270 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER.  March  19,  me. 
The  first  obstacle  (supposing  the  cow  bought)  is  the  housing 
of  the  said  cow.  She  must  have  some  shelter.  Who  is  to 
provide  that,  and  where  ?  For  feeding  and  milking  purposes 
the  shed  must  not  be  far  from  the  cottage,  and  at  a  multiplicity 
of  cowhouses  in  the  village  street  the  sanitary  officer  might  cast 
an  invidious  glance.  And  then,  again,  there  must  be  at  least 
some  rudimentary  dairy  fit  to  meet  that  officer’s  eye,  and  these 
two  items  would  alone  add  sadly  to  the  expense  of  cottage 
property,  a  class  of  investment  that  does  not  pay  1  per  cent  as 
it  is.  These  buildings  must  ei  her  be  raised  by  the  philanthropy 
of  the  landlord  (already  a  much  overburdened  man),  the  savings 
of  the  occupier,  or  by  a  loan  from  the  village  credit  bank,  this 
last  only  being  possible  in  some  few  very  highly  favoured  places. 
No  doubt,  when  thoroughly  understood  and  carefully  worked, 
these  banks  will  become  useful  factors  in  village  industries. 
Now  a^out  the  food  supply.  Lane  grazing  is  no  longer  looked 
upon  with  favour  ;  indeed,  by  the  awards  of  some  parishes  (ours 
to  wit)  it  is  absolutely  forbidden.  This  is  not  altogether  to  be 
regretted  As  a  timid  school  child,  the  horrors  of  meeting 
twenty  or  thirty  cows,  “tented” by  an  elderly  imbecile  or  little 
boy,  are  still  fresh  in  my  memory.  Common  pasturage  in  most 
parts,  too,  has  disappeared,  and  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  in 
most  villages  suitable  grass  land  for  the  labourer’s  cows  without 
taking  it  from  tenants  who  have  already  too  li  tie  home 
pasturage  Some  farmers  are  willing  to  let  a  “  cow  gate,”  but 
the  supply  is  limited,  and  land  is  not,  and  cannot  be,  laid  down 
to  grass  without  much  expense  and  long  delay.  The  winter 
feed,  too,  must  be  considered.  Here  the  lanes  are  let  at  the 
Easter  Yestry  (no,  Parish  C.  meeting)  for  mowing  purposes, 
and  many  a  rough  hedge-side,  dyke-bottom,  or  woodland  path 
can  be  had  for  the  asking. 
It  might,  too,  be  possible  for  a  combination  of  labourers  to 
take  mowing  grass  at  some  distance  from  home,  lead  it  with 
borrowed  forces,  and  then  divide.  A  fair  sized  garden  will  grow 
a  few  Mangolds,  and  a  bit  of  cake  is  not  a  great  outlay  Cow 
keeping  is  more  the  wife’s  province  than  the  man’s  Some 
women  are  born  dairymaids;  others,  alas  !  have  no  notion;  and 
few  or  none  will  try  to  learn  to  improve  their  present  methods 
by  attending  the  excellent  itinerant  dairy  schools  now  to  be 
found  in  every  county.  The  old  system  does  not  secure  the  best 
results.  Why  is  it  that  so  much  of  the  cottage-made  butter  is 
fairly  uneatable  after  a  day  or  twoP  To  secure  every  particle 
of  cream  the  milk  stands  too  long,  and  sufficient  care  is  not 
taken  in  the  washing  of  the  granulated  butter,  or  in  the  thorough 
removal  of  buttermilk.  Hence  the  butter  meets  a  bad  market, 
and  becomes  a  loss  instead  of  a  gain. 
In  some  cases  farmers  supply  their  men  with  cows,  charging 
them  so  much  per  Week;  but  this  often  is  the  bottom  of  endless 
disputes  and  wranglings.  Sell  milk  and  butter  at  a  fair  price, 
and  you  are  much  more  likely  to  live  at  peace.  It  was  the 
custom  when  things  were  better  to  give  the  men  old  milk,  but 
the  jealousy  and  heartburnings  were  intolerable,  and  now  that 
Jack  is  as  good  and  sometimes  better  off  than  his  master,  it 
answers  best  to  put  these  matters  on  a  business  footing.  Where 
one  or  two  small  holdings  exist  in  a  village  a  clever  woman  may 
sell  at  her  door  every  ounce  of  butter  and  every  drop  of  milk 
she  can  spare  at  a  paying  price.' 
WORK  ON  THE  HOME  FARM. 
I  he  much-needed  rain  has  come,  and  in  quite  sufficient  supplies  for 
present  wants.  A  little  March  dust  would  not  now  be  unwelcome.  One 
or  two  sharp  mornings  have  reminded  us  that  frost  may  yet  have  to  be 
reckoned  with.  Still,  it  only  freezes  in  a  half-hearted  way,  and  there 
has  been  practically  no  check  to  the  growth  of  spring  food.  This  should 
have  an  appreciable  effect  on  the  price  of  store  stock.  The  firmness  of 
the  London  wool  sales  will  give  confidence  to  the  buyers  of  sheep,  which 
have  been  depressed  by  the  large  imports  of  foreign  mutton.  The 
lambing  season  so  far  appears  to  be  a  favourable  one,  a  large  fall  of 
lambs  accompanying  a  mortality  amongst  ewes  which  is  below  the 
average.  Heavy  loss  is  hardly  known  this  year. 
The  rains  have  partially  stopped  drilling,  but  a  good  breadth  has 
been  got  in  which  will  serve  for  the  present.  Fallows  require  dry 
winds  to  again  work  well;  The  roller  will  have  to  be  kept  constantly 
at  work  when  the  land  is  dry  enough,  as  it  is  not  in  the  friable  condition 
it  was  last  March  after  the  frost,  and  the  heavy  clods  must  be  broken 
before  they  get  too  hard.  On  soils  of  a  retentive  nature  ploughing  must 
not  be  neglected.  There  is  too  great  a  tendency  to  trust  to  new  fashioned 
grubbers  and  so-called  labour-saving  appliances,  but  good  and  useful  as 
they  are,  they  will  not  turn  over  the  land  like  a  plough,  and  now  the 
introduction  of  the  chilled  American  and  double-furrow  ploughs  have 
so  much  reduced  the  cost  of  the  operation,  we  doubt  whether  there  is 
any  real  saving  in  neglecting  it ;  at  any  rate,  the  rampant  thistle  will 
be  very  punctual  in  calling  attention  to  any  failure  in  this  direction. 
Small  seeds  are  being  sown  now  on  the  early  spring  corn.  Early  sown 
seeds,  especially  those  harrowed  in  after  the  corn  drill,  are  most  certain 
to  make  a  plant,  as  they  get  firm  hold  before  the  heat  of  summer,  but 
there  is  the  alternative  danger  of  too  much  Clover  if  the  season  be  a 
wet  one,  and  a  difficulty  in  harvesting  to  follow.  If  the  land  be  subject 
to  weeds  the  Clovers  had  better  be  kept  in  the  granary  until  April,  and 
then  harrowed  in. 
It  has  been  a  very  fine  season  for  early  field  Peas,  and  the  first 
sowings  will  soon  be  showing  above  ground.  It  is  time  the  main  crops 
were  in,  as  it  does  not  pay  to  grow  Peas  to  pull  far  into  July.  As  pastures 
will  soon  be  ready  to  stock,  any  necessary  repairs  to  fences  should  be  no 
longer  delayed, 
THOSE  WRETCHED  POTATOES— AN  IRISH  VIEW. 
Apropos  of  “  Those  Wretched  Potatoes,”  on  page  220  of  the  Journal 
of  Horticulture,  it  may  be  interesting,  or  at  least  amusing,  to  quote 
from  an  article  contributed  to  the  “  Weekly  Irish  Times,”  of  March  7th, 
by  “  J.  A.  C.,”  entitled  “  The  Social  Effects  of  the  Potato.”  After 
smartly  introducing  his  subject  the  writer  goes  on  to  say  that  he 
thinks  before  he  has  done  “  all  intelligent  readers  will  agree  that  the 
oppressor  never  devised  a  more  potent  engine  of  national  demoralisation 
than  the  esculent  tuber,  so  closely  associated  now  with  our  island’s 
history  and  character  that  Pat  and  his  Praties  are  as  inseparable  in  the 
popular  mind  as  Mr.  Gladstone  and  his  collars.”  Then  follow  six 
indictments,  from  which  I  cull  “  The  Potato  is  a  direct  incentive  to 
laziness.  It  requires  little  labour  and  less  skill. 
One  of  the  best  known  authorities  on  matters  agricultural  in  the 
kingdom  told  me  that  the  finest  Potatoes  he  ever  saw  were  grown  by  an 
old  woman  who  planted  them  with  her  kitchen  shovel  in  her  little  back 
garden.  The  most  ignorant  labouring  man  could  do  the  work  of  planting 
as  well  as  the  most  scientific  farmer,  and  when  planted  they  needed  little 
further  attention.  And  they  were  so  prolific  that  one  man’s  work  could 
grow  enough  for  forty,  go  that  in  a  land  where  the  only  occupations 
possible  were  Potato  planting,  stock-raising  or  fighting,  the  other  thirty- 
nine  offered  a  fine  field  for  Satan’s  proverbial  ingenuity  in  suggesting 
mischief.  And  the  womenkind  were  equally  affected.  There  was  no 
domestic  or  culinary  skill  necessary  for  preparing  the  Potato  for  food  ; 
an  iron  pot  and  a  drop  of  water  on  a  turf  fire  did  the  job,  and  the  house¬ 
wife  could  sit  on  her  hunkers  till  the  Potatoes  were  •  bilt.’  ...  It  stays 
the  pangs  of  hunger,  fills  up  your  internal  cavity,  and  makes  you  fancy 
that  you  have  had  a  good  meal.  But  it  doesn’t  really  stir  you  up  for 
work  ;  any  little  energy  it  gives  is  soon  exhausted,  and  doesn’t  last,  and 
of  course  no  one  can  blame  the  poor  chap  ...  if  he  goes  off  for  a  gossip 
or  a  glass  of  something.  ’Tisn’t  he  that’s  to  blame,  but  the  confounded 
Potato  he  haB  eaten.  .  .  Talk  about  bad  government,  and  landlordism, 
and  bad  land  laws  being  the  cause  of  Irish  agrarian  difficulties — psha  ! 
It  was  the  Potato  that  did  it.  .  .  .  That’s  all  bad  enough,  but  it  isn’t 
the  worst  of  it,  for  the  Potato  has  played  us  wickeder  tricks  than  that.” 
One  really  cannot  do  justice  to  “  J.  A.  C.,”  the  writer,  in  cutting  up 
his  clever  article,  which  is  too  long  to  reproduce  here,  for  the  way  he 
mauls  and  mashes  the  national  root  can  leave  but  little  doubt  on  the 
reader’s  mind  that  it  is  the  root  of  all  the  evils  the  Emerald  Isle  is  heir 
to.  He  concludes  by  saying,  “  Now,  I  think  I  have  sufficiently  proved 
my  charges,  and  have  shown  you,  beyond  controversy,  that  the  much- 
lauded  Potato  of  Ireland  is  a  fraud.” — K.,  Dublin. 
METEOROLOGICAL  OBSERVATIONS. 
Camden  Square,  London. 
Lat.51°  3a' 40"  N. ;  Long.  0°  8/  0"  W.;  Altitude  1X1  feet. 
Date. 
9  A.M. 
In  the  Day. 
d 
a 
03 
1896. 
March. 
|  Barometer 
j  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  .. 
8 
29-961 
52-8 
50-6 
S.W. 
42-8 
55-2 
44-1 
62-2 
43-2 
— 
Monday  .. 
9 
29-998 
62-6 
60-6 
w. 
44-1 
60-3 
49-6 
94-2 
43-2 
0-180 
Tuesday  . . 
10 
80-327 
40-2 
38-2 
N. 
44-8 
51-8 
35-7 
77-7 
29-1 
0-010 
Wednesday 
11 
30-082 
50-3 
48-4 
W. 
48-8 
59-7 
40-7 
94-7 
38-1 
0-102 
Thursday . . 
12 
30*112 
42*7 
40-1 
N.E. 
44-9 
48-0 
41-8 
68-8 
40-2 
— 
Friday  . . 
13 
29-990 
40-2 
36-2 
S.E. 
43-9 
44-3 
36-2 
S4-0 
31-2 
o-oio 
Saturday  . . 
14 
29-829 
43-7 
41-0 
S. 
43-0 
63-4 
40-0 
80-2 
37*2 
0-029 
30-043 
46-1 
43-6 
43*9 
53-2 
41*2 
76*0 
37-5 
0-331 
REMARKS. 
8th.— Overcast  day,  with  occasional  spots  of  rain. 
9th. — A  little  drizzle  early  ;  frequently  sunny  in  morning ;  rain  all  afternoon. 
10th.— Sunny  early ;  smoke  fog  from  10  a.m.  to  noon;  light  necessary  for  a  time  ;  sun 
again  till  3.30  P.M.,  and  fair  later  ;  a  slight  shower  at  11.30  P.M. 
11th. — Fine  and  frequently  sunny  day  ;  rain  from  7.30  to  8.30  P.M. 
12th. — Slight  showers  in  small  hours  ;  overcast  morning ;  some  sunshine  in  afternoon. 
13th. — Overcast  throughout. 
14th.— Generally  overcast,  with  showers  in  afternoon ;  gleams  of  sun  at  1.30  P.M. 
Another  mild  week,  but  not  so  wet  as  the  previous  one. — G.  J.  SYMONS. 
