-2 
96-4 
50-2 
— 
Wednesday 
27  30 -0S2 
67  -9 
63-3 
N. 
63-7 
SI -2 
58-3 
119-9 
56 ’6 
0-457 
Thursday  . 
28  29-987 
03-9 
58-6 
Calm. 
63-9 
74-7 
56-4 
111-2 
54-2 
0-037 
Friday . 
29  30-004 
57-3 
55-1 
N.W. 
62-2 
61  -4 
52-2 
106-8 
48-8 
— 
Saturday . . . 
30  30-255 
57  "0 
50-2 
N. 
60*4 
66"2 
50-1 
114-7 
47-9 
— 
30-07S 
62-5 
57-8 
62-9 
72-5 
54-7 
108-9 
50-8 
0-494 
REMARKS. 
24th. — Bright  sun  almost  throughout;. 
25th.— Dull  (hazy  or  smoky)  till  9  A.M.,  and  generally  overcast,  hut  gleams  of  sun 
in  morning. 
26th,— Overcast,  hazy  and  dull,  with  smoke-fog  at  times ;  occasional  faint  sun 
after  noon.  ^0 
27tli.— Faint  sun  in  morning  ;  thunderstorm  and  heavy  rain  from  3.S0  to  4.30  P.M. 
overcast  evening. 
28th. — Overcast  early  ;  fair  morning,  with  occasional  sunshine  ;  showery  from  1p.m. 
29th.— Overcast  and  drizzl>  morning  ;  gleam  of  sun  at  noon,  then  overcast  again. 
30th.— Dull  all  day,  and  chilly  in  evening. 
A  dull  week,  with  very  little  wind  ;  temperature  very  near  the  average. 
— G.  J.  Symons. 
