266 
jnrnxAL  of  horticulture  and  cottage  gardener. 
March  20,  1902. 
are  -well  up  and  away,  possibly  been  singled,  down  comes 
Master  Rook  in  battalions,  and  he  will  soon  let  you  know 
what  he  thinks  of  the  new  “  green.”  Mind,  the  charitable, 
suppose  his  quest  is  the  wise  wonn  or  beetle.  It  may  be  so, 
but  he,  like  ourselves,  prefers  a  vegetable  with  his  meat. 
But  we  know  of  worse  enemies  than  the  rook,  bad  as  he 
is.  We  have  a  liking  for  his  caw-caw,  and  we  should  miss 
the  rookeries  he  makes  cheerful  in  the  spring.  His  black 
coat  is  handsome,  and  his  flight  has  a  stateliness  about  it. 
The  wood  pigeon  is  the  enemy  we  most  dread.  Not  only 
have  we  the  English-bred  bird,  but  hosts  upon  hosts  of 
foreigners  reach  our  shores.  We  have  heard  much  this 
winter,  we  hear  much  every  winter,  of  the  perishing  of  the 
young  Clover  plant.  Now,  it  is  not  all  frost,  or  bad  growth. 
There  are  other  agents  at  work,  and  how  can  Clover  or  any 
other  thing  grow  when  it  is  not  only  loosened  from  the  soil, 
but  its  very  heart  torn  out  and  eaten  ?  Shoot  a  wood 
pigeon  to-day,  and  just  examine  its  crop.  The  chances  are 
that  it  will  be  found  to  be  literally  stuffed  with  Clover 
leaves,  each  bird  as  full  as  a  gun.  W^e  have  ourselves  filled 
a  small  basin  with  the  contents  of  one  crop.  Fine  Clover, 
that  ought  to  have  been  growing  on  for  ewes  and  lambs. 
We  do  not  suppose  the  non-agricultural  world  knows,  or 
guesses,  a  tithe  of  the  mischief  these  birds  can  do,  nor  can 
■they  estimate  at  all  their  numbers.  Later  in  the  season 
they  will  attack  ripening  corn,  and  positively  gorge  them¬ 
selves  on  the  creamy  soft  grain.  They  take  care  to  leave 
nothing  much  for  the  farmer  but  broken  stalks  and  down¬ 
trodden  rubbish.  Of  course,  their  worst  depredations  are 
'  on  the  side  of  the  field  nearest  a  hedge,  a  hedge  that  pro¬ 
bably  is  intersected  with  trees.  There  is  one  thing  to  be 
said  for  them  ;  when  shot  (and  they  are  not  easy  game)  they 
make  pies  or  a  roast. 
Larks,  too,  are  a  great  nuisance  in  those  parts  where  they 
.  abound.  They  usually  confine  their  efforts  to  the  newly 
springing  grain,  and  if  they  have  a  predilection,  it  is  for 
Wheat.  Sparrows  are  domestic  fowl ;  they  are  found  more 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  village  or  farm,  and  woe  to 
those  fields  of  corn  which  are  near  at  hand.  He  is  a  bold 
bird  is  the  sparrow,  and  too  small  and  bony  to  be  worth 
powder  and  shot  (even  if  you  can  get  near  him).  The  best 
safeguard  against  the  sparrow  is  a  posse  of  active  school¬ 
boys.  No  nest  daunts  a  boy,  and  it  is  better  to  crush  the 
crocodile’s  eggs  than  to  wait  to  kill  the  animal  when  hatched. 
There  are  other  vermin  afoot,  but  we  must  speak  with 
bated  breath.  He  is  little,  but  he  can  be  very  mischievous, 
especially  when  Mrs.  Vixen  is  “  at  home  ”  with  a  brood  of 
pretty  cubs.  They  clamour  for  food,  and  what  so  well 
■suited  for  the  young  stomachs  as  tender  chicken?  Unhap- 
pilv.  “  Papa  ”  has  a  way  of  killing  more  than  he  can  carry 
off.  Does  he  mean  to  come  again,  or  does  he  over-estimate 
his  carrying  powers  ?  Poultry  people  tell  us  (and  very  truly) 
that  our  fowls  do  best  with  unlimited  run,  taken  out  in 
fields  in  companies,  and  they  do  well,  that  is,  if  Mr.  Rey¬ 
nard  is  not  afoot.  Hunger  makes  him  bold,  and  he  will 
be  after  any  unwary  fowl  who  shelters  in  or  about  the  home 
buildings  or  stacks.  He  likes  them  full  grown,  or  nearly 
so  ;  whereas  the  tiresome  rat  prefers  the  baby  chicken  from 
the  coop.  He  will  come  time  after  time  and  clear  the  lot. 
Rats  about_a  farmstead  are  insufferable  nuisances,  for  all’s 
fish  that  comes  to  their  net.  Meal,  corn,  pigeons,  new  bags, 
and  young  poultry.  Many  a  good  cote  have  we  known  been 
ultimately  destroyed  bv  rats,  and  it  is  almost  beyond  the 
power  of  man  to  do  away  with  them.  The  best  preven¬ 
tive  is  a  sharp  little  terrier,  always  on  the  alert.  He  keeps 
them  moving,  and  oftener  than  you  would  think  “  clicks 
hand  o’  yan,”  as  we  say  in  Yorkshire,  and  he  “  clicks  ”  to 
some^  purpose,  for  that  rat  never  wants  food  again. 
We  wonder  how  many  Wheat  stacks  there  are  standing 
unthreshed  ?  Judging  by  our  own  experience,  not  many. 
It  is  a  curious  thing  that  a  mouse  is  rarely  found  among 
Barley  or  Oats  ;  always  in  the  best  grain,  and  it  is  the  love 
of  the  mouse  for  Wheat  which  is  one  of  the  factors  against 
keeping  it  in  stack  too  long.  We  are  told,  or,  rather,  it  is 
suggested,  that  Wheat  be  kept  the  twelve  months  in  vermin- 
proof  stacks,  to  be  a  supply  in  case  of  war  peril ;  biit  we 
fancy  it  will  beat  our  advisers  to  manage  that. 
There  are  other  nuisances  abroad,  and  there  is  one  in 
particular  which  is  an  evergrowing  evil.  We  mean  the 
outrageous  “  fields  ”  that  pretend  to  hunt.  All  the  well- 
known  and  popular  packs  of  hounds  have  followers  galore. 
Evei’ything  is  made  so  easy  now.  Distance  is  conquered  by 
a  fast  train  service  or  the  detestable  motor,  and  instead  of  a 
■  small  field  of  genuine  sportsman  and  women,  we  find  the 
towns  pour  out  their  hordes  of — dare  we  say  it  ? — unspeak¬ 
able  ruffians,  who  gallop,  and  shout,  and  thrust  themselves 
anywhere,  having  no  regard  for  young  Wheat  or  Clover,  or 
for  the  vicinity  of  the  sheepfold,  let  alone  fences.  A  master 
to  keep  them  in  order?  Why,  they  need  a  regiment!  No 
wonder  many  farmers  look  very  much'askance  at  this  motley 
crew,  who  only  do  them  harm,  never  by  any  chance  buying 
horses  or  forage  or  other  agricultural  product.  It  is  only  by 
the  courtesy  of  the  farmer  that  hunting  is  at  all  possible, 
and  it  is  a  question  what  can  be  done  to  prevent  this  evil, 
and  how  long  the  farmer  will  endure  it  ?  We  read  a  pretty 
anecdote  the  other  day  of  that  great  and  good  Yorkshire 
and  Irisji  landlord,  the  late  Lord  Eitzwilliam,  which  showed 
the  good  state  of  feeling  that  existed  between  hini  and  his 
tenants,  and  also  showed  that  the  farmer  in  question  could 
be  as  liberal  as  his  landlord.  A  tenant  made  a  complaint  of 
the  great  damage  done  to  a  field  of  growing  Wheat  by  the 
followers  of  his  Lordship’s  hounds.  Truly,  the  field  pre¬ 
sented  a  sorry  spectacle,  cut  up  and  trampled  in  every  direc¬ 
tion,  and  the  Earl  most  willingly  paid  the  farmer  for  the 
damage  he  had  sustained.  When  harvest  came,  the  field 
had  so  far  recovered  itself  as  to  yield  well,  whereupon  the 
grateful  farmer  jogged  off  to  Wentworth  Wood  House,  and 
returned  the  money  he  had  received  in  the  spring.  Whether 
it  was  a  wedding,  or  a  coming  of  age,  at  the  farm,  we  forget 
what ;  but  at  the  next  suitable  opportunity  a  very  handsome 
present  conveyed  to  the  farmer  the  sense  of  the  Earl’s  ap¬ 
preciation  of  his  conduct.  It  is  a  pre--  ’  story,  and  we 
believe,  a  true  one. 
Work  on  the  Home  Farm. 
Except  for  a  drizzly  afternoon,  the  weather  has  been  fine 
and  warm ;  but  the  nights  are  still  foggy  and  damp,  and  the  sur¬ 
face  of  the  land  keeps  sticky.  This  is  unfortunate,  for  the  roll¬ 
ing  of  lea  Wheat  is  becoming  an  urgent  necessity.  The  plant  is 
dwindling  rapidly,  and  unless  there  is  an  early  chance  to  solidify 
the  soil,  some  fields  will  soon  be  ready  for  ploughing  up.  What 
we  want  is  a  good  March  wind.  Last  year  at  this  time  Wheats 
were  too  thick  on  the  ground,  which  partly  accounted  for  the 
eventual  shortness  of  straw.  This  year  they  are  too  thin — i.e., 
as  a  rule ;  let  us  hope  the  straw  may  be  longer.  Wheat  at  the 
present  price  can  hardly  afford  to  pay  for  top  dressings,  but 
where  it  is  suffering  from  wireworm  a  dressing  of  rape  dust 
might  save  the  crop.  5cwt  per  acre  at  £3  per  ton  comes  to 
15s.  per  acre.  If  damaged  cotton  cake  could  be  bought  cheaply 
it  would  make  an  efficient  substitute. 
Not  much  Barley  has  been  sown  yet ;  farmers  have  suddenly 
stopped  the  drills,  and  Potato  planting  is  the  vogue.  It  is 
curious  to  see  how  farmers  follow  each  other  in  these  matters ; 
they  are  very  much  like  a  ffock  of  sheep  in  that  respect. 
In  connection  with  sheep,  there  is  a  fair  record.  Ewes  are 
doing  well  in  lambing,  and  the  crop  of  lambs,  if  a  little  below 
the  average,  is  a  healthy  one;  whilst  the  improvement  in  the 
mutton  trade  has  been  as  sudden  as  it  was  unexpected.  Sheep 
all  round  are  much  dearer,  fat  ewes  having  risen  8s.  to  10s.  per 
head.  The  fact  is  as  it  was  two  years  ago — really  good  fat 
mutton  is  scarce,  and  people  who  want  a  good  big  joint  will  have 
to  pay  for  it. 
The  scarcity  of  fodder  is  making  us  turn  our  cattle  out.  and 
the  fine  mild  weather  makes  an  excellent  opportunity.  If  turned 
out  now,  they  rvill  stand  a  good  deal  of  cold  and  roughing  later 
on.  It  is  the  sudden  change  from  warm  yards  to  cold,  bleak 
surroundings  that  is  dangerous. 
The  foaling  season  has  commenced,  and  the  veterinary  sur¬ 
geon,  as  it  would  seem,  as  a  natural  consequence  is  sadly  over¬ 
worked,  and  no  doubt  is  making  satisfactory  entries  (to  him)  in 
his  ledger.  Wise  farmers  insure  their  foaling  mares,  which 
policy  would  rather  increase  the  vet.’s  practice  than  otherwise, 
bis  satisfactory  inspection  of  each  mare  being  a  strict  condition 
of  insurance.  But  some  farmers,  also  wise  in  their  generation, 
give  a  bonus  to  the  horseman  for  each  foal  reared  by  tlie  animals 
he  looks  after.  It  may  be  bribing  a  man  to  do  what  should  be 
his  duty  without  it,  but  we  believe  the  system  pays.  Waggoners 
do  not  like  to  lose  their  best-looking  animal  from  the  team  for 
indefinite  periods,  and  some  strongly  counterbalancing  interest 
must  be  provided  if  foals  are  to  be  bred  and  successfully  reared. 
Of  course,  mares  in  foal  may  be  removed  to  other  quarters,  and 
placed  under  fresh  superintendence ;  but  this  is  not  always 
possible,  or  often  convenient. 
Merchants  complain  that  although  Clover  seeds  are  rising  in 
price  farmers  will  hot  buy.  This  does  not  look  like  early  sowing, 
and  yet  last  season,  as  in  all  dry  ones,  it  proved  to  be  the  right 
policy.  There  is  no  way  so  certain  to  secure  a  good  Clover 
plant  as  sowing  behind  the  Barley  drill  and  narrowing  in  with 
the  corn.  It  must  be  the  fear  of  too  much  Clover  in  the  string 
bound  sheaves  next  harvest  which  deters  farmers  from  following 
a  very  old-fashioned  method.  We  might  do  without  string 
binders,  but  can  we  afford  to  dispense  with  the  Clover  crop?  No! 
