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JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
August  2,  1900. 
repairs  to  their  working  tools.  Is  not  this  better  than  so  constantly 
either  letting  things  go  to  ruin  for  want  of  the  proverbial  nail  or  the 
frequent  visits  to  the  village  artisan  ? 
We  have  been  told  that  no  one  can  make  an  experimental  farm  pay 
here — experiments  are  costly,  and  we  must  be  prepared  for  a  deficit ; 
but  in  some  of  these  schools,  both  in  France  and  Norway,  the  director 
has  to  get  his  salary,  or  part  of  it  at  least,  out  of  the  profits  of  the  farm; 
so  it  appears  there  is  a  solution  to  this  difficulty.  We  like  doing  things 
on  so  big  a  scale — we  are  above  such  small  matters  as  £  s.  d.  At  one 
college  (Aas)  chemistry,  physics,  horticulture,  and  the  management  of 
machinery  are  amongst  the  subjects  taught.  How  it  is  done  for  the 
money  is  a  puzzle  to  us.  The  district,  or  what  answers  to  our  county^ 
can  send  boys  for  £5  lOs.  per  annum,  which  money  covers  every  item 
but  books  and  writing  material.  Outsiders  pay  up  to  £16.  The  boys 
or  lads  are  not  taken  too  young,  they  must  be  eighteen  years  of  age, 
and  of  course  the  embryo  farmer  has  the  preference  when  the  would-be 
students  are  more  numerous  than  the  vacancies.  At  eighteen  years  of 
age  a  lad  should  know  his  own  bend,  and  also  then  he  will  be  better 
able  to  appreciate  and  value  the  rare  advantages  that  have  fallen  to 
his  lot. 
Norway  goes  one  bstter  than  Sweden  in  the  matter  of  training 
schools.  The  Agricultural  Education  Committee  must  be  stronger 
there  !  Besides  its  agricultural  and  dairy  schools,  it  has  five  in  which 
forestry  and  horticulture  are  taught.  Norway  has  146,000  farms,  and 
of  these  94  per  cent,  are  under  50  acres.  So  here  again  we  may  be 
sure  the  student  is  not  drawn  from  the  richer  part  of  the  popu¬ 
lation.-  Denmark,  too,  though  with  a  smaller  rural  population,  finds 
the  need  of  agricultural  training  schools  and  experimental  stations. 
Her  farms  are,  as  a  rule,  very  small,  87|-  per  cent,  being  under 
SO  acres.  That  Denmark  is  far  in  advance  of  us  as  a  dairy  country 
needs  no  comment.  She  took  the  bull,  or  rather  the  cow,  by  the 
horns,  and  in  a  systematic  way  reformed  all  her  dairy  processes,  and 
now  heads  the  market  with  her  butter. 
We  fancy  our  young  lads  would  only  learn  too  eagerly  had  they 
the  chance,  and  we  cannot  help  thinking  that  someone  is  very 
much  to  blame  that  we  as  a  nation  should  be  so  far  behind  our 
Scandinavian  friends. 
Work  on  ttje  Home  Farm. 
A  very  hot  week  broken  by  one  heavy  thunderstorm  has  brought  on 
all  crops  surprisingly.  The  storm  was  the  longest  we  can  remember, 
vivid  lightning  and  heavy  peals  of  thunder  lasting  without  intermission 
for  nine  hours  ;  the  rainfall  was  not  at  all  proportionate  to  the  amount 
of  electricity,  it  lasted  for  little  over  an  hour,  and  was  not  altogether 
half  an  inch.  It  was  grand  for  Turnips,  not  being  too  heavy.  Swedes 
are  filling  the  rows  in  well,  and  the  later  Turnips  are  making  rapid 
strides  in  the  same  direction. 
Grain  crops  have  changed  greatly  during  the  week,  and  harvest, 
which  we  had  hardly  expected  to  be  here  before  August  20tb,  mav  now 
be  in  full  swing  a  week  earlier  than  that  date.  Barley  is  coming  on 
the  most  rapidly,  and  looks  like  being  easily  first  in  the  field  for  use  of 
•the  reaper. 
There  are  a  great  many  bleatings  of  sheep  in  our  ears,  and  evidently 
our  neighbours  like  ourselves  think  it  is  time  to  wean  the  lambs. 
Shepherding  work  is  very  heavy.  Flies  were  never  worse  to  deal  with, 
and  the  ewes’  udders  have  to  be  closely  watched  to  detect  the  first 
symptom  of  downfall.  The  very  slightest  lameness  in  a  hind  leg  must 
be  at  ouce  attended  to,  for  this  is  often  the  first  thing  which  draws  the 
shepherd  s  attention  to  a  case  of  downfall,  and  when  lameness  begins 
the  case  has  generally  made  quite  enough  progress.  The  sheep  might 
well  be  said  to  have  a  golden  hoof,  when  we  see  announced  the  third 
instance  of  a  ram  fetching  a  thousand  guineas. 
We  had  an  opportunity  a  few  days  ago  of  seeing  a  new  spraying 
machine  in  operation  on  a  field  of  Potatoes.  Unfortunately  the 
machine  had  been  damaged  in  transit,  and  the  man  in  charge  being 
rather  green  to  his  job,  as  far  as  we  saw  little  progress  was  made  ;  but 
we  saw  enough  to  convince  us  that  the  work  would  be  very  well  done 
under  more  favourable  circumstances.  In  fact,  we  hear  very  favourable 
accounts  of  a  duplicate  machine  in  the  next  parish.  A  mixture  of 
sulphate  of  copper  and  lime  was  used,  containing  24^  per  cent,  of 
■  copper  ;  20  lbs.  dissolved  in  forty  gallons  of  water  being  sufficient  for 
one  acre.  A  bar  runs  just  above  the  ridges  and  bends  down  the  haulm  ; 
the  spraying  is  therefore  done  on  the  under  side  of  the  leaves  before 
the  tops  have  had  time  to  rise.  The  Potatoes  we  saw  done  were  very 
high,  and  we  thought  the  machine  would  give  them  quite  enough 
knocking  about.  However,  as  a  portion  only  of  the  field  has  been 
sprayed,  we  shall  have  an  opportunity  later  of  judging  as  to  the  efficacy 
and  value  of  the  operation,  which  costs  129.  per  acre,  the  hirer  finding 
two  horses  and  two  men.  The  machine  is  “  Bowles’  patent  Potato 
sprayer.” 
Butter  Haking!- 
Great  blame  is  often  attached  to  our  English  butter  makers  for 
putting  inferior  produce  on  the  market.  It  is  hardly  fair  to  blame 
them  when  often  it  is  the  fault  in  a  great  measure  of  their  poor 
dairies.  Let  me  give  two  instances.  Staying  this  week  in  a  country 
village  with  a  friend  I  was  surprised  to  see  in  her  cellar  a  churning 
of  butter  (she  did  not  keep  cows).  The  mystery  was  soon  explained. 
Her  neighbour  with  two  or  three  cows  had  only  one  tiny  pantry 
facing  S.W.,  and  opening  on  to  the  kitchen  and  parlour.  In  this 
pantry  every  eatable  and  milk  had  to  be  kept,  and  had  it  not  been 
for  the  loan  of  my  friend’s  cellar  the  poor  woman  could  never  have 
kept  an  ounce  of  butter.  But  what  of  the  milk  before  it  arrived  at 
the  butter  stage  ? 
On  the  opposite  side  lived  another  cowman.  His  dairy  was  in  the 
centre  of  the  house,  without  window,  and  the  only  ventilation  filtered 
through  kitchen  and  living  room  doors.  In  both  cases  the  women 
were  scrupulously  clean  and  particular ;  but  what  chance  had  they  to 
make  sweet-tasted  butter  ?  The  houses  are  not  cottages,  but  places 
with  two  sitting-rooms,  kitchens,  and  four  or  five  bedrooms,  with  a 
little  land  attached.  In  one  case  I  am  perfectly  certain  the  landlord 
would  not  stir  an  inch  to  mend  matters ;  of  the  other  landlord  I  cannot 
speak.— Eusticus. 
- - «  I - 
Women  Gatber  the  Harvest. — Farmers  in  the  West  of  England 
are  very  much  behindhand  with  their  hay  harvest  owing  to  the 
great  scarcity  of  labour.  The  wives  and  daughters  of  the  harvesters 
are  doing  their  best  to  aid  in  the  haying,  and  on  many  farms  more 
women  are  to  be  seen  in  the  fields  than  men. 
Increase  In  Creameries. — The  “  North-West  Agriculturist  ” 
says  :  Five  years  ago  there  was  not  a  creamery  upon  the  Minneapolis 
and  St".  Louis  Eailroad ;  to-day  there  is  not  a  station  upon  the  road 
which  has  not  at  least  one  if  not  several  creameries.  Last  year  the 
road  hauled  11,000,000  lbs.  of  butter  from  southern  Minnesota.  That 
means  a  good  deal  of  cash  for  our  farmers ;  it  also  means  forage  crops 
and  fertilisation  for  the  farms  and  permanent  prosperity. 
Harvesters. — The  present  scarcity  of  labour  in  the  agricultural 
districts  has  been  the  means  in  some  oases  of  bringing  together  a 
strange  and  motley  assemblage  of  fellow-labourers.  A  correspondent 
states  that  at  one  farm  in  Surrey  he  found  the  haymakers  included  a 
couple  of  clerks,  a  compositor,  a  solicitor  who  had  been  unable  to  scrape 
up  the  money  to  take  out  his  certificate,  a  medical  man  “down  on  his 
luck,”  a  pawnbroker’s  assistant,  and,  of  course,  a  journalist.  The 
journalist  explaiued  that  he  was  there  only  for  purposes  of  “  copy.” 
He  intends  to  write  an  article,  and  to  call  it  “  Haymaking  by  Eminent 
Hands.” 
Import  your  Farm  Xiabonrers. — While  British  farmers  are 
suffering  through  the  lack  of  labourers,  the  remedy  lies  just  across  the 
Channel.  In  Jersey  and  Guernsey  the  crops  are  being  gathered  in  by 
swaithy  Bretons,  who  work  steadily  from  5  A. M.  to  9  p.m.  for  half  the 
money  demanded  by  the  British  farm  hand.  Protected  by  large  straw 
hats,  they  seem  impervious  to  the  heat,  though  the  quantity  of  cider 
consumed  bears  eloquent  testimony  to  their  thirst.  Many  of  these 
Bretons  have  already  returned  to  their  own  country,  but  an  efficient 
number  still  linger  in  the  Channel  Islands  ready  to  take  work,  says  a 
contemporary,  even  on  the  shores  of  “  perfide  Albion.”  Jersey  farmers 
also  employ  French  peasant  girls  as  domestic  servants,  with  equally 
satisfactory  results. 
Milk  and  Fever. — At  a  meeting  of  the  Dunfermline  District 
Committee  of  the  Fife  County  Council  last  week.  Dr.  Nasmyth,  medical 
officer  of  health  for  the  county,  in  reporting  on  a  case  of  scarlet  fever 
at  a  dairy  farm,  said  that  at  the  dairy  in  question,  as  at  several  others, 
the  domestic  washing  house  and  the  dairy  scullery  were  combined, 
which  he  observed  was  not  a  proper  arrangement,  and  was  very  apt 
to  lead  to  milk  infection.  He  suggested  a  new  regulation  prohibiting 
the  keeping  of  milk  or  milk  vessels  in  any  byre,  dwelling-room,  or  any 
apartment  used  for  the  washing,  boiling,  or  drying  of  bed  and  bed 
clothing.  The  proposed  regulation  was  remitted  to  the  Public  Health 
Committee. 
Bean  and  Pea  Meals  as  Cattle  Foods. — Both  pea  meal  and 
bean  meal  admit  of  being  employed  to  much  advantage  in  the  feeding 
of  dairy  cows.  A  certain  amount  of  discretion  and  juigment  is 
necessary,  however,  in  using  them,  because,  though  very  valuable  food 
when  given  in  small  quantities  and  in  conjunction  with  other  substances, 
they  are  not  without  their  shortcomings  if  fed  to  any  extent  by  them¬ 
selves.  They  belong  to  the  class  of  foods  known  as  albuminoids,  and 
are  consequently  deficient  in  carbo-hydrates  or  fat-forming  materials. 
In  order  to  constitute  them  a  suitable  food  they  must  be  given  with 
other  substances  capable  of  supplying  the  heat  forming  materials 
in  which  they  are  themselves  deficient.  For  this  purpose  they  go  well 
with  such  food  as  maize  meal  or  linseed  cake.  Cows  fed  upon  pea  and 
bean  meal  usually  produce  milk  of  good  quality,  and  the  butter  obtained 
therefrom  when  properly  made  is  invariably  firm  of  texture  and  of  good 
grain  and  colour. —  (“  Farmers’  Gazette.”) 
