46 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
July  11,  1901. 
Our  Candid  Friends. 
We  have  no  lack  of  them  at  any  rate,  and  though  some  of  them  may 
be,  and  are,  but  vain  babblers,  yet  there  are  among  the  many  those 
who  know  perfectly  well  of  what  they  are  talking.  There  are  families 
among  our  great  folk  who  have  been  most  intimately  connected  with 
the  land  and  agriculture  for  centuries.  They  have  stuck  to  it  through 
good  and  ill  report.  One  of  the  best  known  names  is  that  of  the 
Spencers  of  Althorpe.  As  a  family,  they  have  always  been  closely 
connected  with  agriculture.  The  present  bearer  of  the  title  owns 
somewhere  about  27,200  acres  in  Northamptonshire.  The  first  of  the 
name  amassed  a  large  fortune  by  the  breeding  of  sheep  and  cattle  ; 
indeed,  he  was  the  farming  pioneer  of  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth 
centuries.  The  present  earl  has,  during  the  last  week  in  June  (to  be 
particular,  28th),  opened  the  new  Dairy  School  at  Garforth,  near 
Leeds,  which  school  is  to  be  worked  in  connection  with  the  Yorkshire 
College  and  Joint  Agricultural  Councils  of  East  and  West  Ridings  of 
Yorkshire.  We  do  not  get  a  ceremony  of  that  kind  without  a  bit  of 
speechifying,  and  the  men  who  spoke  were  worth  listening  to.  Lord 
Herries  was  the  first  on  his  legs,  and  he  told  us  what,  alas  !  we  do 
not  like  to  acknowledge,  that  we,  as  a  nation,  are  very  backward  in 
regard  to  scientific  agricultural  training.  Scarcely  a  century  ago 
agriculture  was  not  regarded  as  a  science  at  all  ;  it  was  little  more 
than  an  industry,  at  any  rat  <  it  was  merely  an  art.  Now,  having 
become  recognised  as  a  science,  it  is  necessary  that  people  should  know 
the  results  of  the  experimental  researches  which  are  being  carried  on, 
and  that  they  should  put  into  practice  the  facts  which  had  been 
discovered  to  be  the  best  for  the  production  of  food. 
The  sons  of  tenant  farmers  are  avai  ing  themselves  of  the  education 
now  put  within  their  reach,  and  the  results  arising  therefrom  will 
ultimately  be  of  great  benefit  to  the  community.  Lord  Spencer 
expressed  his  warmest  sympathy  with  those  who  are  working  in  the 
cause  of  scientific  agricultuie.  He  says  we  need  advanced  education 
in  order  to  keep  pace  with  other  nations,  and  to  raise  agricultu'e  to 
its  former  high  level  of  prosperity.  The  agricultural  world  needs  all 
the  knowledge  it  can  acquire  to  get  the  most  it  can  from  the  land,  and 
from  those  who  belong  to  the  laud.  Here  he  hits  one  of  the  right 
nails  fair  on  the  head.  We  want  the  workers  to  be  more  in  earnest. 
Half-hearted  workers  will  not  do,  and  they  are  very  much  to  the  fore 
at  present.  A  man  who  is  not  interested  in  his  work  will  neither  do 
credit  to  himself  or  to  it.  His  lordship  went  on  to  add  we  were  so  many 
of  us  satisfied  if  we  can  do  as  well  as  our  ancestors,  forgetting  that 
science  has  opened  all  kinds  of  new  doors  and  new  ways  by  which 
things  may  be  cheapened  and  improved.  The  experiments  on  the 
farm  were  better  far  than  the  printed  book,  that  is  if  men  would  only 
look  at  them  in  a  teachable  spirit. 
Now  other  of  our  friends  tell  us  that  one  reason  of  our  backward¬ 
ness  agriculturally  is  connected  with  our  system  of  land  tenure.  We 
lack  the  security  we  ought  to  have,  and  it  appears  that  in  other 
countries  where  the  same  system  of  tenure  prevails  the  same  back¬ 
wardness  is  found.  Mind,  there  are  many  noble  exceptions  ;  but  it 
does  stand  to  reason  that  a  man  will  do  better  for  his  own  land  than 
lor  that  hired,  where  he  is  liable  to  capricious  dismissal  at  any  time. 
Old  Arthur  Young  had  a  saying,  “Give  a  man  secure  possession  of  a 
bleak  rock,  and  he  will  turn  it  into  a  garden  ;  give  him  a  nine  years’ 
lease  of  a  garden,  and  he  will  turn  it  into  a  desert.” 
\Ye  read  again  the  old,  old  story  of  want  of  unity.  Farmers  are 
very  exclusive ;  they  hate  anyone  to  know  the  extent  of  their 
business.  At  one  time  they  did  not  want  to  reveal  their  gains;  now 
they  are  ashamed  to  record  their  losses.  If  they  would  only  be  got  to 
co-operate,  as  the  Danish  tanners  have  done  over  the  butter  question, 
a  great  step  would  be  gained.  A  living  writer  says  this:  “The  curse 
of  the  agricultural  mud  is  that  it  will  take  no  account  of  little  things, 
an  attitude  which,  as  I  suppose,  is  the  heritage  of  high  prices  and 
of  generations  of  Corn  growing.”  Indeed,  we  have  urged  time  after 
time  the  same  doctrine — the  value  of  little  things.  A  little  leak  will 
sink  a  big  ship,  and  it  is  the  little  leaks  in  management  that  do  as  much 
harm  to  the  good  ship  Agriculture  as  the  stormy  winds  of  bad  prices. 
There  is  another  question  much  before  the  public  at  present,  and 
that  is  the  labour  bill.  We  do  not  mean  by  that  the  excessive  cost 
of  labour,  but  the  inability  of  procuring  it  at  all.  Now  we  are  told 
that  this  arises  from  our  treatment  of  the  labourer  in  days  gone  by. 
We  underpaid  him,  ill  housed  him,  treated  him  like  a  serf  or  rather 
worse,  and  even  dictated  to  him  that  form  of  religion,  we  preferred 
him  to  adopt.  This  is  the  indictment  against  us  to-day,  but  to  us  it 
seeme  a  very  unfair  one.  We  do  not  for  a  moment  hesitate  to  say 
that  in  all  points  the  farm  labourer  has  been  better  done  by  than  his 
brother  artizan  of  the  towns.  It  was  the  custom  some  time  ago  for 
this  country  at  harvest  to  be  inundated  with  Irish  labour,  indeed  many 
come  still  in  great  numbers  to  those  parts  of  the  country  where  Potatoes 
are  largely  grown.  A  good  Irishman  is  a  capital  workman,  and  we 
wonder  if  it  would  be  possible  to  make  it  worth  their  while  to  emigrate 
here  rather  than  to  America.  We  should  get  some  fresh  blood  into 
the  country,  and  the  men  would  be  better  off  than  at  home.  Our 
cottages  would  be  like  palaces,  and  our  wages  liberality  itself.  We 
heard  of  Irishmen  in  a  neighbmriDg  parish,  who  last  year,  working 
bv  the  piece  at  Potatoes,  made  6s.  2d.  per  day.  Can  Mr.  Plunkett 
do  nothing  for  us  ?  or  is  the  Irishman  immoveable  ?  Labour  in 
Scotland  is  not  such  a  difficulty,  for  the  men’s  wives  are  always  ready 
to  fall  into  line  and  do  their  share  when  there  is  a  press  of  work. 
We  know  what  will  be  said  now.  What  an  outcry  if  the  women  are 
expected  to  work  for  the  farmer.  We  are  advocating  a  retrograde 
movement  !  But  stop  a  minute.  There  is  an  outcry  for  small 
holdings — who  does  the  work  there  ?  We  fancy  our  cavillers  will 
find  the  women  (when  it  is  for  themselves)  work  as  hard  as  the 
men,  and  certainly  far  harder  than  any  master  would  desire.  If  they 
cannot  see  it  in  this  light,  there  is  no  use  trying  to  argue  with  them. 
Mr.  Rider  Haggard  quotes  one  pitiful  esse,  where  a  tenant  gives  up 
his  farm  as  his  last  labourer  has  left  him.  He  tells  to-day,  July  2nd, 
of  a  case  of  a  man  and  his  wife  (who,  >y  the  way,  has  eight  small 
children),  who  are  farming  alone  146  aci  |s,  of  which  fifty  are  arable. 
How  can  he  do  it  ?  It  is  worse  than  gyptian  bondage.  Another 
farmer  tells  how  he  works  from  5  a.m.  u  9  p.m.,  and  complains  that 
no  man  will  work  with  him.  All  the  men  who  remain  in  the  villages 
prefer  to  work  at  the  “  great  bo  se,”  or  else  with  the  larger  farmers, 
who  are  not  so  exacting  in  their  demands.  Lord  Nelson  of  Trafalgar, 
Wiltshire,  tells  (in  the  “  Nineteenth  Century  Magazine,”  July  No.) 
his  experience  of  small  holdings.  For  many  years  hick,  long  before 
Jesse  Collings,  he  had  made  3  acre  holdings  of  grass,  with  half  acre  of 
arable,  and  a  cow  run  on  the  common  added.  There  has  been  no  lack 
of  tenants,  and,  better  still,  no  back  rents.  His  lordship  also  adds 
that  holdings  of  40  to  80  acres  are  eagerly  taken  up,  and  pav  well. 
The  rent  of  the  3  acre  farms  is  50s.  per  acre  ;  that  is  a  good  stiff  rent, 
and  it  is  greatly  to  the  tenants’  credit  that  they  are  punctual  in  their 
payments.  Everything  nowadays  seems  to  point  to  small  holdings — 
holdings  that  a  man  and  his  family  can  work  with  themselves. 
Whether  this  is  best  for  th ;  land,  or  for  the  community  generally,  is 
an  open  question.  It  is  also  perfectly  certain  that  a  great  part  of  the 
land  in  Great  Britain  is  not,  from  situation  or  character,  suitable  for 
small  holdings.  If  the  best  and  most  conveniently  placed  lands  are  to 
be  cut  up,  who  is  going  to  undertake  t'  e  remainder  ?  especially  if  we 
are  to  have  a  scarcity  of  labour.  We  think  the  tables  are  getting  very 
much  turned,  and  however  much  the  labourer  may  have  had  cause  to 
grumble  in  times  gone  by,  the  farmer  is  now  in  the  worse  condition  of 
the  two. 
Work  on  %  Home  Farm. 
After  a  few  beautifully  fine  days,  which  enabled  farmers  to  secure 
a  good  breadth  of  hay,  we  have  again  had  a  fine  rain.  Under  the 
influence  of  moister  conditions  the  grain  crops  are  improving  every  day, 
and  we  are  confident  that  they  will  bulk  up  much  better  than  they  did 
last  year.  The  later  sown  Barley  is  far  better  than  at  one  time  appeared 
possible,  and  will  be  better  than  much  of  the  earlier  sown  as  regards 
straw,  if  not  Corn.  Some  of  the  hay  was  badly  damaged  by  the  wet, 
but  it  was  got  in  good  dry  condition  at  last,  and  with  the  addition  of  a 
few  layers  of  salt  in  the  stack  will  be  very  useful  for  the  cattle  in 
winter.  There  is  a  large  bulk  of  hay  still  to  cut,  for  farmers  have  been 
hoping  that  the  rain  would  add  considerably  to  the  weight  of  the  crop. 
Certainly  some  meadows  are  very  short. 
The  thinness  of  the  Mangold  plant  has  necessitated  attempts  at 
transplanting,  and  one  or  two  of  our  friends  are  making  a  first  attempt 
at  the  practice.  They  are  doing  the  work,  but  are  very  unanimous  in 
their  lack  of  faith  in  successful  results.  That  Mangold  may  be  trans¬ 
planted  with  suocess  is  certain,  for  in  the  district  between  Selby  and 
York  it  is  a  common  practice.  A  crop  of  Myatt  Potatoes  is  grown  and 
marketed  early  in  July,  Mangold  is  then  planted  on  the  ground,  having 
been  grown  thickly  on  another  plot  for  the  purpose.  We  have  seen  the 
process  carried  out,  and  noted  that  some  of  the  bulbs  when  moved 
would  be  as  large  as  a  crioket  ball ;  in  fact  we  believe  the  size  of  the 
plant  to  be  a  considerable  element  in  attaining  success.  We  believe 
that  a  strong  plant  would  grow  even  on  very  dry  soil  if  it  were  properly 
dug  up  and  quickly  planted  again. 
The  greater  part  of  the  Potatoes  have  been  earthed-np,  and  growers 
who  intend  to  spray  their  crops  must  soon  be  at  work.  The  experience 
of  last  season  draws  attention  to  the  desirability  of  having  settled 
weather  for  the  operation,  for  the  lack  of  success  in  preventing  the 
disease  was  largely  attributed  to  the  occurrence  of  heavy  thunderstorms 
immediately  after  the  spraying  had  been  done.  It  certainly  seems 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  to  be  of  the  most  benefit  the  copper  solution 
should  remain  on  the  haulm  for  some  time. 
