2.34 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
September  5,  1901. 
all  kinds  of  stock.  There  is  one  strong  argument  in  favour  of  the  Oat, 
and  that  is  the  spring  seed-time,  which,  in  following  ley,  allows  the 
pasturage  to  be  grazed  until  the  new  year,  a  very  important  matter  in 
these  days,  when  so  much  depends  on  the  success  of  the  live  stock. 
On  the  other  hand,  an  increase  of  spring-sown  crops  also  means  an 
addition  to  the  pressure  of  spring  work,  for,  whatever  may  be  the 
impression  of  lookers-on,  occupiers  of  farms  chiefly  arable  know  full 
well  that  spring  is  the  season  which  most  taxes  the  labour  resources 
of  the  farm.  It  seems,  then,  that  there  are  good  reasons  for  continuing 
the  growth  of  a  moderate  breadth  of  Wheat.  What  variety  to  grow 
depends  much  on  the  land  and  on  the  course  of  cropping.  The  old 
Square-head  and  Square-head’s  Master  both  do  well  after  a  Potato 
fallow.  The  last  named  does  welt  almost  anywhere,  but  Square-head 
does  not  thrive  on  very  light  soil  after  ley.  Carter’s  Standup  is  a 
capital  yielder,  and  bears  out  its  name  by  seldom  lodging,  but  it  is 
only  suitable  for  very  good  soils  in  high  condition.  Under  ordinary 
circumstances  it  does  not  grow  enough  straw,  and  the  straw  supply  is 
now  too  important  a  matter  to  be  made  a  secondary  consideration.  In 
order  to  obtain  more  straw  some  of  our  friends,  and  in  more  than  one 
county,  have  resumed  the  cultivation  of  the  old  variety  called  Rivett’s, 
or  Cone  Wheat.  It  is  bearded  like  Barley, and  grows  5  or  6  feet  high, 
producing  much  greater  bulk  of  straw  than  the  general  run  of  modern 
varieties.  It  also  stands  up  well,  but  the  grain  is  not  so  good  as  other 
Wheat,  though  at  the  most  there  is  not  more  than  2s.  per  quarter 
difference  in  the  value,  as  it  is  sufficiently  good  to  meet  the  require¬ 
ments  of  the  roller  mill.  The  straw  is  very  stout,  and  makes  much 
better  tha'ch  than  Rye.  Though  this  Wheat  is  more  suitable  for 
heavy  land,  it  will  do  well  on  medium  soils,  crops  of  6  to  7  quarters 
per  acre  being  nothing  uncommon.  With  straw  such  a  desideratum, 
and  the  grain  at  practically  one  value,  we  commend  this  Wheat  to  the 
consideration  of  our  readers. 
Threshing. 
Though  Barley  should  retrain  in  stack  at  least  a  month  before 
being  threshed,  the  time  for  this  operation  will  come  ere  long.  Too 
little  care  is  often  taken  in  the  threshing  of  Barley,  the  farmer 
generally  being  well  satisfied  if  he  thinks  nothing  be  left  in  the  straw. 
The  spoiling  of  his  sample  through  the  presence  of  peeled  or  broken 
grains  he  takes  too  much  as  a  matter  of  course  as  unavoidable, 
generally  attributing  it  to  the  influence  of  the  season.  Such  damage 
is  not  always  easy  to  prevent,  but  we  believe  it  may  be  to  a  great 
extent  reduced.  The  too  close  setting  of  the  drum  is  often  the  active 
cause,  though  in  miny  cases  the  hummeller  is  at  fault.  The  use  of 
the  latter,  however,  may  be  dispensed  with  altogether,  for  though  the 
presence  of  long  awns  will  give  a  rough  appearance  to  the  sample, 
experienced  buyers  will  take  no  exception  on  that  account,  and  will  be 
loth  to  miss  an  unbroken  parcel.  In  connection  with  this  matter,  we 
notice  that  during  the  Inverness  Show  of  the  Highland  Agricultural 
Society,  the  attention  of  Scotch  farmers  was  most  seriously  drawn  to 
its  importance  by  speakers  at  a  public  meeting,  and  they  were  strongly 
advised  to  take  every  possible  care  to  avoid  damage  during  the 
threshing  process  if  they  expected  to  meet  with  any  proper  demand 
for  their  Barley.  Seme  malting  firms — we  may  mention  Messrs. 
Gilstrap  of  Newark  for  one — offer  prizes  each  season  for  the  samples 
of  Barley  purchased  by  them,  which  on  delivery  are  found  to  be  most 
free  from  broken,  bruised,  or  peeled  grains.  A  prize  of  £25  being 
worth  the  winning,  farmers  who  sell  to  Messrs.  Gilstrap  naturally 
take  a  practical  interest  in  the  condition  and  setting  of  the  threshing 
machines  which  they  employ,  as  well  as  in  the  proper  dressing  of  the 
samples  when  they  are  threshed ;  but  no  dressing  machine  will  remove 
bruised  or  peeled  Corn  from  the  bulk,  therefore  is  it  the  more  necessary 
to  closely  superintend  the  threshing.  There  is  no  time  when  the 
master’s  eye  and  attention  are  more  needed  than  on  threshing  days, 
and  how  often  do  we  find  the  master  absent  on  those  occasions.  How 
very  frequently  it  happens  that  the  work  is  dekyed  until  the  day  ot 
the  weekly  Corn  market,  when,  after  getting  a  good  start,  the  master 
goes  off  with  a  sample,  and  leaves  matters  to  the  charge  of  his 
foreman,  or  perhaps  to  no  one  in  particular.  Experienced  farmers 
know  how  difficult  it  is  to  get  a  thoroughly  fair  sample  until  the  whole 
of  a  lot  of  Corn  has  been  knocked  out,  and  it  is  the  man  who  takes  a 
sample  haphazard  from  the  machine  tail  during  the  forenoon,  shows 
it  on  the  market  as  being  undressed,  but  sells  it  on  the  understanding 
that  it  shall  be  well  dressed  before  delivery,  this  is  the  man  who  has 
disputes  with  his  customers,  and  has  his  stuff  thrown  back  on  his 
hands.  When  Corn  is  threshed,  especially  Barley,  it  should  not  be 
left  in  sacks,  but  shot  down  in  the  granary,  and  thrown  up  in  a  heap 
with  a  wooden  shovel.  After  four  or  five  quarters  have  been  shot  a 
scuttleful  should  be  taken  from  the  face  of  the  heap,  and  put  aside,  to 
which  similar  quantities  must  be  added  after  each  additional  ffur  or 
five  quarters  have  been  put  to  the  main  heap.  If  this  small  heap  be 
then  well  mixed  together,  and  dressed  over  with  a  machine,  a  fair 
saleable  sample  of  the  bulk  must  be  the  result.  The  master’s 
-attention  is  especially  necessary  at  the  top  as  well  as  the  bottom  of  the 
stack,  to  see  that  no  sprouted  or  mouldy  sheaves  are  threshed  amongst 
the  sound  ones,  so  spoiling  a  good  sample.  Such  sheaves  are  better 
kept  out  altogether,  and  given  to  the  pigs  as  they  are. 
Work  on  the  flome  Farm. 
That  the  terrific  storm  of  wind  and  rain  which  we  have  just 
experienced  did  not  occur  at  the  beginning  of  the  harvest  gives  great 
cause  for  thankfulness.  Farmers  can  insure  against  hail,  but  not 
against  wind,  and  the  destruction  to  standing  crops  by  such  a  wind 
must  have  been  enormous.  As  it  is,  the  small  portion  of  Corn  left  in 
the  fields  is  scattered  in  all  directions,  and  we  have  yet  to  learn  the 
extent  of  the  damage  to  badly  roofed  stacks.  It  will  be  a  pity  if  the 
supply  of  fine  ooloury  Barley  is  lessened  by  the  influence  of  sprouted 
roofs.  The  careful  farmer  has  all  his  Barley  well  protected  by  batts  of 
Wheat  straw  until  the  thatoher  gets  to  work,  but  in  too  many  oases 
Wheat  batts  have  not  been  available  until  the  threshing  maohine  has 
paid  a  visit. 
The  rain  is  very  welcome  to  farmers  who  have  all  their  Corn  well 
saved,  for  attempts  at  setting  out  the  ridges  for  ley  ploughing  have 
revealed  a  very  hard  state  of  the  soil,  and  a  good  deal  more  moisture 
will  be  required  to  make  it  plough  well.  Turnips,  too,  were  throwing 
out  signals  of  distress  in  the  shape  of  mildewed  patches,  especially  on 
very  dry  soils,  and  moist  weather  is  just  what  they  want.  There  is 
every  appearance  that  Potato  growers  will  have  a  late  season  for  their 
harvest,  though  the  results  may  be  satisfactory  as  regards  bulk,  for  a 
great  many  fields  are  now  in  full  bloom,  with  every  appearance  of 
continued  growth,  which  will  not  be  discouraged  by  the  recent  rains. 
There  is  no  sign  of  disease,  of  which  there  should  be  little  danger 
unless  it  pnts  in  an  appearance  soon.  This  epidemic  is  generally 
coincident  with  one  of  Mushrooms  ;  we  weloome  the  latter,  but  not  the 
other. 
With  a  late  start,  we  foresee  muoh  difficulty  in  getting  the  Potatoes 
gathered.  Men  will  be  very  scarce,  and  the  new  sixth  standard  rule 
will  prevent  thousands  of  active  children  from  earning  a  little  useful 
money.  The  arranging  of  school  holidays  to  cover  the  Potato 
picking  is  now  condemned  as  jobbery.  Poor  farmers ! 
Cultivators  are  at  work  in  all  directions,  and  it  is  astonishing  how 
quickly  farmers  get  their  stubbles  broken  up  nowadays ;  they  are, 
perforce,  made  alive  to  the  value  of  an  antumn  fallow  by  the  stern 
necessity  to  save  all  useless  labour.  With  fine  weather  we  shall  soon 
have  plenty  of  twitch  fires.  The  practice  is  contrary  to  strict  agricul¬ 
tural  economy,  but  it  saves  labour,  the  farmer’s  most  costly  item. 
Breeders  of  early  lambs  have  already  got  the  rams  with  the  ewes. 
White  faced  rams  are  almost  unsaleable,  and  everyone  seems  to  be  bent 
on  cross-breeding.  What  wonder,  when  wool  is  worth  so  little,  and 
cross-bred  mutton  is  so  good  to  Bell. 
- *.♦•* - 
Fruit  and  Corn. — In  the  West  of  England  grain  has  been  harvested 
in  splendid  condition.  Immense  quantities  of  Mushrooms  are  now 
being  gathered  and  sent  to  the  markets,  and  the  Blaokberry  crop  is  very 
heavy.  Apples  are  a  moderate  crop,  but  Plums  are  plentiful,  and  are 
selling  at  from  2d.  to  3d.  a  lb.  for  choice  fruit. 
Decrease  In  Size  of  Farms. — That  farms  are  getting  smaller 
is  demonstrated  by  a  writer  in  “  World’s  Work.”  In  1890  there  were 
4,564,641  farms  in  the  country.  There  are  to-day  5,700,000  and  over, 
showing  an  inorease  in  ten  years  of  nearly  1,140,000  farms.  This 
increase  has  arisen  from  two  oauses — the  settlement  of  Government 
lands  in  America  and  the  division  of  great  farms.  We  used  to  be  told, 
ten  or  fifteen  years  ago,  that  the  farms  were  being  consolidated  and  that 
the  bonanza  farm  would  be  that  of  the  future.  On  the  contrary,  since 
1850  there  has  been  a  constant  decrease  in  the  average  size  of  farms  ; 
in  that  year  it  was  203  acres,  in  1890  it  was  137  acres. 
Land  Improved  by  Consumption  of  Cake. — It  is  often  difficult 
to  get  at  the  unexhausted  value  of  cake,  &o.,  consumed  on  the  land, 
and  there  are  some  who  think  that  this  is  often  over-estimated.  The 
following  example  will  show  that  there  is,  nevertheless,  a  real  value 
resulting  from  the  use  of  rich  food.  In  1897  three  plots  of  pasture 
land  were  fenced  off  into  small  fields  of  3  acres  each  by  Professor 
Somerville.  These  he  stocked  with  sheep  to  which  he  fed  deoortioated 
cotton  cake  on  one  plot  during  the  summers  of  1897  and  1898.  During 
that  period  5J  cwt.  of  cake  was  consumed  on  each  acre.  During  1899 
and  1900  the  sheep  received  grass  only.  The  cake  used  cost  32s.  6d., 
and  calculating  the  live  weight  increase  at  3|d.  per  pound,  there  was 
already  a  profit  of  38s.  9d.  on  that  expenditure,  with  a  prospect  of 
some  residual  value  still  to  be  obtained.  Two  years  after  the  cake 
ceased  to  be  used  the  gain  in  live  weight  on  the  plot  where  it  was  fed 
from  the  use  of  pasture  alone  was  almost  as  great  as  it  was  the  first  year 
when  the  cake  was  given  in  addition  to  the  grass.  If  this  had  been  on 
a  farm  on  which  the  outgoing  tenant  had  used  2fc  cwt.  per  acre  of 
deoortioated  cotton  cake  during  each  of  the  last  two  years  of  his 
tenancy  and  claimed  compensation  for  the  unexhausted  manorial 
ingredients,  there  would  be,  in  the  increase  in  mutton  produced  during 
the  two  following  years,  a  fair  indication  of  what  would  be  the  residual 
value  of  that  cake  to  an  incoming  tenant. 
