354 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
April  27, 
price  rose  rapidly.  Farmers  had  sold  their  Barleys  at  243.,  only  to 
bny  back  seed  at  3Gs.  per  quarter.  As  the  spring  was  late  sowing 
was  late  also,  and  the  ground  in  poor  condition  as  a  seed  bed.  It  is 
strange  to  hear  of  Wheat  exported  to  South  America  and  the  States, 
but  the  fact  remains. 
Even  in  1823  some  of  the  advanced  men  were  trying  experiments 
at  extra  pulverisation,  by  slicing  the  soil  with  coulters  instead  of 
resorting  to  repeated  cross  ploughing.  Nothing  beats  a  good  mould, 
be  it  for  field  or  garden.  Permanent  pasture  sowed  down  with  the 
Wheat  crop  was  in  vogue,  and  the'  remark  is  made  that  this  practice 
is  rapidly  gaining  ground  among  the  best  farmers — i  e.,  most  advanced. 
A  rise  of  Ijd.  per  lb.  is  heralded  as  of  benefit  to  the  grazier — for  the 
corn  farmer  there  is  nothing  but  depression.  Fat  cattle  were  worth 
from  6s.  to  7s.  per  stone.  On  the  3rd  of  iVfay  Potatoes  were  still  to 
plant  in  Scotland,  while  the  remainder  of  last  year’s  crop  were  only 
worth  from  8d.  to  Is.  per  cwt.  It  must  have  required  a  good  heart 
to  set  them  again.  Faith  is  a  distinctive  article  in  the  farmer’s 
creed. 
At  the  end  of  April  many  farms  in  Berwick  were  yet  to  let. 
Several  would  not  be  let  at  all,  but  remain  on  the  hands  of  tlie 
landlord.  Of  these  estates,  says  the  Journal,  “  they  cannot  well  be 
turned  to  worse  account.”  That  is  a  sad  reflection  on  the  farming 
capabilities  of  the  landlord  or  his  agent. 
Another  writer  advocates  more  attention  to  dairy  work,  asserting 
that  the  grain  and  other  farm  produce  have  gone  down  in  price,  yet 
butter  and  cheese  have  fairly  held  their  own.  He  also  calls  attention 
to  the  excellent  market  there  is  for  veal,  giving  as  an  instance  that 
calves  four  to  six  weeks  old  fed  entirely  on  milk  have  been  sold  from 
£3  lOs.  to  £5  lOi.  Veal  is  always  in  demand,  especially  in  a  manu¬ 
facturing  district  where  money  is  plentiful. 
The  highways  coma  in  for  a  few  remarks.  We  do  not  quite  agree 
with  them.  The  suggestion  is  that  certain  parishes  should  be  grouped 
together,  and  expenses  paid  out  of  a  common  fund.  That  is  all  very 
well  if,  first,  all  the  roads  be  put  into  what  we  may  term  “  tenantable 
repair  but  we  know  a  case  in  point  where  some  roads  were  rated  at 
lOd.  in  the  £,  and  were  grouped  with  roads  in  other  parishes  that  were 
rated  at  2s.  6d.  in  the  £.  It  seems  hard  that  those  surveyors  who 
have  done  their  roads  well  should  be  made  to  bear  the  deficiencies  of 
their  less  careful  neighbours.  Any  road  can  be  made  good,  provided 
the  management  is  right — i.e.,  the  best  of  granite,  constant  scraping, 
and  intelligent  road  menders — and  once  made,  a  road  need  be  of  very 
little  annual  cost. 
An  Irishman  asks  a  question  we  have  never  seen  asked  before — 
perhaps  this  is  our  ignorance.  He  wants  a  recipe  for  blackening  stone 
walls  for  fruit  trees,  such  as  should  be  durable  and  economical.  Will 
the  Editor  tell  us  the  reason  for  this  ? 
Other  old  writers  are  much  agitated  about  bimetallism,  only  they 
do  not  call  it  by  that  name.  Others,  again,  are  worried  about  uniformity 
in  weights  and  measures.  We  were  much  puzzled  at  a  term  constantly 
recurring — “  per  boll  ” — and  we  have  not  yet  quite  arrived  at  the 
proper  definition. 
[The  old  Irishman’s  object  in  blackening  the  wall  was  doubtless 
to  make  it  warmer.  A  white  surface  reflects  the  sun’s  rays,  a  black 
surface  absorbs  them.  If  a  thermometer  with  a  clear  bulb  exposed  to 
the  sun  indicates,  say,  100°,  the  bulb,  if  blackened,  will  induce  a  rise 
of  10°  or  more  very  quickly.  The  reflection  of  intense  light  and  heat 
from  a  white  wall  exposed  to  hot  sun  thus  acting  on  the  under  sides 
of  the  leaves  is  not  conducive  to  the  healthy  growth  of  plants  growing 
against  such  wall,  while  black  surfaces  may  be  too  hot  for  a  time 
in  certain  positions,  though  they  are  generally  preferable  to  white,  if 
either  of  the  two  extremes  must  be  chosen.  Seeds  germinate  more 
quickly  during  early  spring  in  very  dark  than  in  very  light-coloured 
soils,  and  hoeing  among  early  Cabbages  expedites  growth  in  spring, 
because  the  darker  upturned  particles  absorb  more  of  the  sun’s  warmth 
than  does  the  more  or  less  bleached  and  smooth  surface. 
As  to  the  word  “  boll,”  the  definition  which  “  2')uzzled  ”  our 
excellent  coadjutor  will  probably  have  “  arrived  ”  before  these  lines 
are  printed.  The  word  is  derived  from  the  old  English  loUe  (Anglo- 
Saxon  holla),  and  means  a  bowl  or  vessel,  and  may  be  of  wood,  hence 
the  line  by  Longfellow — 
“  Brought  them  hoxvls  of  food  in  basswood.” 
Basswood  is  wood  of  the  American  Lime  tree  (Tilia  americana)  ; 
but  more  to  the  point  is  the  fact  that  “  boll  ”  was  an  old  Scotch' 
measure.  For  Wheat  and  Beans  it  contained  4  Winchester  bushels 
for  Oats,  Barley,  and  Botatoes,  0  bushels  ;  a  boll  of  meal,  130  Iba 
avoirdupois. 
From  “  bowl”  to  “bowled”  is  a  quick  transition,  as  some  of  our 
cricketing  friends  Avill  soon  experience.  We  should  be  pained, 
however,  to  bowl  out  our  talented  farmer,  or  he  might  be  constrained' 
to  throw  Shakespeare  at  us  : — 
“Alas!  I  had  rather  be  set  thick  i’  tlie  earth, 
And  loivled  to  death  with  TurniiJs.”) 
WORK  ON  THE  HOME  FARM. 
A  few  more  samples  of  British  weather  !  Since  our  last  we  had  (our 
days  of  continuous  rain,  followed  by  bright  sunny  days,  but  a  night  tempe¬ 
rature  reaching  as  low  as  19°  Eahr.  The  rain  quite  stopped  all  work  on 
the  land,  as  it  would  have  been  worse  than  useless  to  take  horses  upon  it, 
so  the  animals  have  had  a  needed  rest,  and  the  men  turned  their  hands  ta 
the  yards,  where  there  was  a  quantity  of  manure  intended  for  Swedes  in 
the  home  field.  This  has  been  all  moved  and  thrown  up  into  hill  ready 
for  carting  out  when  required. 
This  labour  will  be  repaid  in  the  better  condition  of  the  manure  for 
spreading,  as  well  as  in  the  preservation  of  ammonia  through  diminution 
of  the  heating  process,  so  wasteful  of  it.  Years  ago,  when  artificials 
were  less  valued,  and  muck  more  so  than  nowadays,  farmers  made  a 
general  practice  of  turning  over  their  manure  heaps  once  at  least,  but  often 
more.  We  seldom  see  men  employed  at  such  work  now.  We  suppose 
that  this  is  one  of  the  things  that  has  been  dropped  in  the  interests  of 
economy,  or  perhaps  in  some  cases  because,  though  the  money  is  there  to 
pay  them,  men  cannot  be  had  to  do  anything  more  than  is  absolutely 
necessary. 
Everywhere  we  hear  complaints  of  scarcity  of  labour,  and  what  is 
worse,  of  the  utter  incompetence  of  so  much  that  is  available.  The 
smarter  of  the  village  youths  either  go  into  shops  or  obtain  office  work, 
whilst  others  get  employment  on  the  railways,  or  in  the  large  manufac¬ 
turing  towns.  Those  left  behind  take  little  interest  in  farm  work,  though 
they  are  gaining  a  livelihood  by  it  ;  they  rather  avoid  becoming  specially 
competent  in  any  one  branch,  such  as  hedging,  stacking,  thatching,  or 
sowing.  Few  of  the  old  hands  have  not  some  line  of  work  for  which, 
they  are  specially  distinguished,  but  their  sons  do  not  care  for  such 
distinction.  Every  day,  therefore,  skilled  hands  become  scarcer  and 
command  higher  wages.  Surely  there  should  be  sufficient  encourage¬ 
ment  then  for  a  young  labourer’s  ambition,  when  to  a  good  wage  he  can 
add  the  healthy  freedom  of  a  country  life. 
[Hundreds  of  labourers  are  happier  and  more  settled  than  are  numbers 
of  unfortunate  gardeners.] 
METEOROLOGICAL  OBSERVATIONS. 
Camden  Squabe,  London. 
Lat.  51°  32’  40"  N.;  Long.  0°  8'  0"  W.;  Altitude  111  feet. 
Date. 
9  A.M. 
In  the  Day. 
Bain. 
1899. 
April. 
®  s  s 
1  -J 
On 
Hygrometer 
Direc¬ 
tion  of 
Wind. 
Temp, 
of  soil 
at 
1  foot 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Eadiation 
Tempera¬ 
ture. 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
Sun 
On 
Grass 
Sunday  ....  16 
Monday  ....  17 
Tuesday  ....  18 
Wednesday  19 
Thursday  . .  20 
Friday .  21 
(Saturday....  22 
inchs 
29-612 
29- 945 
30- 075 
30-194 
30-1-21 
29- 930 
30- 234 
deg. 
43-3 
42-6 
42- 8 
47  1 
49-3 
43- 4 
43-7 
deg. 
41-5 
37-6 
40-1 
40- 8 
44-4 
41- 7 
40-1 
N. 
N.IV. 
X. 
s.w. 
s.iv. 
S.E. 
N. 
deg. 
44-9 
44-3 
44-0 
44- 1 
45- 3 
46- 7 
45-0 
deg. 
52-1 
52-2 
55-8 
60-6 
60-3 
46-9 
50-8 
deg. 
39-2 
32-8 
32-8 
32-9 
35-3 
43-1 
34-2 
deg. 
94-9 
91-9 
100-3 
99-9 
99-8 
56-1 
86-2 
deg. 
34-3 
27- 1 
28- 0 
28-0 
30-0 
42’2 
29*8 
inchs. 
0-129- 
0-162- 
0-186 
30-016 
44-6 
40-9 
44-9 
54-1 
35-8 
89-9 
31-3 
0-477 
EEAIAEKS. 
16th.— Overcast,  with  occasional  spots  of  rain  early  ;  sunny  at  midday  ;  rainy  from, 
3  P.M. 
17th.— Fine  and  generally  sunny  day  ;  spots  of  rain  in  evening. 
18th.— Generally  sunny,  but  rather  hazy. 
19th.— Mild  sunny  and  spring-like  day  ;  clear  night. 
20th. — Bright  early  ;  sun  visible  through  thin  cloud  in  morning  ;  cloudy 
afternoon. 
21st.— Incessant  rain  from  4  a.m.  to  4  P.M.,  and  showers  later. 
22nd.— Fair  early  ;  sunny  morning  ;  overcast  from  3  P.M. 
With  the  exception  of  the  21st  (which  was  a  wretched  day)  a  fine  week,  but 
cooler  than  any  of  the  previous  three— G.  J.  Symons. 
