110 
JOURNAL  OR  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
January  30,  1866. 
yet  with  due  regard  to  a  happy  combination  of  economy  with 
efficiency.  He  must  possess  sufficient  knowledge  to  protect 
himself.  If,  for  example,  he  decides  to  purchase  a  compound 
manure  for  a  special  crop  under  a  guarantee  he  ought  to  know 
the  current  value  per  unit  of  its  constituents.  Here  is  an 
example  from  the  annual  circular  of  a  leading  manure  company. 
Taking  the  value  per  unit  of  soluble  phosphate  at  Is.  9d ,  of 
nitrogen  at  11s.,  and  potash  at  3s.  6d.,  the  test  is  applied  as 
follows : — 
18  per  cent,  soluble  phosphate  at  Is.  9d.  ...  £1  11  6 
2  ,,  potash  at  3s.  6d.  ...  ...  ...  0  7  0 
31  ,,  nitrogen  at  11s.  ...  ...  ...  1  15  9 
£3  14  3 
The  price  charged  per  ton  for  this  compound  manure  was 
£7  17s.  6d.,  or  £4  3s.  above  its  actual  value  The  vendor  was 
trading  on  the  buyer's  ignorance,  and  this  is  only  one  of 
several  ways  in  which  the  farmer  is  the  victim  of  grasping 
traders.  We  would,  then,  make  all  such  matters  so  clear  to  him 
as  to  enable  him  to  protect  himself.  Then  by  a  judicious 
system  of  intelligent  farming  it  certainly  ought  to  prove 
anything  but  a  decaying  industry. 
WORK  ON  THE  HOME  FARM. 
Mangolds  in  use  for  the  dairy  cows  are  in  the  chaff  room  fully  a 
week  before  being  used.  The  chaff  and  mixing  room  being  in  the  centre, 
with  a  cow  hovel  on  each  side  and  opening  into  it,  the  temperature  is 
as  high  as  that  of  the  hovels,  a  much  more  important  matter  than  is 
generally  realised.  Taking  the  normal  temperature  of  the  cows  as 
100°  Fahr.,  it  is  certain  that  the  consumption  of  very  cold  food  now 
must  try  them  severely.  Let  it  never  be  forgotten  that  this  temperature 
is  mainly  kept  up  by  food  containing  heat-forming  materials. 
When  the  supply  of  heat  and  force-yielding  materials  in  the  food 
digested  is  greater  than  the  bodily  requirements  of  a  lean  animal,  the 
surplus  is  available  for  the  storage  of  fat  within  the  body  ;  but  when 
the  supply  is  deficient  the  fat  already  stored  in  the  body  is  drawn 
upon,  and  reduced  by  the  necessity  for  furnishing  force  and  main¬ 
taining  the  normal  heat  of  the  body.  Surely  the  clear  comprehension 
of  these  important  facts  should  enable  every  cowman  and  stockman  to 
see  what  goes  to  the  maintenance  of  healthy  condition  in  winter,  and  to 
control  his  feeding  accordingly. 
Avoid  the  common  practice  of  giving  animals  large  quantities  of 
frozen  roots  now,  or  for  the  matter  of  that  the  use  of  frozen  roots  at  all. 
Remember  that  food  during  digestion  has  to  be  raised  to  the  temperature 
of  the  body,  and  in  so  raising  it  an  amount  of  heat  varying  with  the 
temperature  of  the  food  when  consumed  has  to  be  sacrificed.  Can  we 
wonder  then  that  store  cattle  are  so  frequently  found  to  be  shivering 
after  consuming,  say,  half  the  daily  ration  of  70  lbs,  of  roots  quite  that 
number  of  degrees  colder  than  the  body  ?  or  that  ewes  heavy  with 
lamb  not  only  miscarry,  but  often  die  outright  from  the  daily  loss  of 
vital  heat  under  such  a  regimen  ? 
Prevention  is  better  than  cure,  sav  we  once  more.  Attention  to 
shelter,  and  to  every  detail  affecting  the  comfort  and  health  of  live 
stock  now  is  the  sort  of  prevention  we  indicate,  and  we  may  claim  that 
a  knowledge  of  natural  laws  affecting  the  health  of  such  animals  enables 
those  in  charge  of  them  to  bestow  that  intelligent  attention  upon  them 
which  only  such  knowledge  can  insure.  We  call  special  attention  to 
this  matter  now  because  it  is  precisely  in  January  and  February  when 
serious  mischief  arising  from  ignorance  occurs.  In  the  matter  of  com¬ 
fort  affecting  health  resolve  to  put  an  end  to  the  abominable  state  of 
filth  in  which  the  coats  of  so  many  cows  are  now.  Only  fair  daily 
attention  to  the  coats  and  litter  will  set  this  right. 
ENGLAND’S  STRENGTH  AND  WEAKNESS. 
A  gentle  reproof  to  agriculturists  runs  through  the  article  on 
page  45,  January  16th,  and  I  should  lise,  as  one  of  the  reproved,  to  state 
a  few  facts  from  my  point  of  view.  On  page  46,  second  column,  I 
read  this  : — “  In  1800  we  bad  ten  acres  of  Wheat  to  thirty-two  inhabi¬ 
tants  ;  now  we  have  ten  acres  to  260.”  No  mention  is  made  of  the 
tremendous  increase  of  population  this  century  has  seen,  an  increase 
almost  abnormal.  The  inference  drawn  is  that  our  Wheat  acreage  has 
not  increased  in  proportion  to  our  population.  How  in  the  name  of 
wonder  are  we  to  increase  it?  Here  in  this  sea-girt  island  we  are  truly 
a  limited  company  at  any  rate.  I  suppose  the  answer  w<uld  be  “You 
do  not  make  the  most  of  what  you  have.”  Possibly  not.  I  will,  however, 
just  try  and  clear  ourselves  a  little.  Suppose  we  took  all  the  workable 
land,  put  it  under  the  four-course  system,  that  would  give  us  about 
twelve  million  acres  for  Wheat-growing  ;  this  would  be  at  the  expense  of 
Barley,  Oats,  roots  of  all  sorts,  to  say  nothing  of  beef  and  mutton. 
Now,  on  an  average,  this  land  under  the  best  and  most  liberal  treat¬ 
ment,  and  in  splendid  seasons,  would  yield  but  a  trifle  over  three-quarters 
per  acre,  and  no  man  on  earth  can  make  Wheat-growing  pay  unless  he 
be  assured  of  five  quarters  per  acre  at  present  prices.  Then  even  we 
should  not  have  an  adequate  supply  of  flour,  and  should  be  great  losers 
in  the  matter  of  the  other  crops  I  have  mentioned.  No  one  disputes  the 
fact  that  English-fed  beef  and  mutton,  in  flavour  and  quality  will  beat 
all  other  out  of  the  field,  and  we  should  be  poorly  fixed  had  we  to  trust 
to  the  foreigner  for  Potatoes,  hay  and  roots,  Then,  too,  our  Burton 
brewers  would  raise  an  outcry;  good  sound  English  Barley  i3  bad  tr 
beat.  Now  another  question  arises.  There  is  a  growing  distaste  for 
English  flour  ;  it  is  almost  unmarketable.  Our  taste  has  been  ruined 
by  the  fine  drv  white  flour  of  the  foreigner,  and  it  is  useless  to  try  and 
sell  osr  people  what  they  will  hardly  take  as  a  gift.  Certainly  we 
know  our  flour  is  the  more  wholesome,  but  it  is  not  taking  in 
appearance  and  “  the  lust  of  the  eye  ”  has  to  be  satisfied,  and  the 
“  masses  ”  are  harder  So  satisfy  than  the  “  classes.” 
Just  a  word  on  small  holdings  (page  47,  column  1).  Supposing  a 
fair-sized  agricultural  parish,  one-quarter  of  which  is  in  small  holdings, 
the  rest  in  large  farms,  1  fail  to  see  how  the  farmers  would  profit  by 
the  services  of  the  small  men  in  times  when  work  pressed  and  was  too 
much  for  the  farmer’s  ordinary  force,  because  the  time  of  pressure  would 
come  on  both  alike,  great  or  small.  There  is  but  one  seed  time  and  one 
harvest  ;  and  if  supposing  these  small  men  were  done  first  and  could 
come  to  the  help  of  their  larger  neighbours,  by  their  very  numbers  they 
would  at  once  lower  the  wage  rate  in  that  district,  and  then  where 
would  the  benefit  be  ?  Then  our  men  have  found  that  constant 
employment  on  a  large  farm,  the  wages  that  come  in  so  regularly, 
be  ’hey  ill  or  well,  and  a  decent  garden  are  better  provision  than  any 
small  holding. 
P  S. — Perhaps  the  question  of  wage,  ill  or  well,  needs  some 
explanation.  Our  custom  i9  to  engage  men  by  the  year,  and  in  the  case 
of  short  illness  no  deduction  is  ever  made.  Such  an  understanding  goes 
far  to  promote  good  feeling  between  master  and  man. — A  Farmer. 
[And  a  good  farmer,  too,  who  takes  his  own  well-tilled  agricultural 
parish  as  a  sample  of  England.  We  wish  it  were.  The  “  reproof”  (if 
any)  does  not  apply  to  any  good  cultivating  tenant  farmer,  or  landowner 
either ;  but  mistakes  have  been  made  in  many  districts  in  turning 
hundreds  of  homesteads  into  barns,  and  making  already  large  farms  much 
larger,  with  the  unfortunate  result  that  tenants  with  adequate  means  and 
skill  cannot  be  found  for  them.  The  lower  the  prices  for  land  produce 
the  greater  the  need  for  maximum  yields  on  large  and  small  areas. 
Miserable  yields  with  (to  the  producer)  miserable  prices  have  brought 
ruin  to  many,  and  will  to  more.  There  are  hundreds  of  parishes  where 
men  are  not  half  “constantly  employed,”  and  they  have  to  face  the 
alternative  of  half  starving  at  home  or  in  towns,  to  which  so  many  find 
their  way.  If  they  could  earn  half  a  loaf  by  working  for  others,  and 
another  half  by  working  for  themselves,  surely  they  would  be  the 
gainers,  while  it  is  not  easy  to  see  who  would  be  the  losers,  especially 
where  the  land  does  not  pay  for  more  labour,  or  where  means  cannot  be 
found  for  it  if  it  did,  than  at  present  employed. 
The  weak  point  in  our  correspondent’s  able  rejoinder  is  in  supposing 
that  any  practical  person  of  much  less  intelligence  than  himself  should 
suggest  the  placing  of  “  about  12,000,000  acres  ”  under  Wheat.  It  has 
been  said  that  farmers  as  a  body  are  devoid  of  imagination  ;  we  have 
here  a  brilliant  exception.  Large  areas  of  land  are  not,  as  he  knows,  in 
the  least  suitable  for  Wheat  culture,  but  anyone  who  travels  far  beyond 
his  home  domain  may  see  every  summer  fields  innumerable  in  which 
weeds  predominate  over  the  Wheat  to  such  an  extent  that  the  crop 
could  not  pay  if  the  grain  sold  at  £2  a  quarter  and  the  grower  of  the 
weeds  paid  no  rent. 
If  all  the  land  were  as  well  managed  as  our  critic  manages  his  (we 
have  been  to  see  it)  we  should  be  satisfied  ;  but  it  is  not,  nor  therefore 
are  we.  The  condition  of  his  farm  affords  the  best  possible  justification 
for  our  remarks.  It  proves  beyond  all  doubt  that  our  country  can  be 
made  stronger,  and  hence  safer,  as  a  food-producing  nation  when 
cultivators,  large  or  small,  possess  the  requisite  knowledge  and  the  means 
for  doing  what  Tennyson’s  “  Northern  Farmer  ”  did,  and  seemed  to  have 
made  his  end  happy,  because  he  could  say,  “I  done  moy  duty  to  hall  as 
I  ’a  done  boy  the  lond.” 
Duty  is  not  done  to  thousands  of  acres  of  land  now,  and  our  country 
is  weakened  accordingly.] 
METEOROLOGICAL  OBSERVATIONS. 
Oamden  Square,  London. 
Lat  .51°  32' 40"  N. :  Long.  0°  8/  0"  W.:  Altitude  111  teet 
Date. 
9  A.M. 
In  the  Day. 
Q 
i 
1896 
January. 
|  Barometer 
i  at  32°,  and 
|  Sea  Level. 
Hygrometer. 
Direc¬ 
tion  of 
Wind. 
Temp, 
of  soil 
at 
1  foot. 
Shade  Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
Sun. 
On 
Grass. 
Inchs. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg 
Inchs. 
Sunday  ..  19 
30-322 
46-4 
44*6 
N. 
42-0 
50‘4 
42-6 
72-6 
36-0 
— 
Monday  . .  20 
30-474 
32-7 
31-7 
N. 
40-8 
41*3 
28-0 
49-9 
24.9 
— 
Tuesday  ..  21 
30*443 
34-2 
33-6 
N. 
39-1 
38-J 
32-7 
37*4 
27-9 
- - 
Wednesday  22 
30-250 
32-9 
32-9 
N.W. 
38-9 
44*0 
31-4 
69-2 
26-9 
— 
Thursday  . .  23 
30-342 
31-4 
31-2 
N. 
38-7 
42-6 
28-7 
42-9 
24-3 
— 
Friday  . ,  24 
30-175 
41-4 
39-2 
S.W. 
38-8 
48-1 
31-4 
70-2 
31*3 
0-149 
Saturday  ..  25 
29-941 
47-6 
47-6 
S.W. 
39-3 
51-4 
40-1 
52-5 
35-4 
0*217 
30-278 
38-1 
37-3 
39  7 
45-1 
33-6 
55-1 
29-5 
0*366 
REMARKS. 
19th. — Overcast  morning  ;  bright  sun  all  afternoon  ;  clear  night. 
20th. — Faint  sunshine  all  day. 
21st. — High  smoke  fog  all  day  ;  lights  necessary  from  noon. 
22nd. — Slightly  foggy  early;  sunny  morning;  cloudy  afternoon,  and  slight  drizzle 
about  3  p.m. 
23rd. — Slightly  foggy  early  ;  dull  morning  ;  smoke  fog  in  afternoon. 
24th.— Bright  sunshine  almost  till  sunset;  slight  shower  at  5.15  p.m. 
25th. — Almost  continuous  rain  from  2  A.M.  to  5  P.M.,  dull  and  damp  after. 
The  week  generally  dull,  and  of  about  the  average  temperature.— G.  J.  SYMONS. 
