590 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTIGULTURF  AND  GOfTAOF  GARDENER. 
December  16,  1897. 
possibly  in  many  cases  deserved,  in  many  others  not  at  all.  It  has 
been  said  that  let  an  honest  man  try  his  hand  at  horse  dealing 
he  inevitably  swerves  from  the  path  of  rectitude.  Ever  since  Moses 
Primrose  went  with  the  family  horse  to  the  fair  there  have  been  both 
sharpers  and  dupes — the  one  the  result  of  the  other.  Every  man 
thinks  he  can  carve,  poke  a  fire,  and  drive  a  gig,  and  moat  men  talk 
very  knowingly  about  a  horse.  Depend  upon  it  these  very  knowing 
men  make  knaves.  Who  can  resist  to  “do”  a  conceited  would-be 
horsey  man  ?  You  cannot  be  both  seller  and  buyer  too,  and  the 
opportunity  is  too  fine  to  be  lost.  So  much  for  poor  human  nature. 
If  a  would-be  buyer  could  only  be  persuaded  to  place  himself  in 
the  hands  of  a  respectable  man  who  really  knows  the  points  of  a  horse, 
horse  dealing  would  cease  to  bear  the  reproach  of  roguery,  because  the 
rogue  would  have  no  chance  against  an  honest  man  who  knew  his 
business.  So  many  amateurs  like  to  do  a  deal.  They  get  their 
fingers  bitten,  and  then,  like  the  prophet  of  old,  declare  “all  men  are 
liars.”  We  prefer  to  say  that  all  men  are  not  what  they  seem. 
Horse  dealing,  with  its  snares,  affects  the  few  rather  than  the 
many.  It  is  with  everyday  matters  that  we  would  deal.  We  have 
a  free  breakfast  table,  but  on  that  breakfast  table  things  are  often  far 
from  what  they  seem,  and  it  appears  to  us  that  the  British  trader  is 
beset  with  foes  before  and  behind.  We  suppress  names,  but  these 
facts  are  taken  from  a  London  daily  paper,  and  they  speak  for 
themselves. 
At  one  of  the  suburban  courts  four  tradesmen,  late  in  this  last 
September,  were  summoned  for  selling  as  English,  Canadian  and 
American  hams.  One  case  appears  to  us  very  bad,  where  an  American 
ham  was  labelled  “  Bath”  simply  because  it  had  been  imported  by  a 
person  living  in  that  town.  If  that  were  not  with  an  intent  to 
defraud,  we  are  sadly  mistaken.  Then  again,  it  appears  that  American 
hams  are  usually  cut  (piite  differently  from  English  or  Scotch,  but  in 
this  case  these  hams  had  been  fashioned  on  the  English  model — 
perhaps  uiiintentionally  ;  who  knows  ? 
It  appears  there  is  a  society  called  the  Bacon  Curers’  Association 
of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  and  it  was  at  the  instance  of  this  society 
these  prosecutions  were  made.  A  substantial  fine  was  inflicted,  and 
the  case  ai)|ieared  at  full  in  tlic  London  dailies,  possibly  this  being  the 
greater  jmnishment  of  the  two.  Do  we  always  get  fresh  country 
butter  even  wln  n  we  pay  the  fresh  butter  price  ?  It  is  very  much  to 
be  feared  that  other  fats  rather  than  that  of  milk  figure  in  our  pretty 
butterdishes.  If  we  can  only  afford  margarine,  well  and  good  ;  but 
if  our  ]mrses  allow  of  a  little  more  expenditure  it  is  as  well  to  see  we 
get  the  genuine  ariiclo.  And,  indeed,  wm  may  have  butter  fresh  from 
the  farm  in  a  far  from  pure  state.  Only  this  week  did  we  meet 
with  such.  Nice  to  look  at,  but  on  close  acquaintance  revealing  a 
quantity  of  buttermilk,  which  ought  to  have  been  entirely  removed. 
In  these  days  of  dairy  classes  this  is  an  unpardonable  offence. 
Then,  too,  although  butter  may  be  quite  free  from  buttermilk, 
there  may  be  a  much  larger  per-centage  of  water  than  is  desirable. 
Butter  should  be  perfectly  dry,  and  this  is  quite  attainable  with 
proper  management.  Butter-workers  (we  are  alluding  to  the  small 
ones  worked  by  hand)  are  so  reasonable  that  no  dairy  should  be 
without  one.  d'hey  are  kept  in  all  sizes,  to  suit  all  purses. 
There  has  been  much  said  about  the  adulteration  of  milk,  and 
great  discussions  as  to  what  should  be  taken  as  the  standard  value — 
f.e.,  the  per-centagcs  of  fatty  matter  and  solids.  Now  there  is  a 
difficulty  here;  cows  vary  in  their  fnilk  value  in  many  ways.  Some 
breeds  are  infinitely  more  valuable  as  milk  23i’odu(|pa-s  in  quantity ; 
others  again  produce  the  quality. 
An  old  cowq  or  a  cow  that  has  been  calved  some  time,  gives,  as  a 
rule,  poorer  milk  than  a  young  freshly  calved  one.  Then,  again,  both 
will  vary  accordingly  as  they  are  fed  ;  and  some  owners  understand 
the  art  of  feeding  far  better  than  others. 
The  time  has  come,  howmver,  when  some  sort  of  a  general  rule 
must  be  laid  down,  and  men  well  up  in  the  subject  suggest  that 
12  jier  cent,  of  total  solids  and  3  per  cent,  of  fatty  matter  would  be  a 
fair  thing  for  both  seller  and  buyer.  Milk  certainly  is  not  adulte¬ 
rated  to  the  extent  it  was  some  years  ago — that  is,  adulterated  with 
extraneous  matter;  hut  there  is  still  great  room  for  improvement  of 
what  we  may  call  natural  milk.  If  people  really^prefer  frozen  New 
Zealand  mutton  to  well-fed  Southdown,  we  say  let  them  have  it ;  but 
at  any  rate  they  should  know  what  they  are  buying,  or  they  might 
be  buying  English,  and  how  the  imported  meat  is  to  be  recognised 
easily  by  the  aveiage  housewife  is  still  an  open  question. 
The  Earl  of  Londesborough  has  spoken  strongly  on  the  necessity 
of  branding  imported  horses.  We  see  “  Made  in  Germany  ”  on  many 
of  our  dry  goods ;  why  not  carry  out  the  same  idea  with  regard  to 
live  stock  ?  On  the  question  of  feeding  stuffs  and  manures  we  have 
written  before.  We  have  safeguards  now  of  which  our  fathers  knew 
nothing.  It  is  simply  our  own  fault  if  we  allow  our  cattle  to  be 
poisoned,  or  our  fields  and  pockets  impoverished  by  purchasing 
harmful  cakes  or  meal  or  manures,  whose  only  property  is  their 
fearful  smell. 
[Our  correspondent  has  not  come  to  eggs ;  when  he  does  he  will 
IJerhaps  give  a  gentle  intimation  of  the  advantage  to  some  of  the 
“Continentals”  of  a  trip  into  the  country — going  out  at  24  a  shilling, 
and  coming  back  to  London  as  “  fresh  laid  ”  at  2d.  a-piece.  “  It’s  a 
queer  world,  my  masters,  and  things  are  not  always  what  they 
seem.”] 
WORK  ON  THE  HOME  FARM. 
We  are  now  enjoying  the  first  slack  time  since  harvest,  and  can  attend 
to  the  numerous  little  odds  and  ends  of  work  that  may,  without  loss,  have 
been  deferred  to  this  more  convenient  season. 
Autumn  fallow,  after  receiving  a  good  cleaning,  has  been  waiting  for 
the  plough ;  meanwhile  the  mild  autumn  has  encouraged  the  growth  of 
weeds,  which  will  now  be  destroyed  and  buried  by  the  plough  to  enrich 
the  land  rather  than  impoverish  it. 
The  recent  heavy  rains  have  been  very  welcome,  not  only  to  reinforce 
the  failing  springs,  but  for  their  consolidating  influence  on  the  young 
Wheat.  For  this  latter  we  have  fears,  and  not  without  reason.  Never 
has  the  wireworm  been  noticed  in  such  numbers  as  this  autumn,  and 
already  we  see  complaints  of  its  ravages  recorded  in  the  agricultural 
papers.  Rape  dust  to  act  as  food  for  the  grubs  in  place  of  the  young 
Wheat  or  thorough  consolidation  by  rolling  and  weather  are  the  only 
antidotes  of  which  we  know. 
Farmers  who  took  full  advantage  of  the  dry  autumn  to  thoroughly 
cleanse  their  watercourses  must  look  now  with  great  satisfaction  on  the 
excellent  outlet  afforded  for  each  rushing  stream,  and  we  have  ground  for 
hope  that  the  numerous  small  outbreaks  of  diphtheria  and  typhoid  fever 
which  have  created  such  alarm  in  almost  every  countr3'-side  will  cea>e 
now  that  the  village  streams  and  becks  have  had  such  a  thorough 
flushing. 
With  more  rain  and  freshened  springs,  wet  spots  requiring  drainage 
will  bring  themselves  into  notice  b}’  their  glassy  appearance  and  boggy 
nature  when  we  walk  across  them.  Where  land  has  already  been  well 
drained,  this  often  only  means  the  blocking  up  of  some  particular  branch. 
This  should  be  attended  to  at  once,  as  a  block  at  one  place  may  soon  ciiuse 
a  breach  higher  up,  and  consequently  a  fresh  blockage.  The  origiiuil 
break  may  have  been  caused  by  the  drain  having  been  laid  too  near  the 
surface.  In  loose  soils  this  may  be  easily  done,  and  the  drains  shoukt  he 
put  well  out  of  the  reach  of  pressure.  On  very  strong  land,  however,  if 
the  drains  are  put  very  deep  they  may  be  of  little  use,  as  the  surface  w  ater 
could  not  find  its  way  to  them. 
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. 
1 
1  ,  . 
1897. 
December. 
Barometer 
nt  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  .... 
.6 
S0‘241 
37-8 
34-9 
S. 
38-2 
42-1 
2  1-8 
42-4 
30-4 
O-d  8 
Mondav  .... 
fi 
30  031 
41-4 
41-0 
s. 
39-1 
46-3 
37-7 
46-9 
36-0 
n-0:.3 
Tuesday  ’. . . . 
7 
1014 
39-6 
37-8 
s.w. 
3  -9 
63-9 
36-9 
53-1 
29-1 
0-641 
Wednesday  . 
8 
2'V410 
4.3-6 
41-3 
N.W. 
42-8 
44-1 
4  -3 
64-4 
36-2 
0  021 
Thursday. . . . 
9 
2  '-Olf. 
38-6 
36-1 
W. 
40-9 
44-4 
36-4 
64-2 
30-9 
- 
Friday  .  .  . 
10 
23-509 
39-1 
37-1 
S. 
39-4 
48-3 
33-2 
48-1 
28-2 
0- 183 
Saturday  .. 
11 
29-376 
44-7 
41-5 
N.W. 
41-1 
48-2 
38-9 
65-5 
36-1 
— 
-29-728 
40-7 
38-5 
40-2 
46-8 
36-0 
54-9 
32-4 
0-176 
REMARKS. 
6th.  0?“rcait  all  .lay.  an<l  rlamp  at,  time-a. 
6t,h.-  lizzie  early  ;  fre(|U  nt  rain  rom  about  8  a.m.  to  3  p.tn.;  fair  evening;. 
7th.  Fine,  with  faint  sun  at  times  till  2  p.m  ;  then  rainy,  and  steady  rain  from  5  p.m. 
and  gale  at  night. 
8th.-  Steady  rain  till  6  a.m  and  showers  till  8am.;  sunny  almost  throughout,  but  a 
smart  hail  shower  lasting  fifteen  minutes  Iror^  1.6  p.m. ;  clear  night. 
9th.— Bright  sunshine  most  of  the  day,  but  cloudy  at  times  in  afternoon  ;  dear  night. 
10th. — Dull  early ;  almost  continuous  rain  Irom  10.30  a.m.  to  3.30  p.m.,  fre.iuently  bright 
after. 
llth  —Bright  sunshine  till  1  30  p  m. ;  dull  afternoon  ;  bright  night. 
Temperature  near  the  average,  rainfall  at  last  above  It.—G  J.  SYMONg. 
