440 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
November  16,  1899. 
roll  by  so  quickly,  and  then  the  astonished  owner  wakes  to  find  the 
footpath,  by  lapse  of  time,  is  a  public  one,  and  he  is  helpless.  We 
knew  of  a  case  of  this  sort  lately,  where  the  p>ath  had  been  made  by 
an  odd  labourer  going  to  his  work  and  by  the  gamekeeper  on  his  beat. 
Now,  alas  !  it  is  used  by  ironstone  miners,  who  gaily  and  daily  pass 
through  one  of  the  best  coverts  on  the  estate.  The  ironstone  mining 
is  a  new  industry,  the  men  are  not  native  born,  and  have  a  strong 
penchant  for  hare,  rabbit,  or  winged  game.  In  this  case,  though  the 
farmer  strongly  objects  to  strangers  through  his  home  fields,  the 
greater  annoyance  falls  on  the  owner,  and  there  will  be  a  constant 
danger  of  friction  between  his  keepers  and  the  stranger  within  his 
borders. 
This  autumn  particularly  has  been  a  trying  one  to  many  a 
farmer.  The  crops  of  Brambles  and  Mushrooms  have  been  simply 
enormous,  but  the  legal  owner  has  not  benefited  much.  There 
appears  to  be  a  feeling,  even  among  quite  respectable  people,  that  a 
Mushroom  field  is  common  property — that  you  may  go  in,  gather 
what  you  like,  either  for  sale  or  immediate  consumption,  none  letting 
or  hindering  you.  We  have  seen  it  done,  and  have  laughed  at  the 
irony  of  it.  Strangers  have  come  in  and  cleared  our  fields,  and  left 
us  a  basketful,  with  compliments  !  One  great  and  serious  fault  these 
Mushroom  gatherers  have,  and  it  is  that  they  rarely,  if  ever,  close  a 
gate ;  the  consequence  is,  strayed  cattle  in  every  direction.  The 
Bramble  gatherers  are  an  equal  nuisance  ;  they  come  in  battalions — 
not  only  the  village  people  proper,  but  the  scum  of  the  nearest  town. 
They  too  leave  gates  open,  make  gaps  wherever  they  list,  maul  and 
destroy  the  hedges,  and  give  you  plenty  of  “sauce”  if  you  dare 
remonstrate. 
There  are  many  people,  too,  who  do  not  grow  their  own  Potatoes 
and  Turnips  for  the  pot,  but  they  appear  always  to  have  plenty ; 
indeed,  we  know  one  woman  (gardenless)  who  was  in  the  habit  of 
retailing  Potatoes  to  her  neighbours.  This,  of  course,  comes  under 
the  head  of  petty  larceny  ;  but  trespass  was  committed  in  the  first 
instance.  Of  trespass  in  pursuit  of  game  we  believe  there  is  a  great 
deal,  but  that  again  is  more  the  landlord’s  concern. 
As  to  the  Mushroom  nuisance,  by  planting  spawn  in  the  grass 
fields  the  crop  comes  under  the  head  of  a  cultivated  one,  and  depre¬ 
dators  (if  caught)  can  be  dealt  with  by  the  magistrates.  We  find 
the  Chambers  of  Staffordshire  and  Warwick  are  combining  to  call 
upon  Parliament  to  remodel  the  present  law  of  trespass ;  other 
Chambers  might  do  worse  than  follow  their  example.  We  know  of 
one  farmer  in  the  neighbourhood  of  a  large  town  who  gave  up  his 
holding,  which  had  been  in  the  family  for  generations,  rather  than 
suffer  constant  irritation  from  trespasses  he  was  quite  unable  to  cope 
with. 
There  is  another  question  that  is  calling  for  attention.  A  short 
anecdote  is  all  that  is  necessary.  A  wholesale  dealer  in  foreign 
(frozen)  meat  was  sojourning  at  the  seaside.  One  of  the  butchers 
was  a  large  customer  of  his,  though  personally  they  were  strangers- 
The  dealer  called  at  the  shop  for  the  purpose  of  buying  frozen 
meat,  and  was  most  indignantly  dismissed  with  the  statement  that 
none  but  best  English-fed  was  ever  sold  there. 
Is  it  not  time  there  was  some  sort  of  certificate  or  form  of 
registration  required  ?  It  is  hardly  fair  that  the  public  should  be 
robbed  in  so  barefaced  a  manner.  It  is  quite  right  that  foreign 
meat  should  be  sold,  many  a  poor  family  in  that  way  gets  animal 
food  who  otherwise  would  not.  The  law  steps  in  to  prevent  adultera¬ 
tion,  but  that  Act  does  not  touch  substitution. 
We  are  promised  some  speedy  legislation  re  accidental  injury  to 
farm  workers.  That  such  a  measure  would  be  beneficial  there  is  no 
doubt.  It  is  sad  to  think  of  a  man  disabled,  perhaps  early  in  life, 
with  no  prospect  but  the  workhouse.  Even  in  case  of  temporary 
illness  the  finances  must  be  severely  strained,  though  a  man  may  be  a 
member  of  a  good  sound  club. 
The  farmer  has  quite  enough  to  do  to  provide  wages  for  the 
workers.  He  cannot,  if  he  would,  maintain  a  man  for  any  length 
of  time,  and  therefore  he  will  have  to  secure  himself  against  possible 
loss  by  insurance.  If,  as  is  stated,  insurance  can  be  effected  at  the 
rate  of  3s.  6d.  per  cent.,  the  farmer  will  be  the  first  to  agree  in  the 
desirability  of  any  such  act.  It  is  always  painful  to  see  suffering  we 
cannot  alleviate,  and  it  is  doubly  so  if  the  suffering  has  been  incurred 
in  our  service. 
What  chance  have  we  for  any  compensation  for  crops  burned  by 
sparks  from  a  passing  locomotive  (railway)  ?  None  if  the  company 
can  prove  they  use  a  certain  spark  guard  and  did  not  show  negligence. 
This  is  a  most  comforting  doctrine  for  the  owner  of  destroyed  crops; 
and  how  is  the  negligence  to  be  proved  ?  Road  locomotives  are  under 
much  more  stringent  rule,  but  we  think  what  is  sauce  for  the  goose 
should  be  sauce  for  the  gander. 
Muzzling  appears  to  have  fulfilled  the  object  for  which  it  was 
introduced.  May  we  happily  keep  clear  of  rabies  for  an  indefinite 
period.  Dogs  and  their  owners  are  alike  grateful  to  find  the  order 
revoked. 
WORK  ON  THE  HOME  EARM. 
We  have  had  further  heavy  rains,  and  the  weather  has  been  more  like 
April  than  November.  Pastures  have  freshened  wonderfully,  and 
farmers  have  been  enabled  to  defer  the  evil  day  of  bringing  up  the  cattle 
for  another  week  or  two.  In  fact  holding  stock  may  be  kept  out  until 
we  have  some  really  wintry  weather.  At  any  rate  the  prospects  for 
winter  keep  are  much  improved,  and  this  is  already  shown  by  improve¬ 
ment  in  the  price  of  store  sheep.  The  rise  is  not  great,  but  there  is  much 
more  inclination  to  buy. 
A  large  breadth  of  Wheat  is  already  above  ground,  and  is  looking 
really  beautiful  ;  it  will  make  a  good  start  before  winter  sets  in. 
The  regular  work  of  autumn  being  almost  completed,  the  spare  hands 
are  set  to  hedging  and  fence  repairing.  On  a  home  farm  there  is  seldom 
any  difficulty  as  to  a  suitable  supply  of  fencing  materials,  but  we  often 
hear  bitter  complaints  from  farmers  as  to  the  almost  impossibility  of 
obtaining  rough  timber  at  a  reasonable  rate.  In  many  instances  they  are 
obliged  to  buy  foreign  stuff  from  the  seaports,  and  pay  heavy  railway 
freight  on  it,  whilst  there  may  be  hundreds  of  acres  of  woodland  in  their 
own  parish.  This  is  particularly  the  case  where  the  fall  of  timber  is  let 
by  tender  to  large  timber  merchants,  for  they  usually  cart  almost  every¬ 
thing  away  that  is  worth  anything  at  all,  leaving  nothing  but  firewood, 
and  when  applied  to  by  a  farmer,  either  refuse  to  sell  at  all  or  at  a  pro¬ 
hibitive  price. 
On  some  estates  the  timber  is  sold  in  small  lots  by  auction  at  the  tree 
root,  and  this  gives  the  farmer  a  Better  chance,  he  being  generally  the 
best  customer,  giving  a  better  price  for  the  small  stuff  than  the  timber 
merchant  does  for  the  well  grown  trees.  Now  that  there  is  such  an 
outcry  in  the  hunting  field  against  barbed  wire,  masters  of  hounds  should 
nse  their  influence  with  landlords  to  give  their  tenants  better  and  cheaper 
supplies  of  fencing  timber.  Then  there  will  be  less  excuse  for  the 
increasing  use  of  what  we  have  heard  a  labourer  call  “  Barbara  wire.  ’ 
We  fear  that  few  Swedes  will  be  worth  storing,  but  where  there  is 
any  size  at  all,  and  a  desire  to  make  them  safe  against  frost,  we  should 
recommend  that  they  be  pulled  and  thrown  into  heaps  as  they  are,  with 
both  tops  and  roots  uncut ;  then  well  covered  with  soil  they  will  keep  all 
right.  Discretion  must  be  used  by  the  men  not  to  put  in  the  heap  any 
cankered  or  unsound  roots. 
“  Pink-Eye  ”  amongst  the  Gkeys.— “  Pink-eye”  has  broken  out 
amongst  the  horses  of  the  Scots  Greys  stationed  at  Edinburgh.  The 
disease  is  of  a  mild  type,  and  the  number  of  horses  affected  is  not,  so 
far,  very  large  ;  but  as  the  regiment,  like  so  many  others,  is  under  orders 
for  the  Cape,  the  outbreak,  to  say  the  least  of  it,  is  not  very  opportune. 
Already  a  detachment  of  the  regiment  has  gone  to  Aldershot  in  quest 
of  fresh  horses.  The  disease  is  believed  to  have  been  introduced  by 
horses  sent  recently  from  York,  to  take  the  place  of  those  cast  as  unfit 
for  active  service  against  the  Boers.  The  disease  is  also  said  to  be 
rather  prevalent  in  Ayrshire,  and  it  is  known  that  some  prominent 
breeders  have  sustained  serious  losses  through  this  cause. — (“North 
British  Agriculturist.”) 
The  Objection  to  Sudden  Changes  in  Pood  Rations. — 
When  cattle  are  changed  at  all  suddenly  from  one  description  of  food  to 
another  they  almost  invariably  suffer  very  sensibly  in  condition,  even 
though  such  change  may  be  from  a  good  to  a  better  ration.  An  experi¬ 
ment  was  specially  conducted  some  time  ago  with  the  object  of  testing 
whether  the  commonly  accepted  ideas  on  this  subject  were  not  exaggerated, 
and  it  was  found  that  in  every  case  in  which  a  change  in  food  suddenly 
took  place  the  animals  were  adversely  affected  thereby.  When  a  cow  is 
fed  on  a  certain  ration  for  a  considerable  time,  her  stomach  naturally 
becomes  accustomed  to  a  certain  bulk  or  consistency  in  her  food,  so  that 
when  the  change  is  made,  except  it  is  very  gradually  brought  about,  there 
is  a  tendency  on  the  part  of  the  system  to  become  disarranged,  and  several 
weeks  frequently  elapse  ere  the  animals  begin  to  make  as  what  may  be 
described  as  normal  progress  on  the  new  food.  It  is  because  of  this  that 
it  is  so  essential  to  exercise  every  care  at  this  season  of  the  year  in 
changing  animals  which  have  been  kept  on  grass  all  the  winter  to  indoor 
rations,  in  which  their  feed  consists  largely  of  dry  and  much  more 
concentrated  foods. — (‘‘Irish  Farmers’  Gazette.”) 
