212 
JOURNAL  CF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
August  29,  1901. 
te  delayed  ball  a  day  because  of  a  breakdown.  One  enterprising 
machinist  here  lets  out  reapers,  and  if  desired  sends  a  man  to  drive  and 
a  ’prentice  to  repair.  Sometimes  the  ’prentice  is  not  equal  to  the  job  ; 
but  then  the  swift  bicycle  takes  him  to  the  shop,  and  he  can,  in  a 
technical  manner,  describe  the  ailment,  and  a  qualified  practitioner  is 
at  once  sent  off.  We  like  ourselves  to  have  two  machines  at  work  in 
the  same  field  ;  every  fine  hour  of  a  harvest  day  is  most  precious. 
There  has  not  been  any  complaints  about  Clover  in  Barley  sheaves 
this  year.  Why  ?  because  simply  the  seeds  barely  exist.  The 
prolonged  drought  of  the  summer  has  militated  against  their  growth, 
and  the  question  is  exercising  many  minds  as  to  whether  anything  can 
be  done  to  make  good  the  deficiency.  Clover  plants  are  ticklish  things 
to  meddle  with.  Should  the  winter  prove  a  mild  one  they  will 
probably  grow  and  multiply  in  a  marvellous  manner.  If  not,  well, 
we  shall  be  very  awkwardly  fixed  next  year,  and  not  only  next  year, 
but  the  following  crop  will  show  only  too  plainly  where  the  lack  has 
been;  We  fancy  ourselves  a  little  Rye  Grass  judiciously  sown  now 
among  the  seeds  might  be  an  experiment  worth  trying.  The  season  is 
early,  we  may  hope  for  rain,  and  Rye  at  least  would  make  a  bit  of 
a  bite  early  on.  Another  way  out  of  the  difficulty,  or  rather  an 
alternative,  would  be  to  sow  a  piece  uf  land  wiih  Trifolium  incarnatum 
and  Rye  Grass  for  early  eatage,  and  then  tike  after  it  a  Turnip  or 
Rape  crop.  We  are  bound  to  have  spring  meat  ot  some  sort. 
The  machines  have  gone  beautifully  this  season,  save  on  the  soft 
carr  lands,  where  Barley,  for  instance,  was  a  heavy  crop  and  a  good 
deal  laid,  so  much  so,  indeed,  that  the  work  of  the  machine  was  as  it 
were  a  grand  triumph  of  mind  over  matter.  The  worst  of  these 
heavy  Corn  crops  is  that  they  are  worth  so  little  ;  the  sample  of  a  laid 
crop  is  never  up  to  much,  the  weight  of  straw  will  be  useful  though 
the  quality  may  be  but  inferior.  Potatoes  are  in  flower  again,  and 
that,  we  fear,  speaks  of  second  growth.  It  requires  a  brave  man  to 
sample  or  try  his  Potatoes  at  this  time  of  year.  A  series  of  diggings 
may  reveal  a  not  pleasant  state  of  affairs.  We  heard  recently  of  a  crop 
of  British  Queens  on  good  red  land  (Covent  Garden  Market  land)  that 
proved  on  examinati  n  to  be  very  small  and  very  few.  Well,  an  open 
autumn  may  do  wordtrs,  especially  where  land  is  in  tip-top  condition. 
We  fancy,  after  all  our  doubts  and  fears,  there  will  be  a  Turnip  crop, 
and  what  a  boon  and  relief  that  is  no  one  knows,  but  the  poor  farmer. 
The  milk  yield  is  bad,  no  wonder  we  see  in  the  papers  that  many 
attempts  have  been  made  to  raise  the  price,  and  good  milk  cows  are 
bad  to  find  and  very  dear.  After  the  whirr  of  the  reaper  comes  the 
hum  of  the  threshing  machine,  the  relieving  officer,  as  we  cdl  it 
hereabouts.  We  like  to  see  old  straw  for  thatching  purposes,  it  is 
rather  a  sign  of  weakness  when  the  new  has  to  be  used. 
This  neighbourhood  has  been  visited  by  some  severe  hailstorms. 
We  have  not  experience  them  for  several  seasons,  and  consequently 
some  of  us  most  foolishly  have  allowed  our  crops  to  go  uninsured. 
One  neighbour  is  said  to  have  suffered  to  the  extent  of  £1000,  and 
there  are  many  cases  where  the  less  can  be  very  ill  borne.  Whatever 
else  is  at  a  standstill  weeds  are  not,  and  we  want,  or  ought  to  have, 
men  constantly  among  the  Turnips.  There  will  be  a  good  chance  this 
year  of  getting  the  plough  to  work  early.  A  forward  harvest  has 
great  advantages.  “Bickend”  work  when  very  back  end  is  so  often 
retarded  by  bad  weather  and  shortening  days.  We  saw  in  a  daily 
paper  an  outcry  against  child  labour,  the  iniquity  of  closing  the 
schools  for  harvest  or  Potato  time.  Just  ask  some  of  the  mothers 
what  they  think.  Harvest  work  for  children  is  now  confined  to 
taking  “  father’s  dinner,  and  don’t  they  make  a  play  of  that !”  We 
rather  think  they  do.  We  have  not  seen  children  even  gleaning  for 
many  years  past,  the  only  gleaning  they  do  is  the  hedgerows  for  the 
brambles,  which  they  “  toll  ”  liberally.  Then  about  the  Potato  time, 
do  they  find  it  a  hardship  ?  Just  ask  them.  What  about  the  boots 
and  winter  clothes  that  their  money  provides?  Village  mothers  hate 
unemployed  holidays,  the  children  are  always  in  the  way,  and  wear 
and  tear  their  decent  garments  lar  more  by  play  than  when  in  the 
fields  at  work.  The  hours  are  not  long,  and  the  work  is  not  hard,  and 
the  pay  good.  It  they  lett  school  a  little  earlier,  and  were  trained 
into  a  bit  of  larm  work,  we  should  not  hear  so  much  about  the  labour 
question.  No  one  likes  to  do  what  they  do  not  understand,  and  after 
fourteen  the  boy  is  getting  too  old  and  conceited  to  learn. 
Glad  as  we  are  to  see  the  bare  stubble,  there  is  a  feeling  of  regret 
that  another  harvest  is  over — another  summer  nearly  run  its  course. 
We  only  wish  we  could  think  this  has  been  a  prosperous  year.  When 
all  is  reckoned  up  there  is  little  enough  to i  divide.  The  “pcor” 
landlord  first,  the  “  rich  ”  labourer,  the  rate  collector,  the  tradesman,  aud 
little  or  nothiug  for  the  producer.  There  really  is  no  man  so  well  off 
now  as  the  foreman,  and  afb.r  him  the  yearly  labourer  on  a  larm. 
Their  pay  is  good  and  sure,  no  weather  affects  them,  no  drop  in  prices, 
and  these  are  the  men  who  are  quickly  tak  ng  the  places  left  vacant  by 
the  better-class  larmer,  who  is  vanishing  rapidly.  Who  will  take  the 
place  of  these  men  is  not  for  us  to  sav.  We  doubt  whether  they  will 
save  so  much  as  farmers  as  they  did  when  wage-earners,  at  any  rate 
their  sleep  will  be  more  disturbed  by  anxieties,  and  their  money  by  no 
means  so  certain.  Hereabouts  this  class  of  men  work  very  hard 
themselves,  but  stint  the  farm  of  labour  and  tillages  ;  this  may  answer 
for  a  time,  till  they  have  got  all  the  heart  out  of  the  land,  but  what 
of  the  future  ?  The  deluge  will  come  sooner  or  later,  and  someone 
without  an  ark  will  have  to  face  it. 
Work  on  the  Rome  Farm. 
Ah  !  whet  splendid  harvest  weather,  farmers  must  be  doing  well. 
Such  are  everyday  comments  by  the  general  public  as  it  travels  by  rail 
through  the  country  districts  on  business  or  pleasure  intent.  Very 
amusing  conversations  may  be  overheard  in  railway  carriages,  and 
often  to  hear  people’s  remarks,  one  might  be  led  to  think  that  when  the 
Corn  was  all  in  the  stackyard  farmers  had  nothing  to  do  but  to  enjoy 
themselves  until  another  harvest  came  round.  “  In  the  morning  sow 
thy  Beed,  and  in  the  evening  withhold  not  thy  hand,  for  ye  know  not 
whether  shall  prosper,  or  whether  both  shall  be  alike  good.”  So  said 
King  Solomon,  and  his  words  are  true  now  as  they  were  then  ;  but  we 
must  not  be  too  dependent  upon  Providence,  bat  sow  in  season,  and  see 
that  the  seed  grain  is  put  into  a  suitable  seed-bed.  Therefore  is  the 
farmer’s  work  never  done,  for  preparation  for  another  orop  always 
precedes  the  fruition  of  the  last  one,  Ploughing  seeds  for  Wheat  must 
be  done  when  possible,  but  the  soil  is  still  very  dry,  having  been  hardly 
reached  by  the  rains,  and  more  moisture  must  come  *before  good 
ploughing  can  be  made.  If  lea  be  difficult  to  plough  there  need  be  no 
delay  in  breaking  up  bare  stubbles.  Modern  cultivators,  sufficiently 
horsed,  will  go  through  anything,  and  before  September  is  half  through 
next  year’s  fallows  should  have  received  such  a  dressing  over  as  they  will 
not  forget  for  four  years  at  least.  Now  is  the  time  to  get  full  value 
out  of  these  useful  machines,  not  to  take  the  place  of  ploughing,  but 
to  prepare  the  land  for  it. 
As  we  said  last  week,  there  is  nothing  like  fine  dry  weather  for 
lambs,  and  we  are  glad  to  say  that  good  health  universally  prevails. 
Until  we  have  had  some  frost  care  must  be  taken  that  sheep  are  not 
allowed  to  graze  in  swampy  fields,  or  those  which  have  pools  of 
stagnant  water  in  them.  The  green  herbage  around  suoh  places  will 
attract  the  sheep,  which  may  contract  therefrom  the  liver  fluke,  bringing 
with  it,  at  lambing  time,  death,  disaster,  and  disappointment  instead  of 
a  healthy  crop  of  lambs.  The  pest  does  not  prevail  in  all  swampy 
places,  but  there  is  always  the  possibility  of  its  presence.  The  farmer 
who  has  no  dog  is  much  less  liable  to  a  visitation  of  this  plague,  for  the 
fluke  cannot  go  through  its  stages  of  development  without  passing 
through  a  dog’s  stomach.  Where  there  are  absolutely  no  dogs  there 
will  be  no  liver  flake. 
Rumour  is  busy  with  threshing  results.  Tests  have  not  been 
numerous  enough  to  be  reliable,  but  Wheat  is  said  to  be  yielding  in  an 
uncommon  way.  May  this  promise  be  fully  realised. 
- - 
Spratt's  Patent,  Limited,  have  been  honoured  with  the  royal 
appointment  to  H.M.  the  KiDg.  Their  foods  have  for  many  years  been 
supplied  to  the  royal  kennels  at  Sandringham  and  Windsor. 
World’s  Wheat  Crop. — Mr.  J.  K%  Carthew  again  submits  an 
estimate,  which  shows  that  in  1901  the  world’s  Wheat  crop  as  a  whole 
has  increased  in  bulk  and  improved  in  quality.  Will  there  be  lower 
prices  as  a  consequence  ?  asks  the  London  “  Daily  Mail.”  Mr.  Carthew 
prophesies  that  prices  will  be  maintained,  because  reserved  stocks  are 
lower  than  last  year,  and  the  deficiency  in  the  American  Maize  orop  is 
so  enormous.  Taking  the  thirteen  chief  Wheat-growing  countries  in 
the  world,  not  one  of  which  produces  less  than  4,000,000  quarters  of 
Wheat,  the  United  States  comes  easily  first,  with  a  gigantic  crop  of 
90,000,000  quarters.  European  Russia  (and  Siberia’s  crop  is  itself 
considerable)  comes  nexq  if  a  long  way  after,  with  42,000,000  quarters  ; 
France  follows  closely  with  38,000,000;  India  is  expected  to  produce 
something  over  30,000,000 — this  is  problematical,  of  corn  se,  as  the  crop 
is  only  being  planted  now,  though  under  satisfactory  conditions ;  and 
then  comes  Italy,  with  17,000,000;  Hungary,  with  16,000,000;  Spain, 
with  13,000  000;  Roumania  and  Bulgaria,  with  12,000,000;  and 
Germany,  with  11,000,000  of  quarters.  The  United  Kingdom  is  last 
but  one  in  this  list  of  thirteen  chief  countries  ;  its  crop  is  estimated  at 
7,250,000.  The  very  last  is  Australia,  with  6,750,000  quarters.  The 
world’s  crop,  then,  exoeeds  last  year’s  by  no  fewer  than  27,000,000 
quarters — more  than  the  entire  output  of  the  United  Kingdom,  Canada, 
and  Australia  taken  together.  The  collective  harvest  of  the  thirteen 
countries  reaches  the  enormous  total  of  305,250,000  quarters,  a  bumper 
crop.  As  to  the  English  harvest,  the  acreage  devoted  to  Wheat  has 
again  shrunk,  but,  in  spite  of  this,  the  yield  will  be  larger  than  last 
year,  and  the  quality  of  the  grain  will  be  better.  Prices  will  remain 
Bieady,  and  the  prospect  favourable,  for  the  failure  of  the  American 
Maize  crop  will  tend  to  keep  a  laige  portion  of  their  Wheat  harvest 
in  the  United  States,  and  react  favourably,  in  consequence,  on  the 
agricultural  industry  of  the  United  Kingdom. 
